Thesis
Eggheads arise, how the discourse of anti-intellectualism shaped modern American polictics
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102625
Abstract
During the 1950s, the echo of totalitarian regimes and the intricacies of the Cold War complicated an already tenuous relationship between intellectuals and the American public. As a result of precedents set by World War II and the ensuing Red Scare, large numbers of American liberal intellectuals came to believe that the influence that they enjoyed during the Roosevelt administration had come to an end. Indeed, social and political forces had shifted in favor of those who sought to limit the influence of academics in government. To countervail this perceived shift, liberal intellectuals co-opted the philosophical term "anti-intellectualism" to undermine the emerging "radical" right. I argue that liberal intellectuals actively constructed and subsequently vilified Americans they dubbed "anti-intellectual" in an effort to defend both their political ideology and their position in society. Right-wing conservatives, originally powerless against the charge of "anti-intellectualism" in the 1950s, co-opted the discourse in the 1960s and beyond, extolling the populist virtues of anti-intellectualism as characteristic of the common American they purported to represent. To this day, the rhetoric of anti-intellectualism is an indispensable part of political debates between liberals and conservatives in America.
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Details
- Title
- Eggheads arise, how the discourse of anti-intellectualism shaped modern American polictics
- Creators
- Maria Fedorova
- Contributors
- Matthew Avery Sutton (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525279701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis