Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916 – October 24, 1970), American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century, was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University.
In the 1950s, he came closer to the concept of “consensus history,” and was epitomized by some of his admirers as the “iconic historian of postwar liberal consensus.”
He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize, first in 1956 for The Age of Reform, an analysis of the populism movement in the 1890s and the progressive movement of the early 20th century.
The second Pulitzer was in 1964 for the cultural history Anti-intellectualism in American Life. In this book, he documented the inherent resistance to high culture in American society.
Hofstadter set out to trace the social movements that altered the role of intellect in American society. He explored questions regarding the purpose of education and whether the democratization of education altered that purpose and reshaped its form.
In considering the historic tension between access to education and excellence in education, Hofstadter argued that both anti-intellectualism and utilitarianism were consequences, in part, of the democratization of knowledge.
Moreover, he saw these themes as historically embedded in America’s national fabric, resulting from its colonial European and evangelical Protestant heritage. He contended that American Protestantism’s anti-intellectual tradition valued the spirit over intellectual rigor.
Hofstadter described anti-intellectualism as “resentment of the life of the mind, and those who are considered to represent it; a disposition to constantly minimize the value of that life.”
The term reflects a view that “intellectuals are pretentious, conceited, and snobbish; and very likely immoral, dangerous, and subversive … The plain sense of the common man is an altogether adequate substitute for, if not actually much superior to, formal knowledge and expertise.”
