Before the storm

Acclaimed historian Rick Perlstein chronicles the rise of the conservative movement in the liberal 1960s. At the heart of the story is Barry Goldwater, the renegade Republican from Arizona who loathed federal government, despised liberals, and mocked “peaceful coexistence” with the USSR. Perlstein’s narrative shines a light on a whole world of conservatives and their antagonists, including William F. Buckley, Nelson Rockefeller, and Bill Moyers. Vividly written, Before the Storm is an essential book about the 1960s.

First sentence: Imagine you lived in a town of twenty, or fifty, or one hundred thousand souls-in Indiana, perhaps, or Illinois, or Missouri, or Tennessee-with a colonnaded red-brick city hall at its center, a Main Street running its breadth, avenues rimmed with modest bungalows and named for trees and exotic heroes and local luminaries, interrupted at intervals by high-steepled churches.

Year

2001

Language

English

Publisher

Hill and Wang

Editions

5

Pages

688

ISBN

9780809028580

Data source: Wikidata