Richard Hofstadter

[[File:Richard hofstadter.jpg|thumb|left|165px|Hofstadter]]
{{Uspolitics}}
'''Richard Hofstadter''' {{lived|1916|1970}} was a [[historian]] and the [[author]] of several books on [[United States]] [[political]] history and thought.  His best-known works include ''The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It'', ''The Paranoid Style in American Politics'', ''The Age of Reform'', and ''[[Anti-intellectualism in American Life]]''.

Hofstadter was briefly a [[communist]], joining the [[Communist Party USA]] in 1938 and leaving it after only four months in 1939 following his objection to the [[Stalin apologetics#Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|Hitler-Stalin pact]].<ref name=brown>''Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography'' by David S. Brown (2007) University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226076415.</ref>{{rp|29}} He was greatly influenced by the work of the [[Marxist]] Charles Beard.<ref name=brown/>{{rp|14}} He began to move toward [[centrism]] early in his career and became known as a "consensus historian" (a term he disfavored) due to his rejection of class conflict as the central narrative in American history. He was influential on both American [[liberalism]] and [[neoconservatism]]. Some of his works, chiefly ''The Paranoid Style'' and ''Anti-intellectualism in American Life'', are frequently referenced to explain the [[militia movement]] and the perennial popularity of [[conspiracy theories]]. ''The Paranoid Style'' deals with perennial American conspiracy theories such as the [[Illuminati]], [[Freemasonry]], [[international Jewish conspiracy|"international bankers"]] and [[anti-Catholicism]]. ''The Age of Reform'' was a [[revisionist history|revisionist]] work on the [[populism|Populist]], [[Progressive]], and [[New Deal]] reform periods in which he tries to link the former to nativism and make a case for the New Deal as a dissimilar and necessary departure from the earlier movements rather than a logical progression from them.  His book ''Social Darwinism in American Thought 1860-1915'', written while he was still involved with the [[CPUSA]], helped to popularize the term "[[social Darwinism]]" but was also something of a hit piece on the American [[right-wing]]. It has been criticized for oversimplifying the views of figures such as [[Herbert Spencer]] and downplaying or omitting instances of support among [[progressives]] for [[eugenics]].<ref>Thomas C. Leonard. [http://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/myth.pdf Origins of the myth of social Darwinism: The ambiguous legacy of Richard Hofstadter’s ''Social Darwinism in American Thought''.] ''Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization'' 71 (2009) 37–51.</ref>

[[Inverse stopped clock|Unfortunately]], he was also something of an [[elitism|elitist]], too often showing contempt for those who considered themselves victims of [[history]] and [[economics]] and didn't adopt "correct political attitudes".<ref>Emmett Rensin: "[http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism The smug style in American liberalism]", ''Vox'' (April 21, 2016).</ref> He also ascribed political [[paranoia]] only to minority political actors, not the establishment.<ref>Jesse Walker: "[http://reason.com/blog/2013/08/26/the-trouble-with-richard-hofstadter The Trouble with Richard Hofstadter]", ''Reason'' (August 26, 2013).</ref>

==External links==
*[http://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/ The Paranoid Style in American Politics], the central essay of the eponymous book originally published in ''Harper's Magazine''.

==References==
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[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Historians]]
[[Category:United States politicians]]

Categories: Authors, Historians, United States politicians