GOVT-264 The Paranoid Style in American Politics
This course examines the long, venerable tradition of conspiracist and paranoid thinking as a body of discourse and a motivation for political action. It begins with a close reading of the classic statement of the problem, Richard Hofstadter's famous "Paranoid Style" essay, reading it in the context of Cold War state building in the United States. It considers the emergence and activities of 20th-century United States social movements (on both the right and the left) that express the paranoid style, alongside the intellectual, political, and institutional developments that shaped them. Written and/or creative assignments will ask students to analyzes the echoes of the paranoid style in a 21st-century conspiracy theory of their choosing.
Standard Course (40)
Credits
1