What is the author's style in The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It by Richard Hofstadter?

The perspective of the book is that of the narrator, American historian Richard Hofstadter. Richard Hofstadter is one of the most important historians of the twentieth century, and was known as the "historian of the post-war liberal consensus". Specifically, he endorsed the values of the post-war social democratic order. He defended an extensive welfare state, heavily criticized conservative moral attitudes as psychologically dysfunctional and articulated the historical perspective of what was then a consensus liberal position until the rise of the conservative movement in the late twentieth century. He has been criticized for writing with broad strokes, rarely reading manuscripts, and preferring to speak in general terms. Further, his well-known The Paranoid Style of American Politics, which ridiculed and psychoanalyzed American conservatives, earned him great ridicule on the right and exposed his bias against the major ideological strands of thought he opposed.

The purpose of this discussion is to illustrate Hofstadter's biases. Rather than be specific about the historical details of American political history, he prefers to describe history generally, so the reader may not receive an accurate picture of history. Further, because he had a clear ideological bias, it is important to be aware of where his lack of impartiality may color his historical scholarship. It is particularly important to be aware of his preference for the growth of state power throughout American history, his hostility to both laissez-faire and radical socialism, and his ridicule of the ethos of the small town and preference for great social experiments.