Short answers, pulled from the story.
Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in New York City during May of 1831. The French government officially sent him and Gustave de Beaumont to study the American prison system for a report on penitentiary reform.
Alexis de Tocqueville traced the origins of American democracy back to the Puritans who established the social state of equality. These early settlers arrived with equal education levels and belonged to the middle class before creating a synthesis of religion and political liberty.
Democracy in America was published in two volumes with the first appearing in 1835 and the other in 1840. It became immediately popular in both Europe and the United States while having a profound impact on the French population.
Alexis de Tocqueville warned that democracy had a tendency to degenerate into soft despotism over time through majority consensus. A strong risk existed for developing a tyranny of the majority over thought itself which increased social frustration as conditions improved.
Alexis de Tocqueville examined the situation of U.S. women and identified the concept of separate spheres in the second volume. He wrote that married women lost all independence within the bonds of matrimony while unmarried women retained higher degrees of freedom despite being confined within domestic life.