A powerful new translation of de Tocqueville s influential look at the origins of modern France In this penetrating study, Alexis de Tocqueville considers the French Revolution in the context of France s history. de Tocqueville worried that although the revolutionary spirit was still alive and well, liberty was no longer its primary objective. Just as the first Republic had fallen to Napoleon and the second had succumbed to his nephew Napoleon III, he feared that all future revolutions might experience the same fate, forever imperiling the development of democracy in France.