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A review by josephmeyer17
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein
5.0
In 1964, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson won the presidency in one of the largest landslides in modern American history. In 1972, Republican Richard Nixon rivaled Johnson's victory with a landslide victory of his own.
How did America in the span of 8 years go from one extreme to another? This is the answer that Rick Perlstein seeks to answer in his 2 giant installment of a 4-part series about the rise of conservatism in America.
So, what happened? Well, so much in that time span that you could dedicate an entire college course to it and still not cover everything. The Vietnam War, antiwar activists, civil rights, riots in the cities, a rising crime rate, political assassinations, riots at political conventions, protests & counterprotests, a sinking economy, women's liberation movement, and more.
In each battle, Perlstein shows the American populous becoming sharply divided. There was the "New Left" composed of the hippies, activists, and others who sought to change America through any means. Then there was the "Silent Majority", composed of suburban, middle class Americans who felt the New Left was destroying their very way of life. It would be the building anger of this group that Richard Nixon stepped into.
Perlstein has a very breathless way of writing, which could be intimidating to some people. He frequently will shift from one subject to the next, and intersperse the narrative with 1-2 sentence quips about a news story. Personally, this was a strength. The constant shifting really did give me the feeling of being someone in this period who were overwhelmed with the constant news.
Although Perlstein is a writer on the left, his biases do not show much. While he is harsh on Nixon, he does not spare any sympathy for the democrats in the story from Lyndon Johnson to George McGovern. He writes about the conservatives from a sympathetic lens, but also does not shy away from their sins.
Overall, this is a brilliant book on 1960s/early 1970s America. I highly recommend anyone interested in the period to give this one a read.
How did America in the span of 8 years go from one extreme to another? This is the answer that Rick Perlstein seeks to answer in his 2 giant installment of a 4-part series about the rise of conservatism in America.
So, what happened? Well, so much in that time span that you could dedicate an entire college course to it and still not cover everything. The Vietnam War, antiwar activists, civil rights, riots in the cities, a rising crime rate, political assassinations, riots at political conventions, protests & counterprotests, a sinking economy, women's liberation movement, and more.
In each battle, Perlstein shows the American populous becoming sharply divided. There was the "New Left" composed of the hippies, activists, and others who sought to change America through any means. Then there was the "Silent Majority", composed of suburban, middle class Americans who felt the New Left was destroying their very way of life. It would be the building anger of this group that Richard Nixon stepped into.
Perlstein has a very breathless way of writing, which could be intimidating to some people. He frequently will shift from one subject to the next, and intersperse the narrative with 1-2 sentence quips about a news story. Personally, this was a strength. The constant shifting really did give me the feeling of being someone in this period who were overwhelmed with the constant news.
Although Perlstein is a writer on the left, his biases do not show much. While he is harsh on Nixon, he does not spare any sympathy for the democrats in the story from Lyndon Johnson to George McGovern. He writes about the conservatives from a sympathetic lens, but also does not shy away from their sins.
Overall, this is a brilliant book on 1960s/early 1970s America. I highly recommend anyone interested in the period to give this one a read.