Tea at Trianon: Tocqueville: A Thinker for Uncertain Times

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, February 6, 2026

Tocqueville: A Thinker for Uncertain Times

From Villa Albertine:

First published in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America became an instant classic in the U.S.—but in his native France, the author was met with suspicion. Branded “Tocqueville the American,” he wrote a bestselling book that was praised and doubted in equal measure. Historian Françoise Mélonio, whose new biography Tocqueville was published in France in September 2025, argues that his vision of democracy, rooted in civic participation and shared responsibility, remains vital today for both the U.S. and France.
STATES Who was Tocqueville when he left for America in 1831, and what were his motivations for going there?

FRANÇOISE MÉLONIO In my biography, I want the reader to be able to understand this multifaceted politician and thinker and emphasize that a person’s ideas are inseparable from the events of their life. Tocqueville’s trip to America can be explained first and foremost by his family background. Tocqueville was the great-grandson of Malesherbes, a major Enlightenment figure and a magistrate of the noblesse de robe (nobles of the robe), French aristocrats whose rank came from holding judicial or administrative posts. Malesherbes was a defender of the people against the tax-hungry monarchy, and he was director of the Librairie (the royal administration responsible for regulating and censoring printed works). He championed Diderot’s Encyclopédie even though he was tasked with policing its publication. When his own subordinates threatened to seize the proofs for it, he went so far as to move them to his own home. Malesherbes defended Louis XVI before the National Convention and was guillotined in 1794 as a result. He was a constant role model in Tocqueville’s life as a liberal, independent thinker.

On his mother’s side, Tocqueville’s family had a history of intellectual brilliance, but they were deeply scarred by revolution. After both Malesherbes and an uncle were guillotined, Tocqueville’s parents narrowly escaped execution thanks to the fall of Robespierre. All this fueled his persistent dread of revolutions, which would be rekindled in France in 1830 and 1848. It was this trauma that drove him to pursue a nonrevolutionary model of democratic (and republican) society—one that could strike a balance between freedom and order.

Tocqueville was a judicial magistrate, like his ancestor Malesherbes, when he set off in 1831 at age twenty-six. Entry-level magistrates were unpaid at the time, meaning they invariably came from wealthy backgrounds. After the July Revolution of 1830, Tocqueville no longer saw a future in the judiciary, so he turned to politics and found a solution in the form of a trip to America. He planned to examine the country and its relatively stable democracy and return with an understanding that would benefit France. This trip was an urgent quest to find answers that would be of use to his home country. (Read more.)