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The American Political Tradition

And the Men Who Made it

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The American Political Tradition is one of the most influential and widely read historical volumes of our time. First published in 1948, its elegance, passion, and iconoclastic erudition laid the groundwork for a totally new understanding of the American past. By writing a "kind of intellectual history of the assumptions behind American politics," Richard Hofstadter changed the way Americans understand the relationship between power and ideas in their national experience. Like only a handful of American historians before him—Frederick Jackson Turner and Charles A. Beard are examples—Hofstadter was able to articulate, in a single work, a historical vision that inspired and shaped an entire generation.
Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) was one of the leading American historians and intellectuals of the twentieth century. Throughout his career, he worked at many universities, most recently as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. His works include the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Reform and Anti-intellectualism in American Life. View titles by Richard Hofstadter
1. The Founding Fathers: An Age of Realism

2. Thomas Jefferson: The Aristocrat as Democrat

3. Andrew Jackson and the Rise of Liberal Capitalism

4. John C. Calhoun: The Marx of the Master Class

5. Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth

6. Wendell Philiips: The Patrician as Agitator

7. The Spoilsmen: An Age of Cynicism

8. William Jennings Bryan: The Democrat as Revivalist

9. Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservative as Progressive

10. Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal

11. Herbert Hoover and the Crisis of American Individualism

12. Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Patrician as Opportunist

About

The American Political Tradition is one of the most influential and widely read historical volumes of our time. First published in 1948, its elegance, passion, and iconoclastic erudition laid the groundwork for a totally new understanding of the American past. By writing a "kind of intellectual history of the assumptions behind American politics," Richard Hofstadter changed the way Americans understand the relationship between power and ideas in their national experience. Like only a handful of American historians before him—Frederick Jackson Turner and Charles A. Beard are examples—Hofstadter was able to articulate, in a single work, a historical vision that inspired and shaped an entire generation.

Author

Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) was one of the leading American historians and intellectuals of the twentieth century. Throughout his career, he worked at many universities, most recently as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. His works include the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Reform and Anti-intellectualism in American Life. View titles by Richard Hofstadter

Table of Contents

1. The Founding Fathers: An Age of Realism

2. Thomas Jefferson: The Aristocrat as Democrat

3. Andrew Jackson and the Rise of Liberal Capitalism

4. John C. Calhoun: The Marx of the Master Class

5. Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth

6. Wendell Philiips: The Patrician as Agitator

7. The Spoilsmen: An Age of Cynicism

8. William Jennings Bryan: The Democrat as Revivalist

9. Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservative as Progressive

10. Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal

11. Herbert Hoover and the Crisis of American Individualism

12. Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Patrician as Opportunist

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