The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

Perlstein, Rick

4.23

3,069 ratings by Goodreads

9781491534731: The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

ISBN 10: 1491534737 ISBN 13: 9781491534731

Publisher: Brilliance Audio, 2014

From the bestselling author of Nixonland: a dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.

In January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term—until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. The next president declared upon Nixon’s resignation “our long national nightmare is over”—but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives. The economy was in tatters. And as Americans began thinking about their nation in a new way—as one more nation among nations, no more providential than any other—the pundits declared that from now on successful politicians would be the ones who honored this chastened new national mood.

Ronald Reagan never got the message. Which was why, when he announced his intention to challenge President Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination, those same pundits dismissed him—until, amazingly, it started to look like he might just win. He was inventing the new conservative political culture we know now, in which a vision of patriotism rooted in a sense of American limits was derailed in America’s Bicentennial year by the rise of the smiling politician from Hollywood. Against a backdrop of melodramas from the Arab oil embargo to Patty Hearst to the near-bankruptcy of America’s greatest city,The Invisible Bridge asks the question: what does it mean to believe in America? To wave a flag—or to reject the glibness of the flag wavers?

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Review:

“A Rosetta stone for reading America and its politics today... a book that is both enjoyable as kaleidoscopic popular history and telling about our own historical moment... Epic work.” (Frank Rich New York Times Book Review, listed among the 100 Notable Books of 2014)

“One of the most remarkable literary achievements of the year... The Invisible Bridge covers three years in 800 pages, but somehow, you don't want it to end.” (NPR.org included among the Best Books of 2014)

“Rick Perlstein has established himself as one of our foremost chroniclers of the modern conservative movement...much of ‘The Invisible Bridge’ is not about politics per se but about American society in all its weird, amusing, and disturbing permutations. He seems to have read every word of every newspaper and magazine published in the 1970s and has mined them for delightful anecdotes...it would be hard to top it for entertainment value.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“Enthralling, entertaining... oddly charming and ultimately irresistible.” (Boston Globe)

“For Americans younger than fifty-five, the story of conservatism has been the dominant political factor in their lives, and Rick Perlstein has become its chief chronicler, across three erudite, entertaining, and increasingly meaty books.... ‘The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan’...finally brings into focus the saga’s leading character, Ronald Reagan....What gives ‘The Invisible Bridge’ its originality is the way Perlstein embeds Reagan’s familiar biography in the disillusionments of the seventies.” (The New Yorker)

"’The Invisible Bridge’ is a magnificent and nuanced work because of Perlstein's mastery of context, his ability to highlight not just the major players but more important, a broader sense of national narrative.” (David Ulin The Los Angeles Times)

“Engrossing...invaluable to readers aching to find answers to why the country is so deeply polarized today.” (The New York Times)

“A mixture of scholarly precision, outrage and wry humor.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

“This is gripping material... Perlstein's gift lies in illustrating broad political trends through surprising snapshots of American culture and media.” (Chicago Reader)

“Rick Perlstein is becoming an American institution...a superb researcher and writer.” (The New Republic)

About the Author:

Rick Perlstein is the author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, a New York Times bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of the year by over a dozen publications; Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, which won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history and appeared on the best books of the year lists of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune.

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