One of my favorite historical writers on one of my favorite historical writers. Listen to Eyal Press’s interview with Perlstein here. Here is a taste of the transcript: Eyal Press: No question as someone who grew up in Buffalo, I […]
Rick Perlstein
Rick Perlstein: Conservative trolling has a long history
Here is the author of Before the Storm, Nixonland, The Invisible Bridge, and Reaganland: David Frum, the former George W. Bush speechwriter and current never-Trump conservative, recently wrote, “The post-Trump right has a style as distinctive as its authoritarian substance: trolling, […]
Is the world getting more dangerous?
Jonathan Last, the editor of the The Bulwark, thinks so. In his recent piece he focuses on anti-mask violence and a potential coup in Brazil. Is Last right? Is the world indeed getting more dangerous? I am not sure how […]
What are you reading this summer?
Check out Jennifer Harlan’s New York Times piece on the history of summer reading. Here is a taste: Something about these dog days, more than any other time of year, invites readers to bury themselves in a book — and […]
Ronald Reagan in 1975: “Why don’t we try reverse psychology and make it harder to vote?”
I am reading Rick Perlstein’s Reaganland and was struck by this passage (p.93-94): Look what happened after President Carter, on March 22, sent a letter to Congress recommending a package of electoral reforms. The president was concerned that America ranked […]
On fighting “a guerilla battle at the grassroots of a generation of lower-middle-class people who feel betrayed and exploited”
Here is Rick Perlstein in Reaganland on the rise of the New Right in the 1970s: That notion–conservatism as an ideology for working people–was another New Right theme. [Richard] Viguerie’s father had been a construction worker; his mother toiled in […]