96-485: Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916 – October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century. Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University . Rejecting his earlier historical materialist approach to history, in the 1950s he came closer to the concept of " consensus history ", and was epitomized by some of his admirers as
192-459: A "full-blown crisis" over tensions stemming from a pro-Palestinian campus occupation . These protests at Columbia sparked similar pro-Palestinian protests at universities across the USA. As the protests expanded in scale and notoriety, students and faculty, including people of Jewish heritage, pushed back against the silencing of anti-Zionist voices and accusations of anti-semitism . This sentiment
288-545: A belief in the rights of property , the philosophy of economic individualism , the value of competition; they have accepted the economic virtues of capitalist culture as necessary qualities of man. Hofstadter later complained that this remark in a hastily written preface requested by the editor had been the reason for "lumping him" unfairly into the category of "consensus historians" like Boorstin , who celebrated this kind of ideological consensus as an achievement, whereas Hofstadter deplored it. Hofstadter expressed his dislike of
384-435: A creature suspended between gloom and fun, between disdain for the expected and mad parody." In 2008, conservative commentator George Will called Hofstadter "the iconic public intellectual of liberal condescension" who "dismissed conservatives as victims of character flaws and psychological disorders—a 'paranoid style' of politics rooted in 'status anxiety.' etc. Conservatism rose on a tide of votes cast by people irritated by
480-455: A diverse range of professional and inter-disciplinary fields. In the aftermath of World War II, the discipline of international relations became a major scholarly focus of the university, and in response, the School of International and Public Affairs was founded in 1946, drawing upon the resources of the faculties of political science, economics, and history. The Columbia University Bicentennial
576-412: A dominant vegetation type of Appalachian Oak ( 104 ) with a dominant vegetation form of Eastern Hardwood Forest ( 25 ). Columbia Transportation is the bus service of the university, operated by Academy Bus Lines . The buses are open to all Columbia faculty, students, Dodge Fitness Center members, and anyone else who holds a Columbia ID card. In addition, all TSC students can ride the buses. In
672-630: A joint investigation by the NYPD and Columbia, the school concluded that the chemical substance was a "non-toxic, legal, novelty item". On April 17, 2024, Columbia president Minouche Shafik was questioned by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the topic of antisemitism on campus. While Shafik was in Washington, DC, student activists began renewed protests, leading to what CNN described as
768-487: A locked bookcase of his works in Butler Library to him. When the library's physical conditions deteriorated, his widow Beatrice asked that it be removed. Hofstadter married Beatrice Kevitt in 1947. She taught American history at Brooklyn College in the 1960s. After his passing, she married the journalist Theodore White in 1974. Columbia University Columbia University , officially Columbia University in
864-451: A major part of his identity crisis.... The impact of these years created his orientation to the American past, accompanied as it was by marriage, establishment of life-style, and choice of profession." Geary concludes that, "To Hofstadter, radicalism always offered more of a critical intellectual stance than a commitment to political activism. Although Hofstadter quickly became disillusioned with
960-631: A major research university. For much of the 19th century, the university consisted of decentralized and separate faculties specializing in Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science. In 1979, these faculties were merged into the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences . In 1991, the faculties of Columbia College, the School of General Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of
1056-477: A myth does not imply falsity, because it effectively embodies the rural values of the American people, profoundly influencing their perception of the correct values, hence their political behavior." In this matter, the stress is on the importance of Jefferson's writings, and of his followers, in the development of agrarianism in the US, as establishing the agrarian myth, and its importance, in American life and politics—despite
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#17328561600771152-473: A neighborhood that contains a number of academic institutions. The university owns over 7,800 apartments in Morningside Heights, housing faculty, graduate students, and staff. Almost two dozen undergraduate dormitories (purpose-built or converted) are located on campus or in Morningside Heights. Columbia University has an extensive tunnel system , more than a century old, with the oldest portions predating
1248-578: A pivotal role in scientific breakthroughs including brain–computer interface ; the laser and maser ; nuclear magnetic resonance ; the first nuclear pile ; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas ; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift ; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II . As of December 2021 , its alumni, faculty, and staff have included seven of
1344-544: A revision committee, which was headed by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. In April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college granted the power to a separate board of 24 trustees . For a period in the 1790s, with New York City as the federal and state capital and the country under successive Federalist governments, a revived Columbia thrived under the auspices of Federalists such as Hamilton and Jay. President George Washington and Vice President John Adams , in addition to both houses of Congress attended
1440-401: A siege ladder to access the second floor of Hamilton Hall and subsequently removed the demonstrators occupying it, dozens of whom were arrested. The actions taken against the demonstrators by the NYPD in riot armour while clearing Hamilton Hall inspired the rap song 'Hinds Hall' by Macklemore , who described the police as "actors in badges" in the song. In June, the charges against most of
1536-627: A solid understanding, if not a private affection" for "the odd, the warped, the 'zanies' and the crazies of American life—left, right and middle." Influenced by his wife, Hofstadter was a member of the Young Communist League in college, and in April 1938 he joined the Communist Party USA ; he quit in 1939. Hofstadter had been reluctant to join, knowing the orthodoxy it imposed on intellectuals, telling them what to believe and what to write. He
1632-409: A statement on the consensus in the American political tradition that has been seen as "ironic". He said: The fierceness of the political struggles has often been misleading: for the range of vision embraced by the primary contestants in the major parties has always been bounded by the horizons of property and enterprise. However much at odds on specific issues, the major political traditions have shared
1728-412: A student application process characterized by The New York Times as "the first modern college application". The application required a photograph of the applicant, the maiden name of the applicant's mother, and the applicant's religious background. Columbia University is an independent, privately supported, nonsectarian and not-for-profit institution of higher education. Its official corporate name
1824-951: A three-volume history of American society. At his death, he had only completed the first volume, America at 1750: A Social Portrait (1971). Hofstadter died of leukemia on October 24, 1970, at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan , at age 54. He showed more interest in his research than in his teaching. In undergraduate classes, he read aloud the draft of his next book. Hofstadter directed more than 100 finished doctoral dissertations but gave his graduate students only cursory attention; he believed this academic latitude enabled them to find their own models of history. Among them were Herbert Gutman , Eric Foner , Lawrence W. Levine , Linda Kerber , and Paula S. Fass . Some, such as Eric McKitrick and Stanley Elkins , were more conservative than he; Hofstadter had few disciples and founded no school of history writing. Following Hofstadter's death, Columbia dedicated
1920-662: Is Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York . In 1754, the university's first charter was granted by King George II ; however, its modern charter was first enacted in 1787 and last amended in 1810 by the New York State Legislature. Robert C. Bannister Robert Corwin Bannister Jr. (born June 4, 1935) is an American historian. Bannister was a professor at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. His focus
2016-517: Is "The Aristocrat as Democrat"; John C. Calhoun is the "Marx of the Master Class"; and Franklin Roosevelt is "The Patrician as Opportunist". In writing the book, Hofstadter was influenced by literary figures as well as historians: two key influences on him were the critic Edmund Wilson and the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hofstadter's style was so powerful and engrossing that professors kept assigning
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#17328561600772112-402: Is $ 46,516. In 2015–2016, annual undergraduate tuition at Columbia was $ 50,526 with a total cost of attendance of $ 65,860 (including room and board). The college is need-blind for domestic applicants. On April 11, 2007, Columbia University announced a $ 400 million donation from media billionaire alumnus John Kluge to be used exclusively for undergraduate financial aid. The donation is among
2208-739: Is a third campus on the west bank of the Hudson River , the 157-acre (64 ha) Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory and Earth Institute in Palisades , New York. A fourth is the 60-acre (24 ha) Nevis Laboratories in Irvington, New York , for the study of particle and motion physics. A satellite site in Paris holds classes at Reid Hall . In 2006, the university established the Office of Environmental Stewardship to initiate, coordinate and implement programs to reduce
2304-534: Is centered on the front steps of Low Memorial Library . The statue represents a personification of the traditional image of the university as an alma mater , or "nourishing mother", draped in an academic gown and seated on a throne. She wears a laurel wreath on her head and holds in her right hand a scepter capped by a King's Crown, a traditional symbol of the university. A book, representing learning, rests on her lap. The arms of her throne end in lamps, representing "Sapientia et Doctrina", or "Wisdom and Learning"; on
2400-577: Is ranked fourth overall and second among university hospitals. Columbia's medical school has a strategic partnership with New York State Psychiatric Institute , and is affiliated with 19 other hospitals in the U.S. and four hospitals in other countries. Health-related schools are located at the Columbia University Medical Center , a 20-acre (8.1 ha) campus located in the neighborhood of Washington Heights , fifty blocks uptown. Other teaching hospitals affiliated with Columbia through
2496-503: Is some kind of consensus running through it, and yet that no society has such a total consensus as to be devoid of significant conflict. It is all a matter of proportion and emphasis, which is terribly important in history. Of course, obviously, we have had one total failure of consensus, which led to the Civil War. One could use that as the extreme case in which consensus breaks down. In 1948 he published The American Political Tradition and
2592-707: Is the Henry Hudson Parkway ( NY 9A ) to the west of the campus. It is located 3.4 miles (5.5 km) south of the George Washington Bridge . Columbia University received 60,551 applications for the class of 2025 (entering 2021) and a total of around 2,218 were admitted to the two schools for an overall acceptance rate of 3.66%. Columbia is a racially diverse school, with approximately 52% of all students identifying themselves as persons of color. Additionally, 50% of all undergraduates received grants from Columbia. The average grant size awarded to these students
2688-727: The American Philosophical Society . Hofstadter was born in Buffalo, New York , in 1916 to a Jewish father, Emil A. Hofstadter, and a German-American Lutheran mother, Katherine (née Hill), who died when Richard was ten. He attended Fosdick-Masten Park High School in Buffalo. Hofstadter then studied philosophy and history at the University at Buffalo , from 1933, under the diplomatic historian Julius W. Pratt . Despite opposition from both families, he married Felice Swados (whose brother
2784-571: The Common Application . The policy change made Columbia one of the last major academic institutions and the last Ivy League university to switch to the Common Application. Scholarships are also given to undergraduate students by the admissions committee. Designations include John W. Kluge Scholars, John Jay Scholars, C. Prescott Davis Scholars, Global Scholars, Egleston Scholars, and Science Research Fellows. Named scholars are selected by
2880-670: The Founding Fathers of the United States of America; four U.S. presidents ; 34 foreign heads of state or government ; two secretaries-general of the United Nations; ten justices of the United States Supreme Court ; 103 Nobel laureates ; 125 National Academy of Sciences members; 53 living billionaires; 23 Olympic medalists ; 33 Academy Award winners ; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients. Discussions regarding
2976-628: The Israel–Hamas war , with counter-protests from pro- Israel activists. The students were protesting against the alleged genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by the IDF , with significant faculty support for the protests. Protestors were reported to have yelled “October 7th is going to be every day for you,” toward Jewish students. In January 2024, students who were former IDF soldiers were accused of attacking pro-Palestine demonstrators with noxious chemicals in what
Richard Hofstadter - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-719: The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory , the Goddard Institute for Space Studies , and accelerator laboratories with Big Tech firms such as Amazon and IBM . Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the MD degree . The university also administers and annually awards the Pulitzer Prize . Columbia scientists and scholars have played
3168-533: The Manhattan Project , creating the first nuclear fission reactor in the Americas and researching gaseous diffusion . In 1928, Seth Low Junior College was established by Columbia University in order to mitigate the number of Jewish applicants to Columbia College. The college was closed in 1936 due to the adverse effects of the Great Depression and its students were subsequently taught at Morningside Heights, although they did not belong to any college but to
3264-541: The New York City Subway , the [REDACTED] train serves the university at 116th Street-Columbia University . The M4 , M104 and M60 buses stop on Broadway while the M11 stops on Amsterdam Avenue. The main campus is primarily boxed off by the streets of Amsterdam Avenue, Broadway , 114th street, and 120th street, with some buildings, including Barnard College, located just outside the area. The nearest major highway
3360-994: The Stalinist party discipline and show trials . After withdrawing from the party in August 1939 following the Hitler–Stalin Pact , he retained a critical left-wing perspective that was still obvious in American Political Tradition in 1948. Hofstadter earned his PhD in 1942. In 1944, he published his dissertation Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 . It was a commercially successful (200,000 copies) critique of late-19th-century American capitalism and its ruthless "dog-eat-dog" economic competition and Social Darwinian self-justification. Conservative critics, such as Irwin G. Wylie and Robert C. Bannister , disagreed with his interpretation. The sharpest criticism of
3456-508: The University of Maryland , where he became a close friend of the popular sociologist C. Wright Mills and read extensively in the fields of sociology and psychology, absorbing ideas of Max Weber , Karl Mannheim , Sigmund Freud , and the Frankfurt School . His later books frequently refer to behavioral concepts such as "status anxiety". In 1946, Hofstadter joined Columbia University 's faculty, and in 1959 he succeeded Allan Nevins as
3552-469: The Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights on Seth Low 's late-19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught at one location. The campus was designed along Beaux-Arts planning principles by the architects McKim, Mead & White . Columbia's main campus occupies more than six city blocks , or 32 acres (13 ha), in Morningside Heights, New York City,
3648-441: The "Jewish Buffalonians who have made a lasting contribution to the world." In 1936, Hofstadter entered the doctoral program in history at Columbia University where his advisor Merle Curti was demonstrating how to synthesize intellectual, social, and political history based upon secondary sources rather than primary-source archival research. In 1938, he became a member of the Communist Party USA , but soon became disillusioned by
3744-646: The "Urban Beach", are a popular meeting area for Columbia students. The term refers to the long series of granite steps leading from the lower part of campus (South Field) to its upper terrace. In April 2007, the university purchased more than two-thirds of a 17 acres (6.9 ha) site for a new campus in Manhattanville , an industrial neighborhood to the north of the Morningside Heights campus. Stretching from 125th Street to 133rd Street , Columbia Manhattanville houses buildings for Columbia's Business School, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia School of
3840-702: The "iconic historian of postwar liberal consensus." Others see in his work an early critique of the one-dimensional society , as Hofstadter was equally critical of socialist and capitalist models of society, and bemoaned the "consensus" within the society as "bounded by the horizons of property and entrepreneurship", criticizing the "hegemonic liberal capitalist culture running throughout the course of American history". His most widely read works are Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (1944); The American Political Tradition (1948); The Age of Reform (1955); Anti-intellectualism in American Life (1963); and
3936-523: The Arts , and the School of Professional Studies were merged into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, leading to the academic integration and centralized governance of these schools. In 2010, the School of International and Public Affairs , which was previously a part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, became an independent faculty. In fall of 2023, pro-Palestine student activists organized protests in response to
Richard Hofstadter - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-724: The Arts, and the Jerome L. Greene Center for Mind, Brain, and Behavior, where research will occur on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The $ 7 billion expansion plan included demolishing all buildings, except three that are historically significant (the Studebaker Building , Prentis Hall , and the Nash Building), eliminating the existing light industry and storage warehouses, and relocating tenants in 132 apartments. Replacing these buildings created 6.8 million square feet (630,000 m ) of space for
4128-506: The City of New York , is a private Ivy League research university in New York City . Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan , it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States . Columbia was established as a colonial college by royal charter under George II of Great Britain . It
4224-507: The Communist Party rigid and doctrinaire. In the 1940s, Hofstadter abandoned political causes, feeling that intellectuals were no more likely to "find a comfortable home" under socialism than they were under capitalism. Biographer Susan Baker writes that Hofstadter "was profoundly influenced by the political Left of the 1930s.... The philosophical impact of Marxism was so intense and direct during Hofstadter's formative years that it formed
4320-403: The Communist Party, he retained an independent left-wing standpoint well into the 1940s. His first book, Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944), and The American Political Tradition (1948) had a radical point of view." In the 1940s, Hofstadter cited Beard as "the exciting influence on me". Hofstadter specifically responded to Beard's social-conflict model of U.S. history, which emphasized
4416-459: The DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History, where he played a major role in directing Ph.D. dissertations. According to his biographer David Brown, after 1945 Hofstadter philosophically "broke" with Charles A. Beard and moved to the right, becoming leader of the "consensus historians," a term Hofstadter disapproved of, but that was widely applied to his apparent rejection of the Beardian idea that
4512-457: The King's College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue , where it remained for the next forty years. During the last half of the 19th century, under the presidency of Frederick A. P. Barnard , for whom Barnard College is named, the institution rapidly assumed the shape of a modern university. Barnard College was created in 1889 as a response to
4608-485: The Men Who Made It , interpretive studies of 12 major American political leaders from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The book was a critical success and sold nearly a million copies at university campuses, where it was used as a history textbook; critics found it "skeptical, fresh, revisionary , occasionally ironical, without being harsh or merely destructive." Each chapter title illustrated a paradox: Thomas Jefferson
4704-771: The NewYork-Presbyterian network include the Payne Whitney Clinic in Manhattan, and the Payne Whitney Westchester, a psychiatric institute located in White Plains, New York. On the northern tip of Manhattan island (in the neighborhood of Inwood ), Columbia owns the 26-acre (11 ha) Baker Field, which includes the Lawrence A. Wien Stadium as well as facilities for field sports, outdoor track, and tennis. There
4800-461: The Populists and anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism , the political paranoia manifest in his time. Hofstadter's dissertation director Merle Curti wrote that Hofstadter's "position is as biased, by his urban background... as the work of older historians was biased by their rural background and traditional agrarian sympathies.” The Idea of a Party System (1969) describes
4896-558: The United States. In 1763, Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper , a graduate of The Queen's College, Oxford , and an ardent Tory . In the charged political climate of the American Revolution , his chief opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777, Alexander Hamilton . The Irish anatomist, Samuel Clossy , was appointed professor of natural philosophy in October 1765 and later
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#17328561600774992-526: The United States. Several buildings on the Morningside Heights campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Low Memorial Library , a National Historic Landmark and the centerpiece of the campus, is listed for its architectural significance. Philosophy Hall is listed as the site of the invention of FM radio . Also listed is Pupin Hall , another National Historic Landmark , which houses
5088-411: The admission committee from first-year applicants. According to Columbia, the first four designated scholars "distinguish themselves for their remarkable academic and personal achievements, dynamism, intellectual curiosity, the originality and independence of their thinking, and the diversity that stems from their different cultures and their varied educational experiences". In 1919, Columbia established
5184-469: The back of the throne is embossed an image of the seal of the university . The small hidden owl on the sculpture is also the subject of many Columbia legends, the main legend being that the first student in the freshmen class to find the hidden owl on the statue will be valedictorian, and that any subsequent Columbia male who finds it will marry a Barnard student, given that Barnard is a women's college . "The Steps", alternatively known as "Low Steps" or
5280-444: The beginning American political parties, instead of representing single sections or classes clearly and forcefully, have been intersectional and interclass parties, embracing a jumble of interests which often have reasons for contesting among themselves. Hofstadter rejected Beard's interpretation of history as a succession of exclusively economically motivated group conflicts and financial interests of politicians. He thought that most of
5376-434: The book focused on Hofstadter's weakness as a researcher: "he did little or no research into manuscripts, newspapers, archival , or unpublished sources, relying instead primarily on secondary sources augmented by his lively style and wide-ranging interdisciplinary readings, thereby producing well-written arguments based on scattered evidence he found by reading other historians." From 1942 to 1946, Hofstadter taught history at
5472-724: The book long after scholars had revised or rejected its main points. On April 13, 1970, less than a year before his death, Hofstadter wrote historian Bernard Bailyn , expressing concerns about scholarly depictions of recent studies by both of them as "consensus." Bailyn's response has not yet been examined by third-party sources. As a historian, Hofstadter's groundbreaking work came in using social psychology concepts to explain political history. He explored subconscious motives such as social status anxiety, anti-intellectualism , irrational fear, and paranoia as they propel political discourse and action in politics. Historian Lloyd Gardner wrote that "in later essays Hofstadter specifically ruled out
5568-469: The college's commencement on May 6, 1789, as a tribute of honor to the many alumni of the school who had been involved in the American Revolution . In November 1813, the college agreed to incorporate its medical school with The College of Physicians and Surgeons, a new school created by the Regents of New York, forming Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons . In 1857, the college moved from
5664-471: The college's first professor of anatomy in 1767. The American Revolutionary War broke out in 1776, and was catastrophic for the operation of King's College, which suspended instruction for eight years beginning in 1776 with the arrival of the Continental Army . The suspension continued through the military occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The college's library
5760-480: The completion of his conversion to conservatism". Despite strongly disagreeing with their political methods, he invited his radical students to discuss goals and strategy with him. He even employed one, Mike Wallace , to collaborate with him on American Violence: A Documentary History (1970); Hofstadter student Eric Foner said the book "utterly contradicted the consensus vision of a nation placidly evolving without serious disagreements." Hofstadter planned to write
5856-400: The entire university community" and was carried out by both faculty and students. The task force on anti-semitism was criticised by a group of 24 Jewish faculty (as well as 16 non-Jewish faculty) and Jewish students for misrepresentations, omission of key context and equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The majority of Columbia's graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in
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#17328561600775952-592: The essays collected in The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964). He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize : in 1956 for The Age of Reform , an analysis of the populism movement in the 1890s and the progressive movement of the early 20th century ; and in 1964 for the cultural history Anti-intellectualism in American Life . He was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and
6048-479: The fall of 1983, after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College , the all-female institution affiliated with the university, to merge the two schools. Barnard College still remains affiliated with Columbia, and all Barnard graduates are issued diplomas signed by the presidents of Columbia University and Barnard College. During the late 20th century, the university underwent significant academic, structural, and administrative changes as it developed into
6144-559: The founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the college's first president, Samuel Johnson . The college was officially founded on October 31, 1754, as King's College by royal charter of George II , making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of New York and the fifth oldest in
6240-473: The interim provost Dennis Mitchell said was “what appears to have been serious crimes, possibly hate crimes”. One of the students suspected in the attack was initially placed on interim suspension before later being suspended through May 2025. In April 2024, the suspended student sued Columbia, alleging that the school subjected him to "biased misconduct proceedings" and that he had used fart sprays such as " Liquid Ass " rather than harmful chemicals. Following
6336-463: The largest single gifts to higher education. However, this does not apply to international students, transfer students, visiting students, or students in the School of General Studies. In the fall of 2010, admission to Columbia's undergraduate colleges Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering) began accepting
6432-623: The liberalism of condescension." Angered by the radical politics of the 1960s, and especially by the student occupation and temporary closure of Columbia University in 1968 , Hofstadter began to criticize student activist methods. His friend David Herbert Donald said, "as a liberal who criticized the liberal tradition from within, he was appalled by the growing radical, even revolutionary, sentiment that he sensed among his colleagues and his students. He could never share their simplistic, moralistic approach." Brick says he regarded them as "simple-minded, moralistic, ruthless, and destructive." Moreover, he
6528-512: The multiversity model that later universities would adopt. Prior to becoming the president of Columbia University, Butler founded Teachers College , as a school to prepare home economists and manual art teachers for the children of the poor, with philanthropist Grace Hoadley Dodge . Teachers College is currently affiliated as the university's Graduate School of Education. In the 1940s, faculty members, including John R. Dunning , I. I. Rabi , Enrico Fermi , and Polykarp Kusch , began what became
6624-523: The new Republic, the legislature stipulated that "the College within the City of New York heretofore called King's College be forever hereafter called and known by the name of Columbia College ", a reference to Columbia , an alternative name for America which in turn comes from the name of Christopher Columbus . The Regents finally became aware of the college's defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed
6720-510: The origins of the First Party System as reflecting fears that the (other) political party threatened to destroy the republic. The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington (1968) systematically analyzes and criticizes the intellectual foundations and historical validity of Beard's historiography and revealed Hofstadter's increasing inclination toward neoconservatism . Privately, Hofstadter said that Frederick Jackson Turner
6816-428: The participants in the occupation of Hamilton Hall were dropped. In mid-August 2024, three deans and Minouche Shafik , the 20th president of the university, resigned in the wake of the campus protests. In late August, the university's antisemitism task force reported that the university had failed to prevent violence and hate or protect Jews in the university . According to the report, antisemitism has "affected
6912-485: The periods of US history, except the Civil War , could be fully understood only by taking into account an implicit consensus, shared by all groups across the conflict lines. He criticized the generation of Beard and Vernon Louis Parrington because they had put such an excessive emphasis on conflict, that an antidote was needed.... It seems to me to be clear that a political society cannot hang together, at all, unless there
7008-598: The physics and astronomy departments. Here the first experiments on the fission of uranium were conducted by Enrico Fermi . The uranium atom was split there ten days after the world's first atom-splitting in Copenhagen , Denmark. Other buildings listed include Casa Italiana , the Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter building of St. Anthony Hall , Earl Hall , and the buildings of the affiliated Union Theological Seminary . A statue by sculptor Daniel Chester French called Alma Mater
7104-461: The possibility of a Leninist interpretation of American imperialism." The Age of Reform (1955) analyzes the yeoman ideal in America's sentimental attachment to agrarianism and the farm's moral superiority to the city. Hofstadter—himself very much a big-city person—noted the agrarian ethos was "a kind of homage that Americans have paid to the fancied innocence of their origins; however, to call it
7200-442: The practical but of the domination of American political thought by popular mythologies." As early as his American Political Tradition (1948), while still viewing politics from a critical left-wing perspective, Hofstadter rejected black-and-white polarization between pro-business and anti-business politicians. Making explicit reference to Jefferson , Jackson , Lincoln , Cleveland , Bryan , Wilson , and Hoover , Hofstadter made
7296-536: The present campus. Some of these remain accessible to the public, while others have been cordoned off. Butler Library is the largest in the Columbia University Libraries system and one of the largest buildings on the campus. It was completed in 1934 and renamed to Butler Library in 1946. As of 2020 , Columbia's library system includes over 15.0 million volumes, making it the eighth largest library system and fifth largest collegiate library system in
7392-574: The right to appropriate private property for public use. On May 20, 2009, the New York State Public Authorities Control Board approved the Manhanttanville expansion plan. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is affiliated with the medical schools of both Columbia University and Cornell University . According to U.S. News & World Report ' s "2020–21 Best Hospitals Honor Roll and Medical Specialties Rankings", it
7488-434: The rural and urban industrialization that rendered the myth moot. Anti-intellectualism in American Life (1963) and The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1965) describe American provincialism , warning against anti-intellectual fear of the cosmopolitan city, presented as wicked by the xenophobic and anti-Semitic Populists of the 1890s. They trace the direct political and ideological lineage between
7584-414: The sole basis for understanding American history is the fundamental conflict between economic classes. In a widely held revision of this view, Christopher Lasch wrote that, unlike the "consensus historians" of the 1950s, Hofstadter saw the consensus of classes on behalf of business interests not as a strength but "as a form of intellectual bankruptcy and as a reflection, moreover, not of a healthy sense of
7680-467: The struggle among competing economic groups (primarily farmers, Southern slavers, Northern industrialists, and workers) and discounted abstract political rhetoric that rarely translated into action. Beard encouraged historians to search for economic belligerents' hidden self-interest and financial goals. By the 1950s and 1960s, Hofstadter had a strong reputation in liberal circles. Lawrence Cremin wrote that "Hofstadter's central purpose in writing history ...
7776-411: The term consensus historian several times, and criticized Boorstin for overusing the consensus and ignoring the essential conflicts in history. In an earlier draft of the preface, he wrote: American politics has always been an arena in which conflicts of interests have been fought out, compromised, adjusted. Once these interests were sectional; now they tend more clearly to follow class lines; but from
7872-547: The university at large. There was an evening school called University Extension, which taught night classes, for a fee, to anyone willing to attend. In 1947, the program was reorganized as an undergraduate college and designated the School of General Studies in response to the return of GIs after World War II . In 1995, the School of General Studies was again reorganized as a full-fledged liberal arts college for non-traditional students (those who have had an academic break of one year or more, or are pursuing dual-degrees) and
7968-564: The university's environmental footprint. The U.S. Green Building Council selected the university's Manhattanville plan for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Neighborhood Design pilot program. Columbia has been rated "B+" by the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card for its environmental and sustainability initiatives. According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Columbia University would have
8064-409: The university's refusal to accept women. In 1896, university president Seth Low moved the campus from 49th Street to its present location, a more spacious campus in the developing neighborhood of Morningside Heights . Under the leadership of Low's successor, Nicholas Murray Butler , who served for over four decades, Columbia rapidly became the nation's major institution for research, setting
8160-547: The university. Community activist groups in West Harlem fought the expansion for reasons ranging from property protection and fair exchange for land, to residents' rights. Subsequent public hearings drew neighborhood opposition. As of December 2008 , the State of New York's Empire State Development Corporation approved use of eminent domain, which, through declaration of Manhattanville's "blighted" status, gives governmental bodies
8256-418: Was Harvey Swados ) in 1936 after he and Felice spent several summers at Hunter Colony, New York, run by Margaret Lefranc , their close friend for years; they had one child, Dan. Hofstadter was raised as an Episcopalian but later identified more with his Jewish roots. Antisemitism may have cost him fellowships at Columbia and attractive professorships. The Buffalo Jewish Hall of Fame lists him as one of
8352-470: Was "destroying certain cherished American traditions and myths derived from his conviction that they provided no trustworthy guide for action in the present." Thus Hofstadter argued, "The application of depth psychology to politics, chancy though it is, has at least made us acutely aware that politics can be a projective arena for feelings and impulses that are only marginally related to the manifest issues." C. Vann Woodward wrote that Hofstadter seemed "to have
8448-463: Was "extremely critical of student tactics, believing that they were based on irrational romantic ideas, rather than sensible plans for achievable change, that they undermined the unique status of the university, as an institutional bastion of free thought, and that they were bound to provoke a political reaction from the right." Coates argues that his career saw a steady move from left to right, and that his 1968 Columbia commencement address "represented
8544-474: Was celebrated in 1954. During the 1960s, student activism reached a climax with protests in the spring of 1968 , when hundreds of students occupied buildings on campus. The incident forced the resignation of Columbia's president, Grayson Kirk , and the establishment of the University Senate. Though several schools in the university had admitted women for years, Columbia College first admitted women in
8640-552: Was disillusioned by the spectacle of the Moscow Show Trials , but wrote: "I join without enthusiasm but with a sense of obligation.... [M]y fundamental reason for joining is that I don't like capitalism and want to get rid of it." He remained anti-capitalist , writing, "I hate capitalism and everything that goes with it," but was similarly disillusioned with Stalinism , finding the Soviet Union "essentially undemocratic" and
8736-516: Was fully integrated into Columbia's traditional undergraduate curriculum. The same year, the Division of Special Programs, later called the School of Continuing Education and now the School of Professional Studies , was established to reprise the former role of University Extension. While the School of Professional Studies only offered non-degree programs for lifelong learners and high school students in its earliest stages, it now offers degree programs in
8832-667: Was later repeated in an open letter by Columbia faculty that criticized the findings of the university's antisemitism task force. On April 22, 2024 the university moved all in-person classes online, with President Shafik saying that this decision would "deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps". In late April, several participants in the campus encampment occupied Hamilton Hall . While inside, these protestors overturned furniture, broke windows, and erected barricades. On April 30, Columbia University called New York Police Department to clear Hamilton Hall. Around 9 PM that night, NYPD officers in riot gear used
8928-425: Was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a military hospital first by American and then British forces. The legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1, 1784, it passed "an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called King's College". The Act created a board of regents to oversee the resuscitation of King's College, and, in an effort to demonstrate its support for
9024-604: Was no longer a useful guide to history, because he was too obsessed with the frontier and his ideas too often had "a pound of falsehood for every few ounces of truth." Howe and Finn argue that, rhetorically, Hofstadter's cultural interpretation repeatedly drew upon concepts from literary criticism ("irony," "paradox," "anomaly"), anthropology ("myth," "tradition," "legend," "folklore"), and social psychology ("projection," "unconsciously," "identity," "anxiety," "paranoid"). He artfully employed their explicit scholarly meanings and their informal prejudicial connotations. His goal, they argue,
9120-519: Was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution , and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay . In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including four undergraduate schools and 16 graduate schools. The university's research efforts include
9216-405: Was to reformulate American liberalism so that it might stand more honestly and effectively against attacks from both left and right in a world which had accepted the essential insights of Darwin , Marx , and Freud ." Alfred Kazin identified his use of parody: "He was a derisive critic and parodist of every American Utopia and its wild prophets, a natural oppositionist to fashion and its satirist,
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