Before the Storm
Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
Will be published approx. on 1. December 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
720 pages
978-1-64503-085-0 (ISBN)
Description
From a bestselling historian and journalist, a whirlwind account of how Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential belly flop shaped the political world we know now.
“A detailed and dramatic narrative of the rise of the modern right...It’s an amazing story, and Perlstein, a man of the left, does it justice.” —William Kristol, New York Times Book Review
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History
As the 1950s drew to a close, Americans were confident that impassioned political conflict was a thing of the past. Then, conservatives launched an uprising to eviscerate the centrist consensus. They were determined to see Barry Goldwater—a rich, handsome Arizona Republican who scorned the federal bureaucracy, reviled negotiations with the Communist enemy, and despised liberals on sight—elected president in 1964. Lyndon Johnson trounced him. Within two years, the notion of America as a “consensus” society was in tatters. Two decades later, Ronald Reagan was president. By the next decade, Goldwater's ideas had been adopted by Republicans and Democrats alike.
In this engrossing narrative, Rick Perlstein argues that the 1964 election marked a key shift in US politics, the aftershocks of which we’re still feeling today.
“A detailed and dramatic narrative of the rise of the modern right...It’s an amazing story, and Perlstein, a man of the left, does it justice.” —William Kristol, New York Times Book Review
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History
As the 1950s drew to a close, Americans were confident that impassioned political conflict was a thing of the past. Then, conservatives launched an uprising to eviscerate the centrist consensus. They were determined to see Barry Goldwater—a rich, handsome Arizona Republican who scorned the federal bureaucracy, reviled negotiations with the Communist enemy, and despised liberals on sight—elected president in 1964. Lyndon Johnson trounced him. Within two years, the notion of America as a “consensus” society was in tatters. Two decades later, Ronald Reagan was president. By the next decade, Goldwater's ideas had been adopted by Republicans and Democrats alike.
In this engrossing narrative, Rick Perlstein argues that the 1964 election marked a key shift in US politics, the aftershocks of which we’re still feeling today.
More details
Person
Rick Perlstein is the bestselling author of Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976–1980, The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. His reviews, reporting, and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. He lives in Chicago.