The American Political Tradition

"I read this when I was a teenager. My father had it on his shelf. I’m sure it’s been superseded in the scholarly world by more up-to-date work, but Hofstadter is a great writer. He’s someone who is both an interpreter of historical figures, but also helped shaped the progressive tradition in America. The book is about a paradox that runs through American history, that a lot of progressive change and reform has happened over the years even though as a country we’ve never had a politically influential left-wing. There has never been a radical takeover of the government. Hofstadter explores those paradoxes – how reform and conservatism can co-exist, how a country that was founded in a revolution can become, in some ways, so consensus-oriented. How it is that change happens in a country that seems resistant to it. Also, in a lot of ways, you should see FDR as a conservator of the American tradition. He was not so much a driver of radical change. The country was in a desperate state by the time he was elected. And somewhat against his family background, his personal inclinations and everything else, he implemented lots and lots of changes. But the purpose of all that was to keep in place the American system. The US emerged from World War II a very different country from what we were before, yet less transformed than the rest of the developed world. That, in some ways, was FDR’s signature achievement. Yes. When I look at the complaints different people have about President Obama, I think that – in terms of Hofstadter’s book – there has never been an American president who the left-wing people of his era were super-pleased with. It’s not new to Obama, it wasn’t new to Bill Clinton, it wasn’t new to FDR or Abraham Lincoln. All these people became key reformers in our history, but there was never a moment when the left actually broke through and ran the show. It’s an interesting fact about our history in this country. It’s difficult to understand, although I think the Hacker and Pierson book on my list helps us understand some of it."