laurenmsilverman's review
5.0
This book was recommended to me by one of my college professors and I'm so glad I read it. It shows its age in a handful of spots (as always, read with context in mind) but is otherwise freakishly relatable for the modern day. Many of these passages could be marked with a 2021 copyright and I'd believe it. Hofstadter expands upon a lot of opinions I've held in the past but never explored on a deeper level. Validating to say the least!
whitecat5000's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
1.0
DNF. I've tried three times to read this, and each time I just can't focus on the writing.
thelauramay's review
DNF at 10%. Interesting and a classic, but I found the writing style too weighty to enjoy.
sgabriele2123's review
5.0
This book may be older than I am but it’s more relevant than ever. Goes a long way toward explaining Trump and his base.
“There is a militant type of mind to which the hostilities involved in any human situation seem to be its most interesting and valuable aspect; some individuals live by hatred as a kind of creed....”
“There is a militant type of mind to which the hostilities involved in any human situation seem to be its most interesting and valuable aspect; some individuals live by hatred as a kind of creed....”
judyward's review
4.0
I first read this book in my Intellectual History of the United States class when I was in college a hundred years ago and I've felt the need to revisit it about every decade. In light of the level of what constitutes political, social, and cultural discourse in the United States today and out of total frustration with my college students who have emerged from schools that want them to "feel good about themselves" and have both lowered expectations and inflated grades, it was time to pull it off the bookshelf, dust it off, and give it a reread. Richard Hofstadter won the Pulitzer Prize in History for this book in 1964 and much of what he says is true today. He highlights a thread of "resentment and suspicion of the life of the mind and of those who are considered to represent it" and traces that thread from early American history to the period in which he was writing. Hofstadter demonstrates that some social movements in the U.S. have divorced intellect from other human virtues and treated it as if it is a vice and in doing so he sees much of American history in education, politics, business, and religion as a pitting of intellect against emotion, character, practicality, and democracy. This anti-intellectualism has had a long history and staying power. It has been used to disparage individuals throughout our history such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Adlai Stevenson. And, in Hofstadter's view, it has fostered an unshakable belief in "the superiority of inborn, intuitive, folkish, wisdom over the cultivated, oversophisticated, and self-interested knowledge of the literati". And these attitudes have consequences. Hofstadter believes that an intellectual approach to life accepts the premise that conflict is a constant and there is a need for spirited discussion and an openness to compromise. But, again in his view, the anti-intellectual bias has produced a society that "looks upon the world as an arena for conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, and, accordingly, it scorns compromise (who would compromise with Satan?) and can tolerate no ambiguities." Sadly, this conclusion seems as current in 21st century America as it has been in our past.
wah38's review
5.0
"When a right-wing leader accuses Dwight D. Eisenhower of being a conscious, dedicated agent of the international Communist conspiracy, he may seem demented, by the usual criteria of the political intelligence, but ... what he is trying to account for is not Eisenhower's actual political behavior ... but Eisenhower's place, as a kind of fallen angel, in the realm of ultimate moral and spiritual values, which to him has greater reality than mundane politics."
These words apply so easily to today. Why do a majority of Republicans think that Obama is a Muslim? Not because they are trying to account for his actual political behavior, but because their moral and spiritual values tell them that Obama is bad, Islam is bad, and therefore Obama is a Muslim.
These words apply so easily to today. Why do a majority of Republicans think that Obama is a Muslim? Not because they are trying to account for his actual political behavior, but because their moral and spiritual values tell them that Obama is bad, Islam is bad, and therefore Obama is a Muslim.
photopoppy's review
4.0
Lots of information, lots of examples. Gives me a lot to think about, and I'm still processing what I have learned.
This will give me a good foundation in understanding similar books, written for a lay audience, and the underpinnings of some of the primary conflicts in our culture.
American politics is a struggle between people who believe that an 8th grade education should be sufficient to understand the issues facing us, and people who understand that it is not so.
American religion is a dichotomy between people who believe that understanding not only the Bible, but historical writings in religion and philosophy are important to understanding the word of God. And people who believe that faith and spirit are all you need to understand God's will, and in fact, that any study intended to instruct one in historical context will actually detract from faith and spirit.
American education has been, and continues to be, plagued by a misunderstanding of "democracy" - having high-achievers and low-achievers does not make a school undemocratic - as well as a very practical "preparation for life" curriculum which considers theory irrelevant in comparison to practice. Learning physiology, for example, has at times been considered less useful than learning how to exercise, although the latter is an extension of the former. It's not even so much that schools at varying points in the last 100 years have failed to teach students to think for themselves, it's that schools have at varying points assumed that the average student cannot think for him or herself.
This will give me a good foundation in understanding similar books, written for a lay audience, and the underpinnings of some of the primary conflicts in our culture.
American politics is a struggle between people who believe that an 8th grade education should be sufficient to understand the issues facing us, and people who understand that it is not so.
American religion is a dichotomy between people who believe that understanding not only the Bible, but historical writings in religion and philosophy are important to understanding the word of God. And people who believe that faith and spirit are all you need to understand God's will, and in fact, that any study intended to instruct one in historical context will actually detract from faith and spirit.
American education has been, and continues to be, plagued by a misunderstanding of "democracy" - having high-achievers and low-achievers does not make a school undemocratic - as well as a very practical "preparation for life" curriculum which considers theory irrelevant in comparison to practice. Learning physiology, for example, has at times been considered less useful than learning how to exercise, although the latter is an extension of the former. It's not even so much that schools at varying points in the last 100 years have failed to teach students to think for themselves, it's that schools have at varying points assumed that the average student cannot think for him or herself.
leiadear's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
insightful if unfocused look into anti-intellectualism as a cyclic staple in american culture.