Re: Hofstadter

mike larkin wrote:

When I was in college, late 80s, early 90s, my lefty professors were pretty condescending towards Hofstadter as a consensus historian and proto-neocon. But I remember liking his psychological angle (I also liked Christopher Lasch.) Besides, I never got the extreme hostility to the “consensus” approach. There are obviously things that hold most Americans together.

I like the psycho-angle myself, of course. And Americans believe, or say they believe, a lot of things out of a spirit of belonging. I wish they didn’t, but they do, so we might as well understand it.

Doug

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