Tocqueville is probably the first social theorist to use the term ‘individualism’ to create an extensive social analysis (Kalupner 2003, 23). In De la démocratie en Amérique, he describes individualism as a “recent expression given birth by a new idea” (DA II, 881). For “our fathers”, Tocqueville continues, “only knew egoism” (DA II, 881). In the original French text, the term is l’égoïsme. In the English translation, l’égoïsme has been translated as egotism (in the translation by Henry Reeve) or as selfishness (in the translation by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop). These distortions in the translation are very relevant, as Tocqueville uses the term egotism to distinguish it from individualism, as we will see in more detail.