Charles Beard: A Historical Analysis Of American History

Historians Analysis of American History

In history, many historians have written their own interpretations of American history. All historians want to reveal their analysis of the topic through persuasive essays and show why their interpretation is most relevant to the continuous development of American history. As history grows becoming more and more complex and extensive, more historians begin analysing and interpreting history through their own eyes. But new historians can only base their essays on the previous interpretations created by previous historians. Men like Frederick Turner, Richard Hofstadter, and Charles Beard have set the backbone for historians over the world who write about American history. In 1893, Turner presented his

Beard was born in Indiana where he went to college at DePauw University. After graduating he went Oxford England to for graduate studies and this was where he got his first teaching job. When he moved back to the United States, he worked at Columbia University where he was able to start writing about history and politics. As his career took off he wrote books, textbooks, and articles in political magazines. He soon wrote more about politics than history and soon focused on the dispute between agrarians and business interests. He soon became a respected and well known historian for his work. Both Beard and Turner were the most influential historians of the 20th century. But unlike Turner, Beard had a negative viewpoint while writing about American history. His most famous work was focused on the men wrote the constitution. His theory was that the founding fathers were more focused on protecting their own person wealth then actually furthering the country in democratic principles. He explains, “In other words...the new government was tested by the ordinary experiences of trader, financiers, and manufacturers, it was found inadequate, and these groups accordingly grew more and more determined to reconstruct the political system in such a fashion as to make it subserve their permanent interests.” His belief is that they were only focused on their person lives while creating the Constitution which is suppose to

He was born in 1916 in New York. He went to school in Columbia University where his interest in intellectual, social, and political history began. He soon became a teacher at the University where he got a new title of a consensus historian. Meaning he didn’t support Beardian theory of the founding fathers. As his life continued, he wrote many books one of which focused on the people in politics. This essay is called The Paranoid Style in American Politics. In this essay, Hofstadter explains his theory of a paranoid style in people in politics thoughts and actions. He claims that they believe people are always out to get his country. “It is the use of paramount modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.” This excerpt shows that Hofstadter believes that people will create conspiracy theories when time of action is needed. They will channel their anxiety through tales of a conspiracy created to destroy one’s homeland and way of life. He gives many examples of this throughout his essay of people in politics who are exemplifying the paranoid style. One