Short answers, pulled from the story.
Alexis de Tocqueville, born the 29th of July 1805 and died the 16th of April 1859, was a French diplomat, political philosopher, and historian. He is best known for Democracy in America, published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840, and The Old Regime and the Revolution, published in 1856.
Democracy in America analyzes the living standards, social conditions, and political life of the United States, which Tocqueville observed during travels there in the early 19th century. It is today considered an early work of sociology and political science, and it examines the balance between liberty and equality in a democratic society.
Tocqueville obtained a mission from the July Monarchy in 1831 to examine prisons and penitentiaries in the United States, traveling with his lifelong friend Gustave de Beaumont. They traveled widely beyond the prisons, and he returned within nine months and published a report, The Penitentiary System in the United States.
Tocqueville was a classical liberal who advocated parliamentary government and was sceptical of the extremes of majoritarianism. In parliament he moved from the centre-left to the centre-right, defended abolitionist views, upheld free trade, and supported the colonisation of Algeria.
Tocqueville retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's coup of the 2nd of December 1851, which he opposed. He was detained at Vincennes and then released, after which he retreated to the Château de Tocqueville and began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution.
In Democracy in America, Tocqueville forecast that the United States and Russia would become the two main global powers. He wrote that the Russians and the Anglo-Americans each seemed called by some secret design of Providence to one day hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.