Fw: [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Notfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind

Jesse Lemisch utopia1 at attglobal.net
Tue Oct 10 13:53:23 PDT 2006


----- Original Message -----

Good, Jerry. I must have missed Doug's postings on this, but it sounds all wrong. And yr message below reminds me of the involvement of European emigres in this stuff, seeing the New Left as Germany in 1933. At our anti-draft sit-in at the U of Chicago in 1966, a noted anthropologist called us "storm troopers," and that was common.

Jesse Lemisch

----- Original Message -----

From: Jerry Monaco

To: utopia1 at attglobal.net

Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 4:25 PM

Subject: Fwd: [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Notfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind

Jesse

I think the book was called The intellectuals and McCarthy: the radical specter . Just a minor correction.

I read that book and Hofstadter more than 30 years ago when I was still in high school.

Please correct me Doug.

I accept Doug's defense of Hofstadter but I have to say in my memory Hofstadter did not even try to comprehend the Populist movement in the U.S. He was looking at Populism for roots of intellectual-cultural trends.

I think that the aftermath of fascism, the rise of the second Red Scare, and the currency of popular racism brought Hofstadter to emphasize mos forcely only one side of the Populists, the side that helped to explain current treds. It seems to me that the thesis of the time was that Populism led to the popular racism of the Dixiecrats and Hofstadter accepted that thesis.. Doug am I wrong that Hof simply accepted this? I think that this thesis is one sided to say the least.

And wasn't there a collective side to the Populists? At least in their beliefs about how finance capital should be regulated and in how there should be cooperative wholesale and retail distribution?

I don't remember Rogin's book concentrating on Hofstadter but I do remember the thesis that the post World War II red scare was driven by elites and that McCarthy was a late comer who only picked things up when he knew it could make his name.

My memory of both Hofstadter and Rogin could be completely wrong. My memory is often wrong.

Jerry

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Jesse Lemisch <utopia1 at attglobal.net>

Date: Oct 10, 2006 3:32 PM

Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Notfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind

To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Has anyone on this thread cited Michael Rogin's McCarthy and the

Intellectuals, a rigorous study by an unfortunately prematurely dead

Berkeley political scientist. This takes apart Hofstadter et al and shows

that McCarthyism commenced in elites rather than from the grass roots. And

James Weinstein and a collaborator had a classic article on how slow

McCarthy was to pick up anti-Communism, becoming alerted to the issue in

part by Norman Thomas.

Jesse Lemisch

----- Original Message -----

From: "Doug Henwood" < dhenwood at panix.com>

> He points out that American populism is a political ideology of petty

> producers - and rightly, I think, underscores the radical departure

> of the New Deal from the individualist roots of American radicalism

> for something much more collective. That kind of collectivism, which

> lasted into the 1970s, is exactly what the New Right has been trying

> to reverse all along, and they've accomplished a good bit of the

> task. Hof's emphasis on the individualism of American white

> protestantism is highly relevant now - it illuminates what's the

> matter with Kansas, since American white protestants love The Market

> as an instrument of reward and discipline. That love is not some

> recent confidence trick perpetrated by Karl Rove, but has deep roots.

>

> Doug

>

>

> ___________________________________

> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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