Richard Hofstadter: Invoked by Susan Jacoby in her new book against anti-intellectualism
The late historian Richard Hofstadter is something of an American icon, so invoking him is sure to bring notice. In 1963, Hofstadter published Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Knopf), his classic study of America's distrust of pursuits of the mind. Susan Jacoby recalls in her new book, The Age of American Unreason (Pantheon), being moved when she first read Hofstadter as a college student, in particular by his optimistic conclusion that the "openness and generosity" of America's liberal society would remain hospitable to a "variety of styles of intellectual life."
Forty-some years later, Jacoby sees herself extending Hofstadter's work but no longer shares his optimism. "It is difficult to suppress the fear that the scales of American history have shifted heavily against the vibrant and varied intellectual life so essential to functional democracy," the former reporter for The Washington Post writes, lamenting "the videoization of everything" in an "aliterate" society in which people have no interest in reading books. She also takes aim at religion for nurturing, she argues, disdain for reason and evidence. It should come as no surprise that her sharp-elbowed polemic has provoked response....
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
Forty-some years later, Jacoby sees herself extending Hofstadter's work but no longer shares his optimism. "It is difficult to suppress the fear that the scales of American history have shifted heavily against the vibrant and varied intellectual life so essential to functional democracy," the former reporter for The Washington Post writes, lamenting "the videoization of everything" in an "aliterate" society in which people have no interest in reading books. She also takes aim at religion for nurturing, she argues, disdain for reason and evidence. It should come as no surprise that her sharp-elbowed polemic has provoked response....