Twice Pulitzer-Prize winner Richard Hofstadter was Professor of American History at Columbia University and a radical independent thinker on the liberal-left, whose incisive analyses of the American political landscape were expounded in several essays. This book collects together seven, including possibly the most enduring and prophetic of them all `The Paranoid Style in American Politics' originally delivered as a lecture at Oxford University in November 1963, and then published in a slightly modified form in Harper's Magazine a year later.
Hofstadter uses the phrase `the paranoid style' advisedly. Commonly observable characteristics make the style instantly recognisable in the same way (for example) you might recognise art painted in the cubist style, or rock music made in the style of the `punk' movement. A ubiquitous narrative component of `the paranoid style' is the casting of some scheming and secretive `elite' planning to do the nation down for their own ends, to seize the reins of power by subterfuge and deceit, to demolish `hard-won freedoms' to satisfy their own cravings for wealth, power and control:
"The enemy is clearly delineated: a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman -- sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed, he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced. The paranoid's interpretation of history is distinctly personal: decisive events are not taken as part of the stream of history, but as the consequences of someone's will. Very often, the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing); he has a special technique for seduction (the Catholic confessional)..."
Hofstadter describes a long history of the paranoid style before it became a defining characteristic of what he terms the "pseudo-conservatives" in the 1950s and early 1960s. Back in the 1700s there were waves of paranoia about the Bavarian Illuminati taking over America, similar paranoia in the early 1800s about the Masons, then "a sinister conspiracy by Roman Catholics" to covertly take over Protestant America spearheaded by Irish immigrants whose evil plan was to "deliver the Republic to papal tyranny". Later the bogey-man transmuted into the imagined `slaveholders' conspiracy' promoted by some abolitionists, then `international bankers', then the Jews, then the Rothschild family, then communists (Senator Joe McCarthy actually proclaimed President Dwight Eisenhower to be an "agent of the international communist conspiracy"). No matter the identity of the chosen villain of the day, the narrative style never varies:
"It is hard to resist the conclusion that this enemy is, on many counts, the projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him"
Other trademark indicators of the style include the amassing of (often fraudulent) `evidence' to persuade a skeptical public that the secret super-conspiracy is real - what Daniel Pipes later referred to as "a deluge of overabundant learned factoids & pedantic references" - and parading supposed `whistleblowers' or `insiders' to confirm the dastardly conspiracy to be true (Hofstadter cites the famous `convent escapee' Maria Monk who claimed to have witnessed alleged sexual debauchery and child murder in Roman Catholic convents; when the fraud was revealed, Monk turned out to be a hooker and petty thief, who had never seen the inside of a convent but was paid to play the role).
If you're interested in the origin of right-wing political conspiracy theories in America, how and why and by whom they are manufactured and want to understand the essential components of the style, then getting to know Hofstadter's classic work is a must. The essay explains such modern phenomena as the so-called `9/11 Truth Movement' precisely and with a level of detail that is almost spooky, 40 years before it appeared as a cultural artifact. Although he died in 1970 aged only 54, Richard Hofstadter's enlightening analysis seems prophetic in its description of the shrillness and apocalyptic ranting characteristic of the Tea Baggers and other extremist pseudo-right-wing movements of the 21st century.
The remaining essays in this collection examine the `pseudo-conservative revolt' up to 1965, and its catastrophic effect on the Goldwater campaign against LBJ in the 1964 Presidential election.
This excellent writer was one of the great intellects of the 20th century, whose lucid and engaging prose never fails to enlighten and entertain.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start againPage 1 of 1
Top reviews from other countries
Richard Fichera
A depressingly accurate history of extremist politics in America
Reviewed in the United States on 26 May 2021
Atticus
Great addition to the text. Lectures are fresh, alive.
Reviewed in the United States on 4 June 2021
