From the year 1944 to 1970 Richard Hofstadter enriched the historical world with his writings. In 1948 Hofstadter joined the faculty at Columbia University. Here Hofstadter published The American Political Traditions and the Men who made it. Many regard this book as the start of the consensus school of historical writing. Much of this book was a look into brief political biographies on presidents, but the way that it was presented was very different. Hofstadter made

some points in the introduction that points in the direction of consensus history. Hofstadter states that it is "of the need for a reinterpretation of our political traditions which emphasizes the common climate of American opinion," the existences of which had been "much obscured by the tendency to place political conflict in the foreground" (Kraus & Joyce Pg.314)

Daniel J. Boorstin received his doctoral degree from Yale University, studied and taught in England and Italy, and eventually settled down in Chicago (Kraus & Joyce pg.322). Boorstin like Hofstadter and Hartz all moved during their careers from left to right in their political thinking. Boorstin eventually fell into a deeper conservative trend then Hofstadter and Hartz because of a Marxist influence (Sternsher pg.14-15). John P. Diggins goes on to say that, "consensus versus conflict" school of thought "flowered in large part as a response to Boorstin's work" (Sternsher pg. 15). In Boorstin's work he takes on many elements of anti-progressive and left to right course of development due to the cold war. In one of his book's called, The Genius of American Politics, he points out how unique its past was. He wanted to stress that that American people, politics, and past are unlike any of the world and the people must cherish this and embrace it. In the words of J.R. Pole in the Pastmaster, "during the period when the international crisis of Cold War was compounded by the domestic crisis of McCarthyism, and part of the purpose was to give his countrymen some historical bearing by which they could help to steady themselves" (Kraus & Joyce pg. 322).

After The American Political Tradition and the Men who made it, Hofstadter went on to publish a book on Turner, Beard, and Parrington. Hofstadter recognizes the personal contributions that Turner, Beard, and Parrington had to offer to the field of History, but Hofstadter felt that there was much controversy in their writings. As a consensus writer Hofstadter found that Turner, Beard, and Parrington spent more time writing on "economic and political conflict. But he shows they had no criteria for measuring the magnitude and intensity of conflict" (Potter pg. 186). Hofstadter then looks at this statement through a balanced position of consensus and conflict. He feels that we need both consensus and conflict because "conflict to activate ideals in an otherwise static simulation; consensus to set limits upon the hostilities generated by conflict" (Potter pg. 186-87). On the subject Hofstadter believes that we should be realistic about conflict and consensus because both are a major part of American History. Hofstadter feels that consensus and conflict

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