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Great Issues in American History #1
Great Issues in American History 1: From Settlement to Revolution 1584-1776
This first volume of Great Issues in American History -- three volumes of documents that cover the history of America from its settlement to the present -- gives us a generous sampling from the major political controversies in the Colonial period. Included are such documents as Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse of Western Planting" (1584), "Letter from Christopher Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain" (undated, probably 1694), "The Third Virginia Charter" (1612), Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" (1776) and "The Declaration of independence" (July 4, 1776). Each has an explanatory headnote, and there are brief general introductions that set the selections in their historical context.
In order to fit both Colonial and Early National courses, documents covering 1765-1776 appear at the end of this volume and again at the beginning of Volume II.
Volume II From the Revolution to the Civil War, 1765-1865 Edited by Richard Hofstadter
Volume III From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1981
Edited by Richard Hofstadter and Beatrice K. Hofstadter
In order to fit both Colonial and Early National courses, documents covering 1765-1776 appear at the end of this volume and again at the beginning of Volume II.
Volume II From the Revolution to the Civil War, 1765-1865 Edited by Richard Hofstadter
Volume III From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1981
Edited by Richard Hofstadter and Beatrice K. Hofstadter
512 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1969
About the author
Richard Hofstadter
88 books298 followersRichard Hofstadter was an American public intellectual, historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. In the course of his career, Hofstadter became the “iconic historian of postwar liberal consensus” whom twenty-first century scholars continue consulting, because his intellectually engaging books and essays continue to illuminate contemporary history.
His most important works are Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (1944); The American Political Tradition (1948); The Age of Reform (1955); Anti-intellectualism in American Life (1963), and the essays collected in The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964). He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize: in 1956 for The Age of Reform, an unsentimental analysis of the populism movement in the 1890s and the progressive movement of the early 20th century; and in 1964 for the cultural history, Anti-intellectualism in American Life.
Richard Hofstadter was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1916 to a German American Lutheran mother and a Polish Jewish father, who died when he was ten. He attended the City Honors School, then studied philosophy and history at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1933, under the diplomatic historian Julius Pratt. As he matured, he culturally identified himself primarily as a Jew, rather than as a Protestant Christian, a stance that eventually may have cost him professorships at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley, because of the institutional antisemitism of the 1940s.
As a man of his time, Richard Hofstadter was a Communist, and a member of the Young Communist League at university, and later progressed to Communist Party membership. In 1936, he entered the doctoral program in history at Columbia University, where Merle Curti was demonstrating how to synthesize intellectual, social, and political history based upon secondary sources rather than primary-source archival research. In 1938, he joined the Communist Party of the USA, yet realistically qualified his action: “I join without enthusiasm, but with a sense of obligation.... My fundamental reason for joining is that I don’t like capitalism and want to get rid of it. I am tired of talking.... The party is making a very profound contribution to the radicalization of the American people.... I prefer to go along with it now.” In late 1939, he ended the Communist stage of his life, because of the Soviet–Nazi alliance. He remained anti-capitalist: “I hate capitalism and everything that goes with it.”
In 1942, he earned his doctorate in history and in 1944 published his dissertation Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915, a pithy and commercially successful (200,000 copies) critique of late 19th century American capitalism and those who espoused its ruthless “dog-eat-dog” economic competition and justified themselves by invoking the doctrine of as Social Darwinism, identified with William Graham Sumner. Conservative critics, such as Irwin G. Wylie and Robert C. Bannister, however, disagree with this interpretation.
His most important works are Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (1944); The American Political Tradition (1948); The Age of Reform (1955); Anti-intellectualism in American Life (1963), and the essays collected in The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964). He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize: in 1956 for The Age of Reform, an unsentimental analysis of the populism movement in the 1890s and the progressive movement of the early 20th century; and in 1964 for the cultural history, Anti-intellectualism in American Life.
Richard Hofstadter was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1916 to a German American Lutheran mother and a Polish Jewish father, who died when he was ten. He attended the City Honors School, then studied philosophy and history at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1933, under the diplomatic historian Julius Pratt. As he matured, he culturally identified himself primarily as a Jew, rather than as a Protestant Christian, a stance that eventually may have cost him professorships at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley, because of the institutional antisemitism of the 1940s.
As a man of his time, Richard Hofstadter was a Communist, and a member of the Young Communist League at university, and later progressed to Communist Party membership. In 1936, he entered the doctoral program in history at Columbia University, where Merle Curti was demonstrating how to synthesize intellectual, social, and political history based upon secondary sources rather than primary-source archival research. In 1938, he joined the Communist Party of the USA, yet realistically qualified his action: “I join without enthusiasm, but with a sense of obligation.... My fundamental reason for joining is that I don’t like capitalism and want to get rid of it. I am tired of talking.... The party is making a very profound contribution to the radicalization of the American people.... I prefer to go along with it now.” In late 1939, he ended the Communist stage of his life, because of the Soviet–Nazi alliance. He remained anti-capitalist: “I hate capitalism and everything that goes with it.”
In 1942, he earned his doctorate in history and in 1944 published his dissertation Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915, a pithy and commercially successful (200,000 copies) critique of late 19th century American capitalism and those who espoused its ruthless “dog-eat-dog” economic competition and justified themselves by invoking the doctrine of as Social Darwinism, identified with William Graham Sumner. Conservative critics, such as Irwin G. Wylie and Robert C. Bannister, however, disagree with this interpretation.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 25, 2024
This is really three stars (three and a half?), but the content is much too important to round down. Yes, much of it is dull, turgid, a mess of wavering declarations that have lost all meaning as time has passed.
But that's certainly not all of them.
There is a great deal to learn by going over the beliefs of the pre-revolutionary years of America. So much has happened, so much has changed, and an enormous amount has stayed they same, although covered over and distracted by the impossibilty of relating to 17th and 18th century times.
Here's what I gleaned, and it will not surprise a number of people, in particular with either selfish or anarchistic minds: America was founded based by people who did not want to pay taxes.
Yes, yes, and all that, and we know it's true because we still do not want to pay them. We ask ourselves, what do we pay for? Where does our money go? We often wind up thinking some civil servant, or parlimentary organization simply steals from us, or throws it away, or invests in services and projects we have no interest in supporting. Just like the royal subjects in pre-America America did.
Of course most of the taxes went to the same places they do today (although of course at a smaller scale, and far less complicated and diversified). They fixed roads, built up public lands, provided farm subsidies, paid for firefighters and police. They even paid teachers, and provided school necessities, although of course in those early days that was only for the rich who, in that time, paid much more in taxes than the laborer slopping horse shit off the streets, who was also paid with tax dollars.
Reading these papers, one gets an idea of the developing American character, and can see the looming horror of so much of what we have become. There is an awful selfishness displayed alongside great nobility and a passion for freedom for everyone--including a disgust for slavery. The end of slavery was shouted down by a few southern voices who threatened to side with England in the revolutionary war if they did not have their way, notably Georgia and the Carolinas.
There is a treacherous bipolar nature to the founding of America displayed in the different papers collected in this valuable volume. There is the glory of freedom subdued by the captains of industry denouncing their workers. There are great opportunities alongside the stagnation of life, and the inability to progress if you start from nowhere. There is no shadow of us today in the past. There is a reflection. Put on your tri-corner hats and stockings and powdered wigs, and look at yourself. The idea of America has changed very little from those days. And for those rah-rahing patriots, shouting with their flags on their trucks, and outrageous bumper stickers, and threatening ideas shreiking "We're Number One!" and "America First!" they should realize what that really means in a predatory world that takes advantage of isolationism.
As I said, this book is far too important, no matter how dry in most places, to ever round down or ignore.
But that's certainly not all of them.
There is a great deal to learn by going over the beliefs of the pre-revolutionary years of America. So much has happened, so much has changed, and an enormous amount has stayed they same, although covered over and distracted by the impossibilty of relating to 17th and 18th century times.
Here's what I gleaned, and it will not surprise a number of people, in particular with either selfish or anarchistic minds: America was founded based by people who did not want to pay taxes.
Yes, yes, and all that, and we know it's true because we still do not want to pay them. We ask ourselves, what do we pay for? Where does our money go? We often wind up thinking some civil servant, or parlimentary organization simply steals from us, or throws it away, or invests in services and projects we have no interest in supporting. Just like the royal subjects in pre-America America did.
Of course most of the taxes went to the same places they do today (although of course at a smaller scale, and far less complicated and diversified). They fixed roads, built up public lands, provided farm subsidies, paid for firefighters and police. They even paid teachers, and provided school necessities, although of course in those early days that was only for the rich who, in that time, paid much more in taxes than the laborer slopping horse shit off the streets, who was also paid with tax dollars.
Reading these papers, one gets an idea of the developing American character, and can see the looming horror of so much of what we have become. There is an awful selfishness displayed alongside great nobility and a passion for freedom for everyone--including a disgust for slavery. The end of slavery was shouted down by a few southern voices who threatened to side with England in the revolutionary war if they did not have their way, notably Georgia and the Carolinas.
There is a treacherous bipolar nature to the founding of America displayed in the different papers collected in this valuable volume. There is the glory of freedom subdued by the captains of industry denouncing their workers. There are great opportunities alongside the stagnation of life, and the inability to progress if you start from nowhere. There is no shadow of us today in the past. There is a reflection. Put on your tri-corner hats and stockings and powdered wigs, and look at yourself. The idea of America has changed very little from those days. And for those rah-rahing patriots, shouting with their flags on their trucks, and outrageous bumper stickers, and threatening ideas shreiking "We're Number One!" and "America First!" they should realize what that really means in a predatory world that takes advantage of isolationism.
As I said, this book is far too important, no matter how dry in most places, to ever round down or ignore.
December 27, 2007
History's not my strong suit, but it was helpful.
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July 31, 2010Great Issues in American History, Vol. I: From Settlement to Revolution, 1584-1776 by Richard Hofstadter (1969)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews