BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

"Before the Storm is one of the finest studies of the American right to appear since the days of Hofstadter. Read it and understand where the mad public faiths of our own day came from."

--Thomas Frank, editor of THE BAFFLER and author of ONE MARKET UNDER GOD

"Perlstein writes with panache and insight about a pivotal moment in modern American history. A must read for anyone interested in the intertwined fates of conservatism and liberalism in the politics of the last half-century."

--David M. Kennedy, author of FREEDOM FROM FEAR: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945

Perlstein is also the author of the widely acclaimed "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America"

"Finally, a gifted writer has told the full story of the difficult birth and exuberant adolescence of the conservative movement that went on to transform American politics. Rick Perlstein's indispensable history is stuffed with wit, learning, and drama. After reading it, you will never think of the 1960s in the same way again."

--Michael Kazin, co-author, AMERICA DIVIDED: The Civil War of the 1960s --

Weighing in at 688 pages, this exhaustive, informative and entertaining account of the disastrous Goldwater campaign by progressive author Rick Perlstein is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the right wing movement that has dominated America for some 40 years rose stronger from the ashes of the 1964 race.

Perlstein wrote the Goldwater story a few years back, but Nation books just reprinted it because it provides so much insight into why we are where we are today -- and why the conservatives still have such a stranglehold on think tanks, the media, and a lingering strong organizational ability (although the latter is in decline for the moment). Just remember that four years after Goldwater was pummeled by Johnson, Nixon came to power, and 16 years later the right wing emerged as an almost indomitable political force with the election of Ronald Reagan.

What the right wing did after the Goldwater loss by a landslide was get organized -- and with the help of corporate sponsors like General Electric (Ronald Reagan), they aggresively took over the "influencers" on the American public -- particularly think tanks and the media (remember GE owns NBC and CSNBC among other media outlets, somehow giving MSNBC a pass because they think it will make money with a niche progressive audience), as well as organizing and dialing for dollars.

Ironically, although Perlstein's book focuses on the events surrounding the 1964 race, Goldwater in his later years became a libertarian who supported gay rights, among other issues anathema to the modern right wing.

But Goldwater after 1964 no longer mattered. The big boys of the right wing took over and put their money where the wealthy Democrats won't: into the media that shapes the dialogue -- and into packaging candidates and building a well-developed organizational army behind them.

The right wing rose Phoenix like from the Goldwater debacle that Perlstein covers so thoroughly and entertaingly. It left the grandson, Goldwater, of a Jewish immigrant in the Arizona dust and moved on relentlessly building an infrastructure to take over America.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS