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The Paranoid Style in American Politics
  • Published: 25 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241802007
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $28.99
Categories:

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

Formats & editions
Paperback
25 Aug 2026
EBook
28 May 2026
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The classic - and very funny - account of the dark side of American politics

'American political life … has served again and again as an arena for uncommonly angry minds'

How can a country be captured by rumours, surreal conspiracy theories and the most brazen of conmen? The historian Richard Hofstadter asked these questions in the 1960s, amid fears of rising extremism in America. Yet his dazzling dissection of the paranoid worldview – a brew of overheated exaggeration, suspicion and perceived victimhood, which can derail entire nations – is a lesson for the ages in the seductive politics of the irrational.

In an era where we feel assailed by endless paranoid public statements, Hofstadter’s discussion of famous and obscure untruths, some of which have profoundly impacted American domestic and foreign policy, provide the antidote for the present day.
  • Published: 25 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241802007
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $28.99
Categories:

About the author

Richard Hofstadter

Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) was one of the leading American historians and intellectuals of the twentieth century. Throughout his career, he worked at many universities, most recently as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. His works include the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Reform and Anti-intellectualism in American Life.
RH

Also by Richard Hofstadter

The Paranoid Style in American Politics: An Essay
American Violence
Progressive Historians
Great Issues in American History, Vol. III
Great Issues in American History, Vol. II
The American Political Tradition
Great Issues in American History, Vol. I
See all

Praise for The Paranoid Style in American Politics

Hofstadter's essays... are calm, clear, dispassionate and devastating - and a joy to read

Harper's

Hofstadter's status theory helps us understand a political history that goes far beyond the issues of the fifties and sixties which it was invoked to explain

New Republic

The Paranoid Style in American Politics remains a singular and powerful part of Hofstadter's formidable intellectual legacy. If we are to grasp the toxic undercurrents that still run through [American] national politics today, it is an excellent place to start for lessons about a democratic world gone wrong

Sean Wilentz