5/30/2023 0 Comments Nixonland![]() Hence the remarkable contrast between the 19 presidential elections - two of the most lopsided in American history, the former yielding an activist-government Democratic president, the latter a law-and-order Republican. The 1960s brought enhanced government support for economic security and opportunity via Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs, civil rights legislation that opened economic and social doors for racial minorities and women, and massive cultural liberalization among young Americans. It’s difficult to read the book and not be at least somewhat convinced. 747): “I have written of the rise, between the years 19, of a nation that had believed itself to be at consensus instead becoming one of incommensurate visions of apocalypse: two loosely defined congeries of Americans, each convinced that should the other triumph, everything decent and true and worth preserving would end.” Here’s how he puts it on the book’s penultimate page (p. Perlstein suggests that during these years Americans increasingly divided into two political groups, and these groups’ opposition to one another grew more intense and passionate. Nixonland aims at more than a historical recounting. I had such a hard time putting the book down it nearly spoiled my recent family vacation. It’s a fascinating history of American society and politics from 1965 to 1972, woven together in a compelling and exceptionally well-written narrative. Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland is a terrific book. ![]()
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