Richard Hofstadter papers, 1944-1970
Summary Information
At a Glance
- Call No.:
- MS#0603
- Bib ID:
- 4079537 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Hofstadter, Richard, 1916-1970
- Repository:
- Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Physical Description:
- 29 linear feet (47 document boxes (CC1, UC1-9, 1-37), 5 record storage cartons of books)
- Language(s):
- English .
- Access:
- You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
-
Cataloged and arranged material (boxes CC1, UC1-9, 1-37) is located on-site. Five boxes of books (B1-B5) are off-site, and need to be requested at least three business days in advance to use the materials in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Description
Summary
Correspondence, manuscripts, and notes. This collection contains the manuscripts for most of his books and articles. There are also copies of his many book reviews and articles by other authors analyzing the impact of his interpretations of American history. The correspondents include: H.S. Commager, C. Vann Woodward, Stuart Bruchey, S.E. Morison, Clarence Ver Steeg, Alfred A. Knopf, Helen Frankenthaler, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and others. There are also 70 books from his library
Arrangement
Selected materials cataloged; remainder arranged.
- Series I: Cataloged Correspondence
- Series II: Uncataloged Correspondence
- Series III: Manuscripts
- Series IV: Books
Using the Collection
Restrictions on Access
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
Cataloged and arranged material (boxes CC1, UC1-9, 1-37) is located on-site. Five boxes of books (B1-B5) are off-site, and need to be requested at least three business days in advance to use the materials in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Richard Hofstadter papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Related Materials
"The Nature of American Extreme Right Wing Groups" by Richard Hofstatder for the Fund for the Republic. Typed manuscript (carbon), with mss. Corrections, 89 pages. Gift of Fritz Stern. Found in the General Manuscripts Collection (MS#0001, Box 66).
Accruals
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Ownership and Custodial History
Gift of Richard Hofstadter, 1963 & 1966.
Gift of Mrs Richard Hofstadter, 1971, 1974& 1984.
Transferred from the Burgess-Carpenter Library, 1986.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source of acquisition--Hofstadter, Richard. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1963. Accession number--M-1963.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processing Information
Processed BRC 06/--/86.
Revision Description
2020-03-10 PDF replaced with encoded finding aid. kws
Biographical / Historical
The historian Richard Hofstadter was a core member of the group of postwar Columbia intellectuals that included Lionel Trilling, Jacques Barzun, Robert Merton, and Daniel Bell. At a time when politics were assumed essentially to reflect economic interests, Hofstadter began studying alternative explanations for political conduct: unconscious motives, status anxieties, irrational hatreds, paranoia. Hofstadter wrote some of the most influential books to appear in American political and cultural history, among them "The Age of Reform" (1955) and "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" (1963), both recognized with Pulitzer Prizes, and the celebrated "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" (1965). His "American Political Tradition (1948), an enduring classic, remains today a standard work in both college and high-school history classes and has been read by millions outside the academy.
After earning his MA and PhD from Columbia, Hofstadter joined the faculty in 1946. He was named the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History in 1959 and remained at the University until his untimely death from leukemia in 1970. Many of Hofstadter's graduate students have gone on to important scholarship and teaching. One of them, Eric Foner, the current DeWitt Clinton Professor, says"He played brilliantly the role of intellectual mentor so critical to any student's graduate career. For all his accomplishments, he was utterly without pretension, always unintimidating, never too busy to talk about one's work." In 1968, following the campus disruptions that spring, Hofstadter delivered the commencement address, in which he defended Columbia as "a center of free inquiry and criticism--a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.".
Subject Headings
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