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Reviews
Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein
ladykitsugo's review against another edition
3.0
INCOMPLETE - Given this book about 4 months, but it has been one of the most dense books i have ever read. For someone with limited knowledge of time, i would say too dense. Gonna put it on the shelf and try again down the line. But what i did get is an intriguing tale of politics and in a better time and cleared understanding, might be a much stronger book to me.
chaoticreadingclub's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
I learned a lot from this book overall, but Perlstein’s writing style is not for me. He couldn’t decide what kind of organization he wanted for his own book; one moment the narrative voice would read like a sentimental novel, and then next he would add names to the book without context, wasting no time to info dump without remorse. He clearly has a lot of useful information, but he really needed a better editor.
micareads123's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Is US political history my wheelhouse? Not even a little bit. But did I enjoy this book anyway, despite it being pretty far outside my comfort zone? Absolutely.
This book was the first instalment of a four-part book club on US political history. The book club is focused on the rise of conservatism and understanding how we got to where we are today in terms of political extremism.
The argument Perlstein presents in Before the Storm is that despite Democrat Lyndon Johnson’s landslide win over Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, Barry Goldwater’s influential role in the uprising of conservatism, both in the race and as a senator before then, cannot be so easily dismissed.
A highlight for me was how the author tied certain events, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the release of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, into the narrative, describing their influence in dividing the country between left and right.
I did find that with my level of knowledge on the topic, Perlstein’s style of floating in and out of different themes and providing perhaps more detail than necessary made the book a little hard to follow, at times a slog. That said, I think there is a lot to get out of this book for people with any level of knowledge on this era of US politics.
Overall, I learned a lot from this book, and I look forward to continuing the book club reading with Perlstein’s Nixonland.