“The intellectual’s … playfulness, in its various manifestations, is likely to seem to most men a perverse luxury; in the United States the play of the mind is perhaps the only form of play that is not looked upon with the most tender indulgence. His piety is likely to seem nettlesome, if not actually dangerous. And neither quality is considered to contribute very much to the practical business of life.”

—  Richard Hofstadter

Source: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1974), p. 33

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Richard Hofstadter 34
American historian 1916–1970

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