Before the Storm

Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

De: Rick Perlstein

Narrado por: Kiff VandenHeuvel

“A detailed and dramatic narrative of the rise of the modern right...It's an amazing story, and Perlstein, a man of the left, does it justice” (William Kristol, The New York Times Book Review)

Before the Storm begins at the tail end of the 1950s, with America affluent, confident, and convinced that political ideology was a thing of the past.

But when John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960, conservatives—editor William F. Buckley Jr., John Birch Society leader Robert Welch, and thousands of students—formed a movement to challenge the center-left consensus. They chose as their hero Barry Goldwater—a rich, handsome Arizona Republican who scorned the federal bureaucracy, reviled détente, despised liberals on sight—and grew determined to see him elected President.

Goldwater was trounced by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But by the campaign's end the consensus found itself squeezed from the left and the right; and two decades later, the conservatives had elected Ronald Reagan as President and Goldwater's ideas had been adopted by Republicans and Democrats alike.

The story of the rise of conservatism during a liberal era has never been told, and Rick Perlstein's gutsy narrative history is full of portraits of figures from Nelson Rockefeller to Bill Moyers. Perlstein argues that the 1964 election led to a key shift in U.S. politics—from concerns over threats from abroad to concerns about disorder at home; from campaigns plotted in back rooms to those staged for television.

Enthralling Tale of the Seeds of 21st Century

A riveting, accurate, and informative account of American politics in the mid-20th century, setting the stage for all that would follow. Perlstein has a storyteller's skills and an historian's respect for selecting key events and getting all perspectives. This book provides the essential but often missing context behind today's headlines. The reader for the audiobook brings the whole thing to life.

Another Perlstein tour-de-force

no one is better than Perlstein at collecting and ordering the detail with requisite nuance.

great

excellent narration, enjoyed the impersonations of the various presidents quoted. fascinating book, filled in some blank spots in an era that is a little blurry for most of is who didn't live through it.

Excellent

A great start to the rise of the conservative wing of the US Republican Party.

Another banger from Ricky P

So now I have read or listened to all of perlstein’s books. This is a compelling work; start this series if you haven’t already.