The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Other Essays - Softcover

Hofstadter, Richard

4.16

1,341 ratings by Goodreads

9780226348179: The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Other Essays

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226348172 ISBN 13: 9780226348179

Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr, 1979

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"The distinguishing thing about the paranoid style is not that its exponents see conspiracies or plots here and there in history, but that they regard a vast' or gigantic' conspiracy as the "motive force" in historical events...The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of this conspiracy in apocalyptic terms--he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization." --From the book

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Recent months have witnessed an attack of unprecedented passion and ferocity against the national government. The Republican Party has apparently embarked on a crusade to destroy national standards, national projects, and national regulations and to transfer domestic governing authority from the national government to the states...Unbridled rhetoric is having consequences far beyond anything that antigovernment politicians intend. The flow of angry words seems to have activated and, in a sense, legitimized what the historian Richard Hofstadter called the paranoid strain' in American politics.--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr."Wall Street Journal" (06/07/1995)

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