Most Americans know Alexis de Tocqueville as the author of Democracy in America, a deft portrait of the U.S. and its revolutionary politics of democracy. But  Tocqueville was also deeply invested in economics. When he traveled through the U.S. during 1831–32, the nascent Union was undergoing the “market revolution”: the pivotal transformation from a largely agrarian society into a sophisticated entrepreneurial economy which, in just two generations, would move the center of  global economy from the U.K. to the western shore of the Atlantic. 

How did Tocqueville view the economy of the early republic? How do these views relate to his analysis of democracy? How do they relate to the early republic's two main projects in political economy: the “Hamiltonian” strategy and the “Jeffersonian” impulse? Can we use these views to understand the contemporary political economy of the U.S.?

This dinner seminar will be led by Prof. Jesús Fernández-Villaverde (UPenn) and is open to all undergraduates, graduate students, and recent graduates. It is one of many Living the Core seminars this semester, examining broader questions in light of the texts and authors of Columbia’s Core Curriculum.