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Richard Hofstadter. Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916 – October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century. Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. Rejecting his earlier historical materialist approach to history, in the 1950s he came closer ...
Richard Hofstadter (born Aug. 6, 1916, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 24, 1970, New York City) was a U.S. historian whose popular books on the political, social, and intellectual trends in U.S. history garnered two Pulitzer Prizes.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Richard Hofstadter was DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. His book “Anti-intellectualism in American Life” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1964.
Richard Hofstadter’s stature, not only as a leading American historian but as a public intellectual who represented Columbia at its best in his time, is shown by the extraordinary honor done him when he was asked to give the commencement address in the spring of 1968.
Learn about Richard Hofstadter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and a core member of the postwar Columbia intellectuals. Explore his influential books on American political and cultural history, his role as a mentor and defender of free inquiry, and his oral history interview.
Richard Hofstadter (1916-70) was America’s most distinguished historian of the twentieth century. The author of several groundbreaking books, including The American Political Tradition, he was a vigorous champion of the liberal politics that emerged from the New Deal.
Sean Wilentz, editor of a Library of America series on historian Richard Hofstadter, discusses his relevance for today's politics. He highlights Hofstadter's books on anti-intellectualism and the paranoid style in American life and their connection to Trump and social media.
