Perlstein, winner of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Before the Storm:
Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, provides
a compelling account of Richard Nixon as a masterful harvester of negative
energy, turning the turmoil of the 1960s into a ladder to political
notoriety. Perlstein's key narrative begins at about the time of the Watts
riots, in the shadow of Lyndon Johnson's overwhelming 1964 victory at
the polls against Goldwater, which left America's conservative movement
broken. Through shrewdly selected anecdotes, Perlstein demonstrates the
many ways Nixon used riots, anti.Vietnam War protests, the drug culture
and other displays of unrest as an easy relief against which to frame his
pitch for his narrow win of 1968 and landslide victory of 1972. Nixon spoke
of solid, old-fashioned American values, law and order and respect for the
traditional hierarchy. In this way, says Perlstein, Nixon created a new
dividing line in the rhetoric of American political life that remains with
us today. At the same time, Perlstein illuminates the many demons that
haunted Nixon, especially how he came to view his political adversaries
as enemies of both himself and the nation and brought about his own downfall.

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