The American Political Tradition

In the year of 1776, the United States became an independent country. At that moment, the great men who fought for its independence began to create the government and shape American politics. In Richard Hofstadter's The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, he identifies twelve of the most influential men and the political traditions they created, including the Founding Fathers who started it all. Additionally, Hofstadter informs the reader of other significant government officials including Andrew Jackson and his democracy, the progressive, trustbuster Theodore Roosevelt, and ending with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his programs of the New Deal. Richard Hofstadter's ideas are brilliantly

Also, the variety of viewpoints presented in this book help to expand the reader’s knowledge. The editors provide a well-rounded collection of additional works that show the reader some of the major theories on a historical event. Basically, a reader is able to see historical issues through the eyes of professional historians. Interpretations of American History does not merely state the facts, it allows the reader to decide where they stand on the historical event in question. This can lead to a deeper, more profound study of history.

Chapter one of The American Political Tradition by Richard Hofstadter is centered on the Founding Fathers. The very beginning of the chapter says that the Constitutional Convention was trying to create a government that would pay debts and avoid currency inflation. The Democratic ideas that the Founding Fathers were so against appealed mostly to less privileged classes, and not at all to the higher classes. This chapter says that the Founding Fathers thought that if no constitutional balance were achieved, one specific class or would take over others. Three advantages of a good constitutional government were listed in this chapter as well. One: keep order against majority rule. Two: a representative government. Three: aristocracy and democracy

This particular text was interesting to read, because it helped me to fill out some of the blanks in my knowledge of the American history, American society and American culture. I do believe that it should be clarified that most of the statements in this text though were only about American and, perhaps, British societies, because many mentioned unspoken rules do not apply to other European countries, Russia, Middle East, and Arabian countries. For example, authors insist that: “Ability to use formal register is a hidden rule of the middle class” (Payne, DeVol,

The world is full of rich culture, diversity and experiences unique to each individual. When determining the validity of historic accounts we must factor in that particular historian’s point of view, which should be characterized by ethnicity, idealogy, theoretical or methodological preference. With these factors views of the past often vary from person to person. In this essay I will be discussing the four different stages that shaped the writing of American history over the last 400 years.

Hofstadter employs a scholastic tone by incorporating academic diction into his essay, to establish credibility when discussing paranoia and its roots in American politics. When examining paranoia, Hofstadter argues that it establishes a “greater affinity for bad causes than good” (Hofstadter 77). Through this phrase, and the language Hofstadter applies, it can be concluded that the intended audience for this piece is intellectuals. The author’s diction and tone identify Hofstadter’s belief of paranoia doing little to spark progressive change in America, but rather hindering the development of policies and activities which would combat real problems.

Richard Hofstadter examines the political beliefs of the founding fathers in the first chapter of the American Political Tradition. Ideas thought about by most Americans to be the center of our organization, our founders viewed liberty, democracy, and property, as evil. The composition can be depicted to be vicious as well, because liberty, democracy, and property are linked to the United States Constitution.

During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the

Most of them are considered to be impenetrable events that when compared to the current political scenario could elaborate on the significant growth that America has achieved so far. A significant example of such impenetrable events is the duel that Freeman has addressed, which existed between Hamilton and Burr. Indeed, the political realisms and anxieties linked to diverse leaders have been addressed in a more humanistic manner throughout the book. Evidently, this has also been extended on the struggles that such leaders went through in having a clear definition of their roles and lifestyle in presenting the American culture (Freeman,

The four works, Richard Hofstadter's The Age of Reform, Peter Filene's "An Obituary for the Progressive Movement," Richard McCormick's "The

The author of this book is a professor of history at Columbia University and is one of the country’s most noticeable historians. He graduated from Columbia with his doctoral degree under Richard Hofstadter. Foner is one of only two people to be president of three major professional organizations. They are the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians.

As the reader continues on to Chapter 2 in The Birth of Modern Politics, Parsons contrasts Jackson and Adams political differences and accomplishments. One of Adams creditable accomplishments included President Monroe

Hofstadter, an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century states in the essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” that the paranoid style is the most influential factor in american politics. In most of the chapters, Hofstadter explains how American politics have developed into the paranoid style throughout the history by providing examples. He claims that this style can impact larger groups and some individuals can seem out of proportion with actual political issues. People who are interested in politics and wonder about the hidden secrets of the government would be interested in reading this essay.

Richard Hofstrader, author of the essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”, argues that the American political life has been intensified by the “animosities and passions of a small minority” due to the paranoid style and it has lead to some of America’s greatest scares and antipathy towards certain groups. Hofstrader believes that the paranoid style is “the feeling of persecution is central, and it is indeed systemized in grandiose theories of conspiracy” , not against one man but against an entire nation . This great fear of the other has given way to the anti-Masonic movement in the eighteenth century, the anti-Catholic movement in the nineteenth century, “Yellow Peril” during World War II, and the “Red Menace” during the Cold War

The American political system is always susceptible to change. In recent decades, the United States has experienced an increase in political polarization between the two parties. These extreme views resonate with the Americans that sit at the tips of the ideological spectrum, but the majority of people have more moderate ideologies. Most fall in between the two extremes, holding different combinations of social and economic values that make it difficult to place each person on the traditional linear spectrum. To further analyze voters, a political typology of the United States can be conducted, which further sorts voters into more connected groups based on their attitudes and values. This data has proven to be crucial for political parties when determining what policies to include in their platform, because recent general elections have revealed that the undecided vote plays a large role in determining the winner. In order to maximize the amount of voters the Republican Party receives in the general election, the party must incorporate values and policies in their platform that attracts the maximum amount of moderate voters, without drifting too far away from traditional Republican values to ensure the retention of the constituency. This can be achieved by adopting new policies on abortion, alternative energy, unauthorized immigrants, and