Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French diplomat, political scientist, and historian best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution. Both works analyze the changes in standards of living, social order, and the individual’s relationship to the market and the state with the dispassionate eye of a social scientist. He was from an aristocratic family in Normandy. His parents narrowly escaped execution after the fall of Robespierre and lived in exile in England before returning to France during Napoleon’s reign. After the fall of Napoleon his father became a noble peer and prefect.  Alexis was educated at the Fabert School in Metz. Shortly after the July Monarchy of 1830 he left for after a lengthy tour of America to inspect its prisons, after which he produced Democracy in America, a lengthy survey and analysis of political and social evolution in the new world, published in 1835 to popular acclaim throughout Europe. Tocqueville was active in French politics from 1830 – 1851, a time of turbulence and regime changes, and served briefly as minister of foreign affairs in 1849 before retiring from political life after Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's ascension in 1851. He was a classical liberal who valued liberty above all but warned of the dangers of individualism.  He advocated for parliamentary government, but he was skeptical of the extremes of democracy, particularly the tyranny of the majority and its tendency to inhibit original thinking.  He suffered from tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease in April 1859.