The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan - Hardcover

Rick Perlstein

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1476782415 ISBN 13: 9781476782416

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2014

Synopsis

In January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term-until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. The next president declared upon Nixon's resignation "our long national nightmare is over"-but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives. The economy was in tatters. And as Americans began thinking about their nation in a new way-as one more nation among nations, no more providential than any other-the pundits declared that from now on successful politicians would be the ones who honoured this chastened new national mood. Ronald Reagan never got the message. Which was why, when he announced his intention to challenge President Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination, those same pundits dismissed him-until, amazingly, it started to look like he just might win. He was inventing the new conservative political culture we know now, in which a vision of patriotism rooted in a sense of American limits was derailed in America's Bicentennial year by the rise of the smiling politician from Hollywood. Against a backdrop of melodramas from the Arab oil embargo to Patty Hearst to the near-bankruptcy of America's greatest city, The Invisible Bridge asks the question: what does it mean to believe in America? To wave a flag-or to reject the glibness of the flag wavers?

About this title

Review:

"Perlstein's comprehensive popular history connects the dots, framing, in the process, a nuanced portrait of contemporary American conservatism." --David Ulin "Los Angeles Times, among his Best Books of 2014 "

'In 800 pages of breathless prose, Perlstein confirms his reputation as the most acerbic chronicler of the rise of modern American conservatism. Don't look for nuanced analysis, as it s partial and partisan. But by encompassing politics and popular culture, Perlstein offers an invaluable guide to the weirdness of the US in the 1970s.' --Sir David Bell, Times Higher Education

About the Author:

Rick Perlstein is the author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, a New York Times bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of the year by over a dozen publications; Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, which won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history and appeared on the best books of the year lists of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1476782415
• ISBN 13: 9781476782416
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 800