From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

He's also very famous for pointing out that there's an internal tension in democracy.

It's the two principles that make up democracy. On the one hand, it's equality.

And on the other hand, freedom. And he believed

that they would always be intentioned. And his biggest fear was that the fate of freedom in an age

of egalitarianism would be rather bleak. This is your host, Scott Bertram. And that's Dr. Kalee Habib,

Associate Professor of Politics and Allison and Dorothy Rouse Professor in Politics at Hillsdale College.

And today we talk in depth with Dr. Habib about Alexis de Tocqueville, his life, his work, his thoughts on America.

Dr. Habib, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

Always enjoy our conversations.

We take a deep dive today into democracy in America and Toekville.

Who was Alexis de Tocqueville?

Why did he come over here to America?

Well, Alexis de Tocqueville was the Catholic French diplomat.

He was born in 1805.

Unfortunately, he lived a very short life. He died

in 1859. And he was commissioned to come to the United States to ostensibly study our prison system,

which he did do, and he did write a book, a very short book on the prison system. But he was

struck immediately by the democratic experiment in the United States.

And so he ended up writing this massive two-volume work on what's called Democracy in America.

The first volume came out in 1831 and then the second in 1832.

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