ABSTRACT
Since 1955, when Louis Hartz published The Liberal Tradition in America, the dominant interpretation of American political thought and culture has been the one advanced in that great book. Hartz's study represents the high point of the "consensus school" in American historiography, which was initiated in 1948 by Richard Hofstadter's pioneering and iconoclastic work, The American Political Tradition. However, in spite of its power, the Hartz thesis is flawed and has not gone without critical scrutiny. Surely Richard Hofstadter was right when he argued that "consensus, to be effective, must be a matter of behavior as well as thought, of institutions as well as theories". Historically, American liberalism has displayed great flexibility, which allowed it to adapt to changing conditions while remaining within the admittedly loose confines of the framework spelled out by the Hofstadter/Hartz theory of consensus.
