Essay Database

Richard Hofstadter's The American Political Tradition, like all his other writings, was greatly influenced by the ideology of the time period in which he wrote. The book was written at a time when progressive ideas were the most prevalent school of thought. Hofstadter was part of a growing number of writers who challenged these self-glorifying ideas. In the mid-thirties America had lost practically all critical content in favor of a "resurgence of American cultural chauvinism, …

…on Abraham Lincoln, where he pointed out that the American hero was not without flaws, Wendell Phillips, where he criticized Phillip's critics, and The Spoilsmen, in which he revealed the harsh reality of industrialization and its effect on politics and the economy. Hofstadter was part of a cynical undertow in a wave of progressive writing. The American Political Tradition is a very satisfying contradiction to all the hero praising, progressive historical writings of its time.