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Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980
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About This Book
A complex portrait of President Ronald Reagan that charts the rise of the modern conservative brand unlike ever before. After chronicling America's transformation from a center-left to center-right nation for two decades, Rick Perlstein now focuses on the tumultuous life of President Ronald Reagan from 1976–1980. Within the book's four-year time frame, Perlstein touches on themes of confluence as he discusses the four stories that define American politics up to the age of Trump. There is the rise of a newly aggressive corporate America diligently organizing to turn back the liberal tide: powerful unions, environmentalism, and unprecedentedly suffusing regulation. There is the movement of political mobilized conservative Christians, organizing to reverse the cultural institutionalization of the 1960s insurgencies. Third, there is the war for the Democratic Party, transformed under Jimmy Carter as a vehicle promoting "austerity" and "sacrifice"—a turn that spurs a counter-reaction from liberal forces who go to war with Carter to return the party to its populist New Deal patrimony. And finally, there is the ascendency of Ronald Reagan, considered washed up after his 1976 defeat for the Republican nomination and too old to run for president in any event, who nonetheless dramatically emerges as the heroic embodiment of America's longing to transcend the 1970s dark storms—from Love Canal to Jonestown, John Wayne Gacy to the hostages in Iran. Perlstein explores the complex years of Ronald Reagan's presidency offering new and timely insights to issues that still remain relevant today.
Reviews
"Reaganland demonstrates how quickly and dramatically those shifts came about, and how the New Right cleverly transformed American economic and political thinking through culture war."
"Perlstein casts a broad net, riffing on everything from Ted Bundy to New York Mayor Ed Koch, but that is part of the package here; by the end readers have more insight on the rising tide of conservative politics."
"Nothing seems left out ..."
"Perlstein's knack for bringing these long-forgotten clashes to life and his eye for telling details — along with cameo appearances by Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Trump, a 'hungry young killer' out to conquer New York real estate — conjure many eye-opening moments."
"Perlstein masterfully connects deep currents of social change and ideology to prosaic politics, which he conveys in elegant prose studded with vivid character sketches and colorful electoral set-pieces ..."
"A hallmark of Perlstein's work is his blending of political and cultural history, often a tricky balance ..."
"They succeed when they can make sense of the structure of people's feelings in a time of significant social division ..."
"Perlstein doesn't point out the irony, but he doesn't need to."
"A valuable road map that charts how events from 40 years ago helped lead us to where we are now."
"I walked away grateful for its larger arc ..."
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