Brilliant look at how the right wing conservative movement rose up. Couldn't be more timely. Perlstein does a tremendous job capturing the last 50 years of American history!

I've been reading Rick Perlstein's history of the conservative movement since his seminal account of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign ("Before the Storm") came out more than two decades ago. Although Perlstein's books are nominally about events that happened decades in the past, they feel more relevant than ever with the rise of Trumpism and the conspiracy theorists on the right.

Indeed, I've noticed that Perlstein's approach to the subject seemed to have changed. "Before the Storm" seemed to give more credence to the idea that William F. Buckley had successfully purged the Republican Party of John Birch members and other crazies. By contrast, "Reaganland" suggests that not only did the extremists in the party become more mainstream, but it never went away. From Reagan's campaign slogan ("Let's Make America Great Again") to the media's disproportionate fear of being accused of bias by Republicans, and even some cameo appearances by a Donald J. Trump, it's hard not to see "Reaganland" as a reflection on today's political climate. It's even more impressive that Perlstein manages to recount this history without ever explicitly drawing comparisons to the past few years.

The most interesting parts of the book explore how the conservative movement organized and moved from the fringes of politics to the center. From using direct mail to circumvent the media to targeting Democratic members of Congress in smaller states to take advantage of the lower costs of advertising, the late 1970s was a revolutionary time in the art of political campaigns.

I enjoyed "Reaganland," but often despite its length. This is a long book, and it feels long. It took me months to complete and I ended up reading several shorter books just to take a break from "Reaganland." At times, I thought Perlstein perhaps spent a bit too much time on too many details. I understand the temptation of researchers to include absolutely everything they uncover, but in retrospect I think the book would have benefitted from a tighter narrative.

Unlike the 1960s or 1940s, the 1970s seems to not receive as much attention from scholars and the public alike. Yet, Perlstein's scholarship shows that it was in fact a critical decade for defining and entrenching the political divisions that plague us today. I highly recommend this book - as well as "Before the Storm," "Nixonland," and "The Invisible Bridge" - if you want to understand the rise of American conservatism.

Exhausting in an absolutely worth-it way. Perlstein's newest history of the American right takes readers deep into the chaos, tumult, and black comedy that was the second half of the 1970s. He shows a hapless, ego-driven, would-be technocratic Jimmy Carter leading his party (to which he only seems to have the most tenuous connection or loyalty) down a path of poor decisions and worse communication. Meanwhile, the blithe smile of Ronald Reagan captivated the nation with the seeming clarity of his message, whose sunny optimism belied his truly hard-right Goldwater conservative and racist dog-whistling.

Perlstein's colorful prose is studded with detail, factoids, and snapshots of moments in time that at times reinforce and other times upend the stereotypes we tell ourselves about this chaotic and surreal time.

A masterpiece, as surprising and deeply researched as its predecessors. (I will cover this book in my fall column.)

A phenomenal conclusion to a definitive four-volume work. Author Perlstein gives full context to all the threads that have run through his history of the modern conservative movement - the perceived abandonment of the working class, the inability of non-Conservatives to understand or even see the coming changes, the rise of story and image and its triumph over facts, and more than anything, the rise of the evangelicals as a political force, ably supported by a newly-awakened corporate aggressiveness against perceived government overreach.

Perlstein always plays fair - whether he agrees with the conservative positions (I suspect, pretty self-evidently, that he doesn’t), he always strives to understand how and give voice to why these changes came and, perhaps, were even inevitable.

Though this is announced as the last book in this history, I do wish he’d give us one more volume taking us to the present, if only to analyze how and why a movement (whether you agree with it or not) lost its philosophical and policy bearings and has morphed into a different animal driven by different (or at least long-simmering-below-the-surface) imperatives.

Start with Before The Storm and work your way through Perlstein’s work. It’s an amazing, and amazingly well-written and compelling history.

As both a political junkie and history nerd, this book (and Perlstein's other books) was right up my ally. And, having read most of Robert Caro's books, the long length didn't deter me.

Perlstein, as in the past, manages to be simultaneously comprehensive, academic and engaging. In the current political climate as folks look to blame one person or factor, this book serves as a reminder that nothing takes place in a vacuum.

It was an excellent read and I hope to eventually add a physical copy to my bookshelf.

Rick Perlstein in Reaganland takes the reader through the presidency of Jimmy Carter and the concurrent rise of Ronald Reagan and the effect his rise had on American conservatism. Perlstein goes way beyond the basic narrative that Jimmy Carter was so awful that American voters turned to Ronald Reagan. But explains how the Carter presidency offered an opening to conservatives to take the White House. The two stories take place concurrently. Reagan himself was not a shoe in as the 1980 Republican field boasted several more conventional choices such as George H.W. Bush, John Connelly, and several other lesser figures.

Perlstein is painstakingly detailed and more than a little bit snarky as he takes readers inside the unorthodox, sometimes bumbling presidency of Jimmy Carter, the infighting in the ultimately successful Reagan campaign, the campaigns of the other contenders, and of personal interest to me the campaign of Rockford IL. Congressman John Anderson who serves as a contrast of both Carter and Reagan and something of a relic of a passing era even in 1980.

The thing Perlstein really excels at is not just giving the politics of this time period but a look at what was going on in the country so that the reader who may not have been alive during the time period can understand the how and why the American public may have felt and reacted to the events by turning to Reagan, which is the central focus of the book.

Reaganland is a worthy continuation of Perlstein’s work on the evolution of American Conservatism that is both informative and entertaining.

At times interesting, at others biased. Wouldn’t recommend if a Reagan fan. More details than needed. Good if you like conspiracies.

I received an advanced readers copy exchange for an honest review.

This was very informative but way more information than I and anyone needed