Wednesday, August 10th 2005
Before the Storm
Here’s a post where I agree with liberal Berkeley econ professor Brad DeLong. Professor DeLong is passing along word that Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein is going out of print:
Can this be? There are hundreds of thousands of people serious and interested in politics–on the left and the right–who have not read and do not own Before the Storm.
Buy one. Buy ten, and give them to your friends.
If you don’t know, the book is about Barry Goldwater’s failed presidential campaign in 1964. It’s about the behind the scenes politics, the dirty tricks, the cunning strategies, the dueling ideologies, all the exciting stuff. It’s about the father of the conservative movement, whose failure would lead directly to Reagan’s success. Great stuff.
I read the book during high school, not because it was assigned or anything. It definitely influenced my political growth toward the right. Though that probably wasn’t the goal, since Perlstein is a liberal and all. But what can I say? It’s a very well written book, and it almost reads like a novel. Not boring at all. Please check it out sometime.
Damn! Failure! Maybe when you read my next book, on Nixon, and read about how essentially corrupt the Republican Party has been for 35 years, with Goldwater as the honorable exception, you’ll change your mind.
Feel free to stay in touch. perlstein@aol.com
Comment by Rick Perlstein — 8/10/2005 @ 10:24 pm