The Invisible Bridge

The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

De: Rick Perlstein

Narrado por: David de Vries

From the bestselling author of Nixonland: a dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.

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 honored 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 might just 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?

©2014 Rick Perlstein (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Great Political Series

Great Series of Political Books, highlighting all the behind the scenes action of the political campaigns of the 1960s and 70s, sadly I refuse to finish the series as I will not Tolerate Censorship that is present in the final installment "Reagan Land".
If Audible continues to censor it's offerings I will cancel my Long Standing Membership, I will not be treated as a child and have a Audible dictate for the purpose of Political Correctness what I am allowed to hear and not hear.
All else aside this is a Very Well done Documentary series of the Politics and Culture of the 1960s and 70s, I highly recommend.

Interesting study of recent history.

Mostly balanced view of Watergate and the rise of Reagan conservatism with a hapless Gerald Ford waiting to be trounced by Jimmy Carter.

Superb political narrative, bias notwithstanding

A self-identified political liberal, Perlstein's book generated a bunch of controversy related to too-liberal use of other people's work, in the mode of Kearns-Goodwin, Biden and other leftist Untouchables. But...the book itself, despite a good deal of dripping sarcasm about conservatism and conservative political figures, is such a terrific piece of social as well as political history that much a contre-coeur, I could not "put it down" for hours on end. A must-read for anyone wanting to get a sense of the 1970s and the rise of the great (yes, and even the author seems to get used to the idea) Ronald Reagan. His narration of the events of the 1976 Republican convention should be required reading.

A bit slow-moving

This was overall pretty interesting, but of the 4 volumes of this series, this was the one I enjoyed the least. The long biographical sections were overall worthwhile in the insight they offered, and the detailed account of the Watergate investigation was fascinating. There were lengthy accounts of concurrent events in popular culture that seemed to go on too long sometimes, and I had less of a sense of an overall story arc to follow which left me a little less engaged than I was with the other 3 volumes. But it was overall worthwhile to listen to--lots of information.

Discaimer: I didn’t finish

Once you’ve read Robert Caro’s books, the standard for Biographies is very high. I found it hard to dig into this. For me it was too much of a collage of anecdotes. I’ll give another go at it at a later time.

good history

lived during this period and seem to have missed all the details. good recap of events.

Setting the occasion for the Reagan Revolution

The Invisible Bridge (IB) describes the cultural, economic, political, domestic, and social conditions that set the occasion for the "Reagan Revolution" or political realignment of the U.S. in favor of conservatism. Rick Perlstein starts “IB” with a detailed analysis of the Nixon administration’s break-in at the Watergate hotel in September 1971. Perlstein reminds the reader that Nixon had other problems brewing in 1971: Bombing of Cambodia, attempting to withdraw from Vietnam without the appearance of losing the war, POWs, and student demonstrations. Overall, the consecutive Presidency’s of Johnson /Nixon permanently changed the American people’s perception of the executive office. The office that was once revered and respected was now seen as corrupt and implacably tarnished.

Reagan’s story and ascendance is always lurking as the backdrop to the scandalous events ranging from Vietnam to Jimmy Carter. Perlstein gives the reader a good biography of Reagan’s development and history, but this is not comprehensive. The emphasis of IB is a microanalysis of political and cultural events that affected Americans between 1971 and 1976. I must admit, I had forgotten how turbulent and chaotic these years were in American history; especially the high degree of domestic terrorism.

IB is not a love letter to Republicans, Democrats, or Reaganites. Perlstein appears to treat all of the players between 1971 and 1976 with equal contempt and cynicism. If you interested in learning about a fairly turbulent time in the United States that set the occasion for a conservative agenda, IB is a winner. If you are a fan of Rush Limbaugh looking to re-affirm your existing worship of the 40th President, look elsewhere.

A regurgitation of the publicly published story

A well written regurgitation of the publicly published story; nothing new or revealing about it. Though it's rather long on narrative, it's short on investigation, analysis and conclusions.

In this rather long narrative, the Bush family is conspicuous by their absence. Despite the fact that Nixon and Reagan owe a lot to the Bush family and the CIA for their political careers, neither are mentioned except to be portrayed as minor players.

Nonetheless, George H.W. Bush was at the time the GOP party chairman appointed by Nixon. H.W. was also appointed UN ambassador by Nixon and later envoy to China by Ford and his only qualification seems to have been his Bush surname. None of this is mentioned.

All the major White House players in Nixon's downfall are CIA connected and this is barely mentioned either.

A disappointing reading experience for me, but if you're fuzzy on the published narrative of the Watergate era, this will serve as a catechism for the orthodox story.

Just an awesome history

What did you love best about The Invisible Bridge?

The story is presented in a way that is never dull and yet you feel like you learn so much.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Invisible Bridge?

I can't pick out one moment. I feel like I have lived the 70s as an adult (I was a child). I'm inspired to learn more.

Of course, it's like "history teaches us that history teaches us nothing". Or "history teaches some of us (let's hope) that history teach us nothing".

What about David de Vries’s performance did you like?

He sucks you in with his style. It could be so boring. Although to be fair to Rick Perlstein, the continual interest is mostly generated by the flow of the book.

Any additional comments?

I hope Audible.com makes other books by the author available. I will snap them up.

Don't expect balance

Although I read a lot of histories I try to not read anything written by someone who is highly political unless I believe that sufficient time has passed to allow passions to cool so that I can get a reasonable view of the events and the reasons for those events. So, although I knew Mr Perlstein was, as one article said, A Man Of The Left, I decided that the 40 or so years that had passed since the events covered by his book was surely enough that I would not be reading some political screed or hit book. Shame on me for making that assumption.

I was both an adult and paying attention during the 1970s and it became clear to me fairly quickly that Mr Perlstein’s views of this period were highly partisan and the world he described seemed to quiver with the highly charged emotions of the period in spite of the passage of years.

In the author’s view:

1) those captured POWs who tried to prevent their use by the North Vietnamese for propaganda and chose to resist the torture they suffered are referred to with the derogatory term “spit and polish” soldiers. Among others this apparently includes John McCain who was tortured so badly that he can no longer raise his arms above his head,

2) Richard Nixon had no right to try to manage the optics of the POW’s return. This seems like an odd view since all modern Presidents try to control the optics of everything surrounding their term in office,

3) parents who are concerned about what their children are taught in Public Schools are fit subjects to be mocked. In the author’s view parent’s religious views are worthy of derision,

4) Ronald Reagan, who grew up with an alcoholic father, but managed to survive the experience and form a positive view of the world needed a psychiatrist to convince him how wrong he was in that view. In my experience children who survive that sort of childhood and have learned to be positive are called optimists and are to be admired, not mocked with the phrase “everything always works out in the end - gloriously”. Indeed, that phrase is used throughout the book as the author’s signature comment concerning Ronald Reagan.

These are but a few examples of the world view of this book and I could, but will not, list more but will only say that I found this book to be so partisan that I was only able to finish the first half. I had come across so many snide comments, half-truths and twisted facts that I was no longer able to continue trying to get through it. However, in fairness, I should mention that part of this book covers the entire Watergate scandal from its first notice in the news to the resignation of Richard Nixon and that coverage was complete and engrossing. It seems a shame that Mr Perlstein was unable to disassociate his dislike of Ronald Reagan from his writing of this book and description of the events leading to the fall of Richard Nixon and the rise of Ronald Reagan.

The book is well narrated but even Mr de Vries cannot rescue this book. While I gave the narration 5 stars the best I felt I could rate this book was 3 stars, given its extreme partisanship. If you believe that Ronald Reagan was duplicitous, untrustworthy and an empty suit and that the 60% of the voting population that gave him their vote for his second term were made up of ignorant and bigoted people, then this is your book. Otherwise, not so much.