"The Paranoid Style in American Politics" by Richard Hofstadter

[tarkus]

Has anyone here read this book? I started reading it recently and I think that although it was written more than thirty years ago, it provides an interesting historical perspective on today's far-right republican party and serves as a refreshing reminder that like Goldwater and his people, the current batch of "conservatives" can be defeated.

Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good book on American history and an intelligent analysis of American "conservative" movements.

[jonnyblitz]

1. I have it checked out from the library but haven't read it yet.

I am reading "Right Wing Populism" by Chip Berlet right now. I also have another book checked out of the library by Hofstader called "Anti-Intellectualism in America". So many books , so little time...

[salvorhardin]

2. It's a collection of essays

I really recommend it, along with Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism In American Life.

If you just want to read the titular essay, you can find the version that appeared in Harper's in 1964 here:
http://neuralgourmet.com/theparanoidstyle

[RoyGBiv]

3. Yes ...

I recommend anything Hofstadter has written.

Some of Hofstadter's critics point to the fact that some of his work has been made irrelevant by modern research as a reason for discounting his analysis and conclusions at the time he was writing, but I think those critics are largely wrong. They take individual cases and try to extrapolate that out into a dismissal of his work as a whole. Hofstadter engaged in what amounts to "original thought" among historians, essentially creating his own school of historical interpretation. That draws critics out of the woodwork, but the criticism in and of itself points to the work's importance.

The Paranoid Style isn't his best work, imo, but it was typical of his examination of reactionary politics and has messages that remain relevant. I second the recommendation of _Anti-Intellectualism In American Life_ as well. One can learn a great deal about the current state of American society by reading, and absorbing, that book.

[izzybeans]

4. I'm not sure but are snippets of his Anti-Intellectualism in America

part of this collection.

That is a good book as well.

[RBBernstein]

5. Hofstadter, PARANOID STYLE IN AMERICAN POLITICS

Hofstadter's book is a first-rate collection of essays that many journalists and writers are rediscovering as a way of explaining the modern debased version of political discourse on left and right . Nicholas Lemann just cited it in an article in THE NEW YORKER.

By the way, PARANOID STYLE does not overlap with his ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN AMERICAN LIFE. Both are valuable reading today, even though they're 40 years old.

David S. Brown just published a valuable intellectual biography of Hofstadter with the University of Chicago Press.