Anti-intellectualism in American Life is a book by Richard Hofstadter published in 1963 that won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

[1][2] In this book, Hofstadter set out to trace the social movements that altered the role of intellect in American society.

Moreover, he saw these themes as historically embedded in America's national fabric, resulting from its colonial and evangelical Protestant heritage.

He contended that evangelical American Protestantism's anti-intellectual tradition valued the spirit over intellectual rigor.

The plain sense of the common man is an altogether adequate substitute for, if not actually much superior to, formal knowledge and expertise.