Under the Direction of Professor David A
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ABSTRACT MEDLIN, ERIC PATRICK. The Historian and the Liberal Intellectual: Power and Postwar American Historians, 1948-1975. (Under the direction of Professor David A. Zonderman.) Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Richard Hofstadter, and Daniel Boorstin were three of the most influential American historians of the post-World War II period. They sold millions of books, influenced historiographic debates, and filled prominent positions in society and government. Schlesinger spent two years as a special adviser to President Kennedy, Hofstadter served on the board of the forerunner to PBS, and Boorstin became the first historian to be appointed Librarian of Congress. Over the past five decades, historians have characterized these writers as conservative academics who focused on consensus and agreement in American history. My work challenges that notion. In this thesis, I analyze the writings, speeches, and personal correspondence of Schlesinger, Hofstadter, and Boorstin between 1945 and 1975. My study focuses on both their political ideas and their roles in society. I look at how their work articulated different arguments for and ideas about liberalism during this period. I argue that their positions and roles in society changed in response to their ideas about what society needed from intellectuals. I also argue that the experiences and successes of these figures a provide a template for contemporary public intellectuals who desire both academic and public relevance. © Copyright 2017 by Eric Patrick Medlin All Rights Reserved The Historian and the Liberal Intellectual: Power and Postwar American Historians, 1948-1975 by Eric Patrick Medlin A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts History Raleigh, North Carolina 2017 APPROVED BY: ____________________________ ____________________________ Julia E. Rudolph K. Steven Vincent ____________________________ David A. Zonderman Chair of Advisory Committee ii BIOGRAPHY Eric Medlin graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in history and religious studies. He was granted honors for an undergraduate thesis on the influence of Europe on the American People's Party of the late 1800s. He enrolled at North Carolina State University in 2015, where he worked with Professor David Zonderman. At NC State, Eric also worked as a teaching assistant, organized the NC State History Weekend in 2016, and served as co-president of the NC State History Graduate Student Association. As co-president, he was Program Chair of the 2017 NC State History Graduate Student Conference. Eric’s scholarly interests involve the intersections between academia, public intellectuals, and political power. His work explores the ways in which intellectuals shape both the political process and the ideas of the greater public. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completing a project of this length and breadth cannot be done alone. I would like to thank Professors David Zonderman, Julia Rudolph, Steven Vincent, and the late Walter Jackson of NC State University for their constant attention, encouragement, and insight. I would also like to thank Professors Molly Worthen and Lloyd Kramer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their help narrowing my topic and beginning my research. In the course of this project, I visited several archives whose staff deserve recognition. Thanks to Cindy Levine from D. H. Hill Library at NC State, along with the staff at Columbia University’s Butler Library, the New York Public Library, Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Library of Congress for aiding my research. I would also like to give special thanks to William Leuchtenburg and Eric Foner, who both allowed me to interview them for this project. Meeting with them gave me personal insights into the historians I studied, and I cannot thank them enough for giving me their valuable time and information. Also, thanks are in order for my proofreader, Susan Rodriguez, who read and made corrections to my drafts. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, Julia Medlin, for her constant support for me as both a history student and a son. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Richard Hofstadter: Liberal Pragmatist ................................................................. 12 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 12 Early Life and Career .......................................................................................................... 16 Rise to Prominence ............................................................................................................. 19 The Pragmatic Shift ............................................................................................................ 30 A New Role......................................................................................................................... 41 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 2. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and the Evolution of a Liberal Intellectual ........................ 48 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 48 Schlesinger as Historian ...................................................................................................... 52 Schlesinger as Public Intellectual ....................................................................................... 56 The 1960 Election and a Shift in Allegiance ...................................................................... 67 A New Epoch of Power ...................................................................................................... 70 Walter Lippmann: Intellectual Archetype .......................................................................... 72 The “New Politics” and Beyond ......................................................................................... 77 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 3: Daniel Boorstin and the Eccentric Liberal ............................................................ 84 v Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 84 Background and Early Career ............................................................................................. 88 Genius and Consensus ........................................................................................................ 89 Historical Writing and Boorstin’s Liberalism..................................................................... 92 Boorstin as Public Intellectual ............................................................................................ 99 Boorstin and the Student Protests ..................................................................................... 103 Boorstin as Consultant ...................................................................................................... 106 The Intellectual and the Museum ...................................................................................... 108 Boorstin as Administrator ................................................................................................. 111 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 114 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 115 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 117 1 Introduction During the American presidential campaign of 2016, three concepts originally introduced in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s received extensive coverage in national magazines and newspapers. The prominence of paranoia and conspiracy theories in the campaign led several commenters to discuss the “paranoid style” in American politics, first described in 1963 by Richard Hofstadter.1 Political strategist Karl Rove and others characterized the campaign of future president Donald Trump as a “pseudo-event,” a term Daniel Boorstin used in 1962 to describe celebrities and media events.2 Lastly, several observers noted the threat that populist movements posed to accepted democratic norms in the nation’s “vital center,” a concept Arthur Schlesinger Jr. used in 1949 to refer to the rejection of totalitarianism by both the left and the right.3 These instances all show that the ideas introduced by Schlesinger, Boorstin, and Hofstadter decades ago still hold relevance to us today, and it is therefore worthwhile to explore how these historians developed their concepts. 1 Thomas Edsall, “The Paranoid Style Is Back,” New York Times, September 8, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/opinion/campaign-stops/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics-is- back.html?_r=0. 2 Election night coverage, Fox News, November 8, 2016, as described in “Did U. of C. Professor Predict Trump Victory – In 1962?” DNAinfo, November 9, 2016. https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161109/hyde-park/did-u-of-c-professor-predict-trump-victory-1962.