At a young age, Tocqueville presents a classic of democratic theory. In the first, more accessible and therefore initially more popular volume of 1835, the American traveler primarily introduces his readers to the social and political system of the USA during the phase of the Jacksonian Democracy. In this process, the perspectives, but also prejudices, of the conversation partners, whom Tocqueville and his travel partner Beaumont met during their nine-month stay in the New World, flow into their own analyses. In the second volume of 1840, Tocqueville tries to abstract his empirical observations into a general theory of democracy.