But, he adds, 'understanding the precise ways that opinions about divided Americans. Perlstein clearly has no love for Nixon, but his assessments of the other major political figures of the era aren't much kinder.Īs for Reagan, Perlstein argues that the former actor was dissembling, dishonest and as divisive in his own way as Nixon. He's written something like a national biography, a deep exploration of both the politics and the culture of the late 20th century.

Perlstein's latest is the third in a series of books about the modern American conservative movement (or, more accurately, movements), but it would be inadequate to describe it simply as the history of an ideology. That's what Rick Perlstein did in his two previous books, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, and that's what he does in The Invisible Bridge, his best work yet. It takes something like a miracle worker to synthesize history - especially recent history - in a way that's coherent, intelligent and compelling. 'A fog of crosscutting motives and narratives,' writes Rick Perlstein, 'a complexity that defies storybook simplicity: that is usually the way history happens.' Beyond the names and dates, history never offers any easy answers.

That's one of the reasons history stays alive - people will always discuss the past as long as there's something to disagree about, and there's always something to disagree about. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Invisible Bridge Subtitle The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan Author Rick Perlstein

The invisible bridge by rick perlstein