The Importance of Associations in Modern Life

Tocqueville argues that in important respects the pre-war evolutionary French were freer than 19th century Frenchmen. They knew how to say no to the state in a way that Tocquevilles thought 19th Century Frenchmen did not. Mill is so out of sympathy with the Aunty and Regime, with the estates and orders, that he can't see what the book is about at all.