The Mansfield-Winthrop Democracy in America
A Literal Translation and Its Consequences
in French Politics, Culture & Society
The French journal, Raisons politiques, devoted its February 2001 issue to “Le Moment Tocquevillien.” What is but a moment for France has lasted for more than a century and a half in the United States. Here, admiration of Tocqueville, always great, has now reached the point where readers will soon have to decide among three entirely new translations of Democracy in America: this one by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop,1 James Schleifer’s, for the Liberty Fund, and Arthur Goldhammer’s for the Library of America. How should their audience go about choosing among them?
