Book

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

and Other Essays

Richard Hofstadter

1964

Associated Ideas, People, and Places

Book Review

The Paranoid Style: Rereading Richard Hofstadter in the Aftermath of January 6

How a book of essays from 1964 explains what happened at the Capitol.

by Bennett Parten via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 13, 2021
Debunk

What Richard Hofstadter Got Wrong

The late historian and author of “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” misdiagnosed the fate of modern conservatism.

by Chris Lehmann via The New Republic on April 16, 2020
Argument

Donald Trump and the 'Paranoid Style' in American (Intellectual) Politics

Revisiting Holfstadter's "paranoid style" in the era of Trump.

by Leo P. Ribuffo via The International Security Studies Forum on June 13, 2017

Viewing 1–6 of 6

"Impeach Earl Warren" billboard by the John Birch Society.

Rise of the Far-Right Ultras

A new book shows just how porous the dividing line has been between the far right and mainstream conservatism.

by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on January 11, 2022

QAnon proponent and Trump supporters

Bad Information

Conspiracy theories like QAnon are ultimately a social problem rather than a cognitive one. We should blame politics, not the faulty reasoning of individuals.

by Nicolas Guilhot via Boston Review on August 23, 2021

Collage of faces and red, white, and blue themes.

Richard Hofstadter’s Discontents

Why did the historian come to fear the very movements he once would have celebrated?

by Jeet Heer via The Nation on October 6, 2020

A photograph of Richard Hofstadter in front of a library of books.

Politics, Populism, and the Life of the Mind

An interview with Sean Wilentz on Library of America's new collection of Richard Hofstadter's works.

by Sean Wilentz, Daniel Wortel-London via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on July 27, 2020

Nativism, Violence, and the Origins of the Paranoid Style

How a lurid 19th-century memoir of sexual abuse produced one of the ugliest features of American politics.

by Mike Mariani via Slate on March 22, 2017

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy speaking

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

It had been around a long time before the Radical Right discovered it.

by Richard Hofstadter via Harper’s on November 1, 1964

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