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Quotes from The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R — Richard Hofstadter

1916–1970 United States

← All quotes by Richard Hofstadter

4 quotes

But Prohibition was more than a symbol—it was a means by which the reforming energies of the country were transmuted into mere peevishness.

The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R (1955)

It is possible that the distinction between moral relativism and moral absolutism has sometimes been blurred because an excessively consistent practice of either leads to the same practical result — ruthlessness in political life.

The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R (1955)

One of the primary tests of the mood of a society at any given time is whether its comfortable people tend to identify, psychologically, with the power and achievements of the very successful or with the needs and sufferings of the underprivileged.

The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R (1955)

The utopia of the Populists was in the past, not in the future. According to the agrarian myth, the health of the state was proportionate to the degree to which it was dominated by the agricultural class, and this assumption pointed to the superiority of an earlier age.

The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R (1955)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Hofstadter (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.