rousseau's text is powerful. i did not mention "confessions," a title that he borrowed from augustine. he literally invented modern biography. every autobiography before his time -- and i have tried to confirm this -- would spend, at most, two or three pages on the first 20 years of their life. those do not matter. then they become who they are and the story begins. rousseau spends 200 pages on those first formative years. the experiences and relationships in that time shape you. he was also a successful novelist. it is brilliantly written. it is like a novel. >> i want to go back to alexis de tocqueville. he lived 53 years. what were the last couple of years of his life like? >> very disappointing. there was a revolution in 1848 and he was briefly made foreign minister of france -- the job he had been waiting all his life to do. nothing very important happened during that brief time. napoleon iii declared himself emperor and got rid of his government. tocqueville was out of a job again. his health was very bad.