Peter Augustine Lawler is Dana Professor of Government at Berry College.

In this edited collection, Peter Lawler presents a lucid and comprehensive introduction to a diverse set of political issues according to Tocqueville. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics addresses a variety of modern political and social concerns, such as the moral dimension of democracy, the theoretical challenges to democracy in our time, the religious dimension of liberty, and the meaning of work in contemporary American Life. Taking innovative and unexpected approaches toward familiar topics, the essays present engaging insights into a democratic society, and the contributors include some of today's leading figures in political philosophy. No other collection on Tocqueville addresses contemporary American political issues in such a direct and accessible fashion, making this book a valuable resource for the study of political theory in America.

1 What Tocqueville Says to Liberals and Conservatives Today 2 National Character and National Soul 3 Liberty, Equality, Nobility: Kolnai, Tocqueville, and the Moral Foundation of Democracy 4 Tocqueville on Pantheism, Materialism, and Catholicism 5 The Modern Revolution and the Collapse of Moral Analogy: Tocqueville and Guizot 6 Alexis de Tocqueville on the Incommensurability of America's Founding Principles 7 Citizenship as a Vocation 8 Compassionate Conservatism and Biotechnology: Some Tocquevillian Reflections 9 Religion and the Limits of Liberal Pluralism 10 Profiles in American Thomism 11 Christian Love and the Foundations of American Politics: Winthrop, Jefferson, and Lincoln 12 Democracy's Darkside? Robert Kraynak's Catholic Reflections on the Soul in the Liberal Democratic Dispensation 13 Machiavelli Meets the Mob: Palminteri'sA Bronx Tale