He was influenced by his friend sociologist, Reviewed Work: Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography by David S. Brown With no concern for historic sentiment, Abraham Lincoln is cast in a new light which only a liberal consensus historian as Hofstadter can achieve… or get away with: “Had he lived to seventy, he would have seen the generation brought up on self-help come into its own, build oppressive business corporations, and begin to close off those treasured opportunities for the little man.” [7] Ever the skeptic, Hofstadter has his most fun with fellow liberal FDR whom he calls “The Patrician as Opportunist”. RICHARD HOFSTADTER. Or is it better that Hofstadter and his genius remain fixed to their place in history, just as the greatness of Roosevelt and his post-war vision was never tested? in, Ryan Coates, "The Conservatism of Richard Hofstadter,", harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHofstadter1992 (, progressive movement of the early 20th century, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, student occupation and temporary closure of Columbia University in 1968, https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2007/in-memoriam-lawrence-w-levine, https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/archive/spring14/obituaries2, "Robert Remini Dies, Leaves Legacy as Andrew Jackson Scholar", https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/25551/archive/files/d459004645c1e5cef1e0e2b47b442aa8.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI3ATG3OSQLO5HGKA&Expires=1546673088&Signature=QlGbpWTMfBYbocz3axnu19u5t1I=, "Richard Hofstadter, Pulitzer Historian, 54, Dies. From John D. Rockefeller: “The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest…. Hofstadter cites the sociological/biological theories of men like Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner, Lester Ward and the Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin to great effect. "[46] Alfred Kazin identified his use of parody: "He was a derisive critic and parodist of every American Utopia and its wild prophets, a natural oppositionist to fashion and its satirist, a creature suspended between gloom and fun, between disdain for the expected and mad parody. [31], As a historian, Hofstadter's groundbreaking work came in using social psychology concepts to explain political history. This page was last edited on 16 February 2021, at 22:28. Bibliography In undergraduate classes, he read aloud the draft of his next book. His first book, Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944), and The American Political Tradition (1948) had a radical point of view."[44]. [34][page needed], .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Anti-intellectualism in American Life (1963) and The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1965) describe American provincialism, warning against anti-intellectual fear of the cosmopolitan city, presented as wicked by the xenophobic and anti-Semitic Populists of the 1890s. New York: Oxford University Press. Released this spring, Library of America’s collection Richard Hofstadter: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Uncollected Essays 1956-1965 gathers together an indispensable historian’s essential works on the irrationalism, demagoguery, and conspiratorial thinking that have long influenced American politics and culture. DWL: Hofstadter argues that anti-intellectualism is partly the product of “benevolent impulses” towards equality and egalitarianism. "Hofstadter's 'The Age of Reform' and the Crucible of the Fifties,". Reprint, New York: Vintage, 1969. Great Issues in American History, Vol. He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize, first in 1956 for The Age of Reform, an analysis of the populism movement in the 1890s and the progressive movement of the early 20th century; and then in 1964 for the cultural history Anti-intellectualism in American Life. Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) was a historian and the author of several books on United States political history and thought. [24] Hofstadter expressed his dislike of the term consensus historian several times,[25] and criticized Boorstin for overusing the consensus and ignoring the essential conflicts in history. The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington (1968) systematically analyzes and criticizes the intellectual foundations and historical validity of Beard's historiography and revealed Hofstadter's increasing inclination toward neoconservatism. Initially, a communist greatly influenced by the work of the Marxist … In the seven years that separated the publications of American Political Tradition (1948) and The Age of Reform (1955), Hofstadter absorbed new intellectual insights that chal- Lyons on June 17, 2012 in Historians. [54], Hofstadter showed more interest in his research than in his teaching. Although Hofstadter quickly became disillusioned with the Communist Party, he retained an independent left-wing standpoint well into the 1940s. Lloyd C. Gardner, <"Consensus history and foreign policy." Social Darwinism in American Thought. FDR’s legacy remains intact as a result of his untimely death while in office: “Roosevelt died in the midst of things, and it is still possible for those under his spell to believe that everything would have been different if only he had survived to set the world on the right path in the postwar period. ———. "[51] Coates argues that his career saw a steady move from left to right, and that his 1968 Columbia commencement address "represented the completion of his conversion to conservatism". 5 For an example of the lively and sophisticated criticism Hofstadter's work has stimulated, see David Thelen, "Social Tensions and the Origins of Progressivism," Journal of American History, LVI (1969), 323-341. In this matter, the stress is on the importance of Jefferson's writings, and of his followers, in the development of agrarianism in the US, as establishing the agrarian myth, and its importance, in American life and politics—despite the rural and urban industrialization that rendered the myth moot. He joined Columbia University's Communist Party unit for a brief period in 1938. [8], Hofstadter was raised as an Episcopalian but later identified more with his Jewish roots. Historian Lloyd Gardner wrote, "in later essays Hofstadter specifically ruled out the possibility of a Leninist interpretation of American imperialism. [9] The Buffalo Jewish Hall of Fame lists him as one of the "Jewish Buffalonians who have made a lasting contribution to the world. Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Reprint, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. Had Hofstadter lived to see America in the 21st century he would have gained an even greater and more appreciative audience. Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916 – October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century. No “sophomore slump” for the newly-minted preeminent historian Hofstadter four years later with his next book The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. von Richard Hofstadter (9) 19,87 € Social Darwinism in American Thought portrays the overall influence of Darwin on American social theory and the notable battle waged among thinkers over the implications of evolutionary theory for social thought and political action. The Paranoid Style in American Politics. [55] As a senior professor at a leading graduate university, Hofstadter directed more than 100 finished doctoral dissertations but gave his graduate students only cursory attention; he believed this academic latitude enabled them to find their own models of history. Endnotes The book was a critical success and sold nearly a million copies at university campuses, where it was used as a history textbook; critics found it "skeptical, fresh, revisionary, occasionally ironical, without being harsh or merely destructive. "[4] Others see in his work an early critique of the one-dimensional society, as Hofstadter was equally critical of socialist and capitalist models of society, and bemoaned the "consensus" within the society as "bounded by the horizons of property and entrepreneurship",[4] criticizing the "hegemonic liberal capitalist culture running throughout the course of American history".[5]. "[50] Moreover, he was "extremely critical of student tactics, believing that they were based on irrational romantic ideas, rather than sensible plans for achievable change, that they undermined the unique status of the university, as an institutional bastion of free thought, and that they were bound to provoke a political reaction from the right. Further, the very lack of confidence in the American future and of a positive program of ideas increases popular faith in the wonder-working powers of the great man.” [9], In this post-war period now devoid of Roosevelt’s vision, Hofstadter gains solid footing as an historian and intellectual. Criticized at the time for its lack of primary research and sources, Social Darwinism theorizes that under the guise of “only the fittest shall survive” (Spencer) the less fortunate and able in our society cannot advance. He attended the Fosdick-Masten Park High School in Buffalo. In so doing, he explored questions regarding the purpose of education and whether the democratization of education altered that purpose and ... Read more The Consequences of Democratizing Knowledge: Reconsidering Richard Hofstadter … 1958. Oktober 1970) war ein amerikanischer Historiker und DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History an der Columbia University. ( Log Out /  An ebook short. Once these interests were sectional; now they tend more clearly to follow class lines; but from the beginning American political parties, instead of representing single sections or classes clearly and forcefully, have been intersectional and interclass parties, embracing a jumble of interests which often have reasons for contesting among themselves. Review by: Daniel Geary "[43], Geary concludes that, "To Hofstadter, radicalism always offered more of a critical intellectual stance than a commitment to political activism. "[10], In 1936, Hofstadter entered the doctoral program in history at Columbia University where his advisor Merle Curti was demonstrating how to synthesize intellectual, social, and political history based upon secondary sources rather than primary-source archival research. [26] In an earlier draft of the preface he wrote:[27]. Hofstadter broke new historiographical ground by exploring sociological structures (perhaps influenced by his friend C. Wright Mills) and by probing unconscious psychological motives, status anxieties, irrational hatreds, and finally paranoia as political motivators. Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life and The Paranoid Style in American Politics are two essential works that lay bare the worrying trends of irrationalism, demagoguery, destructive populism, and conspiratorial thinking that have long influenced American politics and culture. Richard Hofstadter’s (Aug. 6, 1916 – October 24, 1970) influence and school of thought as a “consensus historian” and noted intellectual of the 1950s has stature and relevance today. Hofstadter had been reluctant to join, knowing the orthodoxy it imposed on intellectuals, telling them what to believe and what to write. His analyses of the problems faced by educators in America’s school systems at the time of this book’s writing are still topical today. It was a commercially successful (200,000 copies) critique of late-19th-century American capitalism and its ruthless "dog-eat-dog" economic competition and Social Darwinian self-justification. 1962. 1955. Reprint, New York: Vintage Books, 1966. Great Issues in American History, Vol. ( Log Out /  ———. Posted by Scott M.H. Driving his point home through the usage of related quotes by notable names from businessmen of the era, Hofstadter solidifies the work and its thesis of natural selection in American society. By the 1950s and 1960s Hofstadter had a strong reputation in liberal circles. Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. 3 (Sept. 2007), pp. He is opposed to almost everything that has happened in American politics in the past twenty years.”. Fringe groups can and do both influence and derail American politics, and Hofstadter remains indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand why paranoia, a persistent psychic phenomenon with an outsize role in American public life, refuses to abate. His goal, they argue, was "destroying certain cherished American traditions and myths derived from his conviction that they provided no trustworthy guide for action in the present. [1] David S. Brown, Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), xv. The writing he has left has behind serves as a model for critical thought in academia and intellectual circles for the intertwined social and political issues of today. He makes us rethink Richard Hofstadter and, to a lesser extent, the meaning of “consensus history.” He makes us think harder than we’re used to doing, mainly, I sense, because there’s so … [23], Hofstadter later complained that this remark in a hastily written preface requested by the editor had been the reason for "lumping him" unfairly into the category of "consensus historians" like Boorstin, who celebrated this kind of ideological consensus as an achievement, whereas Hofstadter deplored it. Social Darwinism, Hofstadter’s first slice of brilliance written in 1944 as his doctoral dissertation holds the most promise as a single body of work and one that could have easily been revised and marketed today. I had felt for some time that the Library of America, which exists to celebrate the best of American writing, underrepresented historians, especially modern historians. Antisemitism may have cost him fellowships at Columbia and attractive professorships. He would have relished revising Anti-Intellectualism in American Life for example, arguably his greatest work, to include the current cultural, social, and political chaos in America. As a secret society, Masonry was considered to be a standing conspiracy against republican government. The University of Chicago Press. At his death in 1970, Richard Hofstadter … Hofstadter closes Social Darwinism by adding that: “… such biological ideas as the ‘survival of the fittest,’ whatever their doubtful value in natural science, are utterly useless in attempting to understand society…” [6] Just as quickly as he postulates the validity of biological theory to understanding society Hofstadter refutes the ideas. [17][18], In 1946 Hofstadter joined Columbia University's faculty and in 1959 he succeeded Allan Nevins as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History, where he played a major role in directing Ph.D. dissertations. Conservative critics, such as Irwin G. Wylie and Robert C. Bannister, disagreed with his interpretation. Hofstadter’s political analysis of the Populist to Progressive movements in The Age of Reform is highlighted by the industrialization of America and this transitional phase. In the 1940s, Hofstadter cited Beard as "the exciting influence on me. . Hofstadter, influenced by his wife, was a member of the Young Communist Leaguein college, and in April 1938 he joined the Communist Party of the USA; he quit in 1939. 1958. Richard Hofstadter was a prominent historian during America’s post-World War II rise. While the President did come from a privileged background, there was no blueprint for successful leadership in these difficult times as Hofstadter adds. Er gehörte zu den führenden Intellektuellen der amerikanischen Nachkriegsära. 1952. Hofstadter’s work figured prominently in my required readings for my undergraduate degree in the mid ’70s. 1964. Interesting that he is still relevant today. The Age of Reform. 291 pp. Among them were Herbert Gutman, Eric Foner, Lawrence W. Levine, Linda Kerber, and Paula S. Fass. His friend David Herbert Donald said, "as a liberal who criticized the liberal tradition from within, he was appalled by the growing radical, even revolutionary, sentiment that he sensed among his colleagues and his students. Hofstadter, Richard. 1971. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Hofstadter—himself very much a big-city person—noted the agrarian ethos was "a kind of homage that Americans have paid to the fancied innocence of their origins; however, to call it a myth does not imply falsity, because it effectively embodies the rural values of the American people, profoundly influencing their perception of the correct values, hence their political behavior." ( Log Out /  Hofstadter’s efforts in The Paranoid Style mark the first time we begin to see his brilliance in challenging the conservative political right; one that had remained an underlying tone for the remainder of his career. His books are still highly regarded and widely utilized as text books in colleges and universities today. Balancing views of anti-Semitism against this backdrop opened up criticism from those close to him before the book’s publication: “A full history of modern anti-Semitism in the United States would reveal, I believe, its substantial Populist lineage…” [12] Despite his harsh tone of the agrarian society and the farmers the book was still well-received among historians. This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs.In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence -- and derail -- the larger … [28], In 1948 he published The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, interpretive studies of 12 major American political leaders from the 18th to the 20th centuries. They trace the direct political and ideological lineage between the Populists and anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism, the political paranoia manifest in his time. He could never share their simplistic, moralistic approach. Reaching back to 18th century America, Hofstadter wrestles with the beginnings of this phenomenon in Protestantism in New England. He thought that most of the periods of US history, except the Civil War, could be fully understood only by taking into account an implicit consensus, shared by all groups across the conflict lines. Rejecting his earlier communist approach to history, in the 1950s he came closer to the concept of "consensus history", and was epitomized by some of his admirers as the "iconic historian of postwar liberal consensus. Introduction "[b], Howe and Finn argue that rhetorically, Hofstadter's cultural interpretation repeatedly drew upon concepts from literary criticism ("irony," "paradox," "anomaly") , anthropology ("myth," "tradition," "legend," "folklore"), and social psychology ("projection," "unconsciously," "identity," "anxiety," "paranoid"). An obvious intellectual himself, he highlights the vacillations of anti-intellectualism in the business world between the “self-made men” such as Andrew Carnegie and others and the ultimate necessity for educated men in the business world at the beginning of the 20th century. friendship on their academic work was inevitable. He feels that his liberties have been arbitrarily and outrageously invaded. Hofstadter's dissertation director Merle Curti wrote that Hofstadter's "position is as biased, by his urban background... as the work of older historians was biased by their rural background and traditional agrarian sympathies.”[35], The Idea of a Party System (1969) describes the origins of the First Party System as reflecting fears that the (other) political party threatened to destroy the republic. Richard Hofstadter, in his excerpt "The Status Revolution and Progressive Leaders," suggests that the United States was a place for the middle-class man to rally in support of progressivism. Follow WORLD WAR II HISTORY on WordPress.com. urgency, influenced many of its participants (and particularly Hofstadter) less by its political agenda than by its illumination of new interdisciplinary ap- proaches to the study of human motivation. [3] Hofstadter held that Progressive historians (conflict model) had taken their ideas and school of thought as far as it could go: “Historians were now eager to emphasize the multiple roots of causation (rather than a single economic interpretation) and borrowed heavily from the social sciences to explore the moods and mentalities of their subjects.” [4]Hofstadter’s most important publications as books include: Social Darwinism in American Thought, (1944) The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, (1948) The Paranoid Style in American Politics, (1952) The Age of Reform, (1955) and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. [13][14][15] The sharpest criticism of the book focused on Hofstadter's weakness as a research scholar: he did little or no research into manuscripts, newspapers, archival, or unpublished sources, relying instead primarily on secondary sources augmented by his lively style and wide-ranging interdisciplinary readings, thus producing well-written arguments based on scattered evidence he found by reading other historians. 35, No. The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It. The emergence of the Cold War in 1947 and the political turmoil in America with McCarthyism became a fertile backdrop for Hofstadter. [6], Hofstadter was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1916 to a Jewish father, Emil A. Hofstadter, and a German-American Lutheran mother, Katherine (née Hill), who died when Richard was ten.[7]. "[33], The Age of Reform (1955) analyzes the yeoman ideal in America's sentimental attachment to agrarianism and the farm's moral superiority to the city. The legacy left by Hofstadter is two-fold: he was very much an actor in the history of which he wrote. The impact of these years created his orientation to the American past, accompanied as it was by marriage, establishment of life-style, and choice of profession. American politics has always been an arena in which conflicts of interests have been fought out, compromised, adjusted. in Alexander DeConde, ed. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Great Issues in American History, Vol. [16], From 1942 to 1946 Hofstadter taught history at the University of Maryland, where he became a close friend of the popular sociologist C. Wright Mills and read extensively in the fields of sociology and psychology, absorbing ideas of Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, Sigmund Freud, and the Frankfurt School. ( Log Out /  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. [a] He explored subconscious motives such as social status anxiety, anti-intellectualism, irrational fear, and paranoia as they propel political discourse and action in politics. 1958. Still, it was a folk movement of considerable power, and the rural enthusiasts who provided its real impetus believed in it wholeheartedly. His untimely passing came while working on a three-volume set on American political culture in 1970. Reprint, New York: Vintage, 1969. [11], In 1938, he became a member of the Communist Party, but soon became disillusioned by the Stalinist party discipline and show trials. I: From Settlement to Revolution, 1584-1776. (1962) These five contributions to historical thought have defined Hofstadter as historian and provide a showcase for the liberal consensus view. Hofstadter really was a true historian and voice for his time. [2]  Hofstadter’s first published work Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944) happened to be his doctoral dissertation and a portent of future distinction. Hofstadter died of leukemia on October 24, 1970, at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at age 54. Influenced by his wife, Hofstadter was a member of the Young Communist League in college, and in April 1938 he joined the Communist Party of the USA; he quit in 1939. Born and raised through the tumultuous eras of the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, these trying times helped to shape his zest for critical thought on the social and political issues of his own day, and their historical impact. Expertise, for example, can be equated with hierarchy, pursuit of nuance can appear synonymous with political inaction, and personal experience can be seen as more “honest” than abstract facts. Hofstadter’s writing on historical issues spanned the three decades of the 40s, 50s and 60s. 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Your comment: You are commenting using your Google account the diplomatic historian Julius W. Pratt Hofstadter s... David Brown, David S. richard Hofstadter was raised as an Episcopalian but later identified more his... Out, compromised, adjusted and what to write critics, such as Irwin G. Wylie and C.... 21St century he would have been interesting and fun to have been fought Out, compromised,.. Even greater and more appreciative audience 54 ], Hofstadter shows his disdain for farmers! Have been arbitrarily and outrageously invaded politics, of anti-intellectualism is partly the product of “ benevolent ”! Readings for my undergraduate degree in the mid ’ 70s that anti-intellectualism is partly the of!