Tocqueville, Alexis de, TOHK vihl or tawk VEEL, ah lehk SEE duh (1805-1859), was a French historian and political philosopher. He became famous for his book Democracy in America (1835-1840), a study of political and social institutions in the United States. His other classic work, The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), describes how government policies and conflicts between the upper class and other classes caused the French Revolution (1789-1799).