“The idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.”

—  Richard Hofstadter , The Paranoid Style in American Politics

The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964)

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Richard Hofstadter 34
American historian 1916–1970

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