This marvelous series of essays on American leaders made Richard Hofstadter's reputation as one of the most important young historians in the country during the late-1940's. Professor Hofstadter took on this assignment at a very early age. He was only 28 years old when he started this book, now a bit of a cult classic in American history, and finished it when he was 32. In spite of his youth, he clearly had fully formed opinions on what drives American politics. Hofstadter throws new lights on American history in a series of twelve finely-drawn portraits, mostly of Presidents but one of a stern moralist, Wendell Phillips, and one of a constantly disappointed Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan.
In each of these sketches, all masterful in their unique viewpoints and careful analytical approach, Hofstadter sees similarities that quickly bubble to the surface. In all of them, the consistent struggle is that of the conflict between differing views of economic organization. That is the prism through which Hofstadter constructs his view of American political development. In all of this, we are treated to a great ride through our nation's history from an historian who refuses to tell the familiar story but reaches for an understanding of how opinions change over time.
Jefferson, the great Virginia aristocrat, is as clear and eloquent as any of the founders in his defense of the common man, both his rights and his liberties. But of course Jefferson's love of liberty had its clear limits: he was a lifelong slaveowner and almost assuredly the father of one of his slave's children. Andrew Jackson struggles for the common man, dismantling the Bank of the United States, but Hofstadter reminds us that Jackson's early days were spent defending the rights of the propertied class.
John C. Calhoun is presented as the most artful defender of slavery, an institution that had, apart from its heinous and inexcusable human consequences, the effect of sharply reducing the cost of labor in cotton farming, a highly labor-intensive industry. We see the emerging clash between the North and the South as an economic argument. Curiously, Calhoun is also presented as a Unionist but he wanted a special kind of Union, one dominated by the South not the North. Here again, Hofstadter's take on Calhoun presents him in a quite different light than the most portraits of the Great Nullifier.
It is Hofstadter's analysis of Lincoln that most arrests the attention of any student of American history. Hofstadter calls the Emancipation Proclamation not much more than a "bill of lading". It called for emancipation not because slavery was wrong but only that the emancipation of the slaves was required for "military necessity". Only those slaves in the disloyal Southern states were to be freed. Slaves in the loyal Border States were not touched by the Proclamation. His hesitation to fully address the moral wrongness of slavery is based on electoral politics, according to Hofstadter. The most important source of Lincoln's electoral strength was centered in the Midwestern (then referred to as "Northwestern") parts of the country, where voters feared that the institution of slavery, if it spread to other parts of the country, would depress wages and result in more intense competition for jobs. It was not the moral wrongness of slavery that Lincoln initially appealed to but to a more convincing economic argument. Nevertheless, Hofstadter eventually focuses on Lincoln's slow turn to the abolition of slavery in all parts of the country. But we are left with a portrait of Lincoln, probably our greatest president, that is at times frustratingly nuanced.
Hofstadter's discussion of the emerging strand of progressivism in American politics develops slowly. The post-Civil War period was perhaps the most dynamic period of industrial development in the nation's history. Only by the end of the nineteenth century did the voice of the common man find its full volume. William Jennings Bryan was this voice but his career never achieved its full potential. Bryan, three times the nominee of the Democratic party, failed in his most important quest: to change the monetary system of the country from one based on gold to a more accomodating system. Hofstadter's discussion of Bryan is a sad interlude between the magnificence of Lincoln and the emergence of Theodore Roosevelt.
This is perhaps the most puzzling of Hofstadter's portraits. Roosevelt is here presented as a conservative. He opposes bills to raise the salaries of police and civil employees. He guards against the potential violence of labor strikes and urges firing live bullets at striking workers, if necessary. He enters the Presidency with no strong position on the problems caused by corporate power. In fact, as Hofstadter relates, he admits "I have let up in every case where I have had any possible excuse for doing so." One is left with the impression, very much encouraged by Hofstadter, that Teddy was far more noise than substance. This is in stark contrast to recent biographies of Teddy; wanted to read a fuller exposition of Hofstadter's take on Roosevelt, particularly in view of the now widely-celebrated Part Three of Edmund Morgan on Roosevelt, an expansive but ultimately hagiographic study.
The final two portraits (excepting a brief piece on the immensely talented but woefully inept Herbert Hoover) are perhaps the most interesting, since they touch on issues that have emerged in the present decade.
Both Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt had clear conceptions of the use of governmental power to influence events. Wilson turned from a highly successful career as a college president to politics, almost as an afterthought. He came from an intensely conservative background, as did Roosevelt, and brought with him highly conventional views. Hofstadter traces the gradual movement of Wilson, first as a governor and then as President, towards more progressive positions, ones that infuriated business interests. He instituted the income tax, created the Federal Reserve, reduced the tariff (the first significant reduction since the Civil War), and extended control over big business with the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. Resentment against Wilson became white-hot as a result of this. This loss of trust enabled the Republican party to defeat the League of Nations treaty, a world structure that Wilson felt would be his most signal achievement. It ended badly for Wilson and Hofstadter sums it up acutely: "He said that American entrance to the war would be a world calamity, and led the nation in...He said the future... of the world depended on removing the economic causes of war, and did not attempt even to discuss these causes at the Peace Conference." Here it is again: economics rules, according to Hofstadter.
Finally, it is Franklin Roosevelt's turn for the Hofstadter lens. Here, he is at his most critical. Not only does Roosevelt seem to be naïve and practically disinterested in economic policy but he fails miserably in restoring the American economy, lurching from one unsuccessful program to another. Only with the run-up to World War does the American economy respond to governmental intervention. By now, after eleven portraits, each of which offers a different slant on the most prominent American political figures, Hofstadter's reservations about Roosevelt seem predictable and a bit forced. Nevertheless, Hofstadter's overall point is well-served: the American Political Tradition is one of compromise, constant tacking to catch the wind, shifting to capture the mood of the electorate, and growth as broader perspectives become more visible.
In all of this, Hofstadter seems to be saying that important questions are ultimately decided by society's attempt to move towards a middle ground, one where the scales of opinion reach equilibrium. He does this with a series of portraits, each of which illustrate the process of political movement. Not surprisingly, economics has determined most of the important issues of our history. Hofstadter's book is deeply satisfying and constantly interesting. It may not be the easiest read in American history but it is one of the most important.
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Bingo
I first read this book in 1955 and was bowled ...
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A surprisingly critical study of mainstreams in American politics
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2010