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    The Paranoid Style in American Politics
    The Paranoid Style in American Politics
    The Paranoid Style in American Politics
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Paranoid Style in American Politics

    Written by Richard Hofstadter and Sean Wilentz

    Narrated by Keith Sellon-Wright

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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 agendas of a political party.

    He investigates the politics of the irrational, shedding light on how the behavior of individuals can seem out of proportion with actual political issues, and how such behavior impacts larger groups. With such other classic essays as "Free Silver and the Mind of 'Coin' Harvey" and "What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?," The Paranoid Style in American Politics remains both a seminal text of political history and a vital analysis of the ways in which political groups function in the United States.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 15, 2018
    ISBN9781977378422
    The Paranoid Style in American Politics
    Author

    Richard Hofstadter

    The late Richard Hofstadter was DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. He was the author of many books and articles on American History and twice received the Pulitzer Prize: in History in 1956, and in general nonfiction in 1964.

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    Reviews for The Paranoid Style in American Politics

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    • 4/5
      Most of us know the basics of this history--fears of Masonic conspiracies in the early period of the Republic, fears of Catholics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with all the new immigints, McCarthyism, the great burgeoning that was just taking place when Hofstadter was writing such that conspiracyism is now its own kind of kitsch and aliens killed the JFK clone on 9/11, and the details are a bit much for the casual reader, but Hofstadter's dissection of the (grandiose, black-and-white, obsessive) personality characteristics of the type and contribution of the term "paranoid style" are worth a good deal.
    • 4/5
      Six decades past publication, it is remarkable how much Hofstadter's analyses the conservative fringe have retained their lucidity, not least because the circumstances between then and now are too similar.

      For example - why were the Birther movement/John Birch Society, and McCarthyism/Anti-Muslim scare as prominent as they were, then and now? Both Eisenhower and Obama were centrist presidents, what could have offended them? Granted, there is discontent with Obama because of the economy, and Eisenhower on foreign policy, but why this new criticism clouding debate?

      Hofstadter classifies this as the 'paranoid style' - not necessarily limited to conservatism, but broadly associated with it. It includes a fear of compromise (seen in both Eisenhower and Obama), and redefining the opponent into a broadly conspiratorial role, which must be defeated utterly. In both cases, the accused are associated with international Communism.

      He also identifies ethnic character as having a possible background to this perversion, and having it stretch back to the 19th century, and the first waves of immigrants, who would contaminate American culture and use foreign customs to destroy the traditional way of life. The Anglo-Saxons feared the Irish and Catholicism. Then they feared the Germans. Then the Eastern Europeans and Italians. Then the East Asians. And now primarily the Hispanics.

      Another question is the personification of the extreme Fringe in conservatism - some 50 years ago it was Barry Goldwater, whose brinksmanship was very tempting in an era of national crisis - and yet so terrifying to a sufficient majority that LBJ trounced him.

      The rest of the essays do not strictly deal with paranoia and extreme conservatism, but they deal with relatively obscure topics fluently.

      One of my surprise favorites was on the crisis of bimetallism in the 19th century. It's oddly fascinating, and one now thinks of the modern day 'gold bugs' at our Beck and Paul, conspiring against International Finance as much as demagogues in the 19th century feared International Jewry.

      A new dose for the politics junkie. Worth the read.