The paranoid style in American politics, and other essays

Richard Hofstadter

Harvard University Press, 1965 - Political Science - 330 pages

"The distinguishing thing about the paranoid style is not that its exponents see conspiracies or plots here and there in history, but that they regard a 'vast' or 'gigantic' conspiracy as the motive force in historical events...The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of this conspiracy in apocalyptic terms--he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization." --From the book

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Review: The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays

User Review  - Rob Salkowitz - Goodreads

Should be required reading in every freshman Poli-Sci class. Still sadly relevant to the current moment.

Contents

• The Paranoid Style in American Politics: 3
• The PseudoConservative Revolt1954: 41
• PseudoConservatism Revisited1965: 66

About the author

DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University from 1959 until the time of his death, Richard Hofstadter was one of the most influential historians in post--World War II America. His political, social, and intellectual histories raised serious questions about assumptions that had long been taken for granted and cast the American experience in an interesting new light. His 1948 work, The American Political Tradition, is an enduring classic study in political history. His 1955 work, The Age of Reform, which still commands respect among both historians and general readers, won him that year's Pulitzer Prize. A measure of Hofstadter's standing in literary and scholarly circles is the honors he received in 1964 for Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)---Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize of Phi Beta Kappa, and the Sidney Hillman Prize Award. Hofstadter's greatest talent, however, may have been his ability to order complex events and issues and to synthesize from them a rational, constructively critical perspective on American history.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The paranoid style in American politics, and other essays
• Author: Richard Hofstadter
• Edition: reprint, illustrated
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1965
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Sep 19, 2008
• Length: 330 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / American Government / General; Political Science / Essays; Political Science / General; Political Science / Political Process / General