Tocqueville’s autobiographical memories of the Revolution of 1848 and the brief interlude of the Second French Republic were originally not intended for publication and appeared at the instigation of one of his nephews only in 1893, after the death of all actors involved. The Souvenirs were written between 1850 and 1851, when Tocqueville, after the unfortunate end of his tenure as Foreign Minister of the dismissed cabinet of Odilon Barrot, was still politically active, but due to the tuberculosis disease that broke out for the first time in March 1850, his work was already significantly restricted.