Godfrey Hodgson

Godfrey Hodgson was director of the Reuters' Foundation Programme at Oxford University, and before that the Observer's correspondent in the United States and foreign editor of the Independent. He is the author of The Myth of American Exceptionalism (Yale University Press, 2009).

The Democrats dilemma

A year after George Bushs re-election, every days news trumpets the opportunity for the Democrats. The question I posed in an openDemocracy article on 31 October (The death

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 7 Nov 2005

The death of American politics

Since the great revolution of 1789, French political history has been measured out in days those occasions when the Paris crowd pours into the street and strikes fear into the

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 31 Oct 2005

Oil and American politics

This is not about oil, said Donald Rumsfeld, President Bushs secretary of defence, as America prepared to invade Iraq. Few objects have had greater priority in the Bush administration

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 2 Oct 2005

After Katrina, a government adrift

The aftermath of Katrina reveals how sectarian conservative politics have brought disrepair and neglect to the heart of American politics, says Godfrey Hodgson democratic government must be revived. It is

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 5 Sep 2005

Gimme five! US Republicans amoral minority

The Cherokee Indians, a civilised tribe in the language of the day, many of whom converted to Christianity and wore dresses and trousers, were the victims of one of the

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 27 Jun 2005

American media in the firing line

The revelation, more than thirty years after the Watergate scandal brought down President Richard M Nixon in 1974, that Deep Throat - the conduit of secret information to journalists pursuing

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 8 Jun 2005

The Senates filibuster deal: only a truce in the culture wars

At first sight, the compromise stitched together in best smoke-filled-room style in Senator John McCains office late on Monday night, 23 May, looks like a ray of hope breaking

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 26 May 2005

George W Bush: far from Mount Rushmore

Also by Godfrey Hodgson in openDemocracy: * Can America go modest? (October 2001) * From frontiersman to neocon (April 2003 ) * A comedy of errors: Tony Blair and America (April 2004 ) * Ronald

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 18 Apr 2005

Anthony Sampson remembered

Anthony Sampson possessed three qualities that are indispensable in any good journalist. He wrote fast, fluently and with a pleasant wit, with phrases that stuck in the readers mind.

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 11 Jan 2005

Bush vs Kerry: what sort of people do we want to be?

The actions of the George W Bush administration might be described by adapting a term once applied to the AustroHungarian empire: Despotismus gemildert durch Schlamperei. The return of the

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 26 Oct 2004

Americas choice: inequality or democracy?

Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, wrote Alexis de Tocqueville on the first page of his classic Democracy in America, nothing

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 5 Jul 2004

A comedy of errors: Tony Blair and America

Every country in the world has an ambiguous relationship with the United States none more than the United Kingdoms. The nature of this so-called special relationship is generally misunderstood.

By Godfrey Hodgson

/ 7 Apr 2004