Anti-intellectualism in American life
by Richard Hofstadter, Adam Verner · first published 1963
13mentions
7recommended by
12HN commenters
2010–2026first – last mentioned
58% recommend42% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Traces how suspicion of intellectuals and expertise has recurred across American politics, religion, and education, examining why these attitudes persist. Written for readers of US history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Portrays the rise of anti-intellectualism in America during the McCarthy era.
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Correction: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
on “Why did the social prestige of science and engineering decline in the US?” ↗…children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT) Something else to look at - "Anti-intellectualism in American Life" (Richard Hofstadter). A great book. His tale begins with itinerant Baptist ministers traveling through the bible belt, denouncing those "New England intellectuals". Anti-Intellectualism and organized…
on “Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.?” ↗The go-to book on this is "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter: http://a.co/aJf0UKt I'd also highly recommend Sertillanges on the intellectual life: http://a.co/91XX11G
on “America's Cult of Ignorance (1980) [pdf]” ↗…elitism, so they blame those people that the options of the past aren't there anymore, and look to try to make themselves feel better. Though lots of America is fundamentally based in anti-intellectualism. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life was an eye-opening read and helped explain a lot of what I saw around me in the rural Bible Belt.
on “Nobody wants to teach anymore” ↗Anti-intellectualism is ingrained in the American societal psyche and was seen as a thing to be proud of many times in the past. Hofstadter‘s Anti-intellectualism in American Life is one of the best explanations of this process. As such, apps like TikTok are just following the target population’s specs.
on “TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids” ↗There's been a streak of anti-intellectualism in the US since the first European colonists. Richard Hofstadter's Anti-intellectualism in American Life covers it pretty well. Wikipedia has a nice quote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism#17th_cent...
on “A militarized conspiracy theorist group believes radars are 'weather weapons'” ↗trends like these remind me very much of how true some of the predictions in Douglas Hofstadter's "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" were: https://ia802903.us.archive.org/6/items/richard-hofstadter-a... he was writing in reaction to the McCarthy era which, arguably, is very similar to kind of bombastic nativism we're seeing now from…
on “There's no point at which turning your brain off will work” ↗…to apply a certain amount of intellectualism -- to be tentative, questioning, critical, contemplative, nuanced. For a definition of intellect, I have always relied on Richard Hofstadter's formula, in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life: Intellect [...] is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of mind. Whereas intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, adjust, intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes,…
on “How Intellectuals Talk” ↗It's not really new...Richard Hofstadter won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for Anti-intellectualism in American Life wherein he argued that it was fundamentally embedded into the American character due to the democratization of education and our evangelical Protestant heritage.
on “How Camus and Sartre split up over the question of how to be free” ↗> Anti-intelletualism has always lead to bad outcomes really as a whole There’s a book called “Anti-intellectualism in American Life” by Richard Hofstadter, which explores the history of this [0]. Useful talk on HN too [1]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_Americ... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20989342
on “Anatomists of Melancholy in the Age of Coronavirus” ↗I'm about 2/3 of the way through Richard Hofstadter's "Anti-intellectualism in American Life". It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964, but it's striking how many of his observations are still pertinent - which is consistent with his identification of anti-intellectualism are as persistent theme in American…
on “Anti-Intellectualism” ↗…hard to pin down a date. When I think of the current social and political trends, I'm reminded of Asimov's quote about anti-intellectualism in 1980. Or Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer-prize winning book, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life", published in *1963*. These things aren't new. They just wax and wane in power, over time, and recombine in new and interesting ways to yield long-term trends.
on “The Misuses of the University” ↗Yeah, while it's particularly bad lately, I'm remembering Richard Hofstadter's book, "Anti-intellectualism in American Life", which one the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction for tracing the religious, cultural, and economic roots of american anti-intellectualism. These problems are not new.
on “U.S. Science Is in Chaos” ↗