Tocqueville for today’s world

Stanford PACS Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-15) Emma Saunders-Hastings wrote about the uses and misuses of Tocqueville in the HistPhil blog.

Saunders-Hastings argues that, while many individuals have noted Tocqueville’s remarks on philanthropy as highlighting the special place of philanthropy in American life, the sector today is more aristocratic than democratic in the Tocquevillian sense.

HistPhil is a web publication on the history of the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, with a particular emphasis on how history can shed light on contemporary philanthropic issues and practice.