Goldwater [Hardcover]

Barry Goldwater (Author), Jack Casserly (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1988

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The former senator from Arizona writes that he is content to let others assess his 30-year career, although he's willing to admit accomplishing a thing or two as chairman of both the Senate Intelligence and the Armed Services committees. Of the former, he tells of repairing some of the damage to the CIA wrought by the 1975-76 Church Committee, and of the latter he claimsunconvincinglythat "the only god-damn thing I've done in the Senate that's worth a damn" was his part in the 1986 Defense Reorganization Act. Goldwater's charm and sense of humor are in evidence throughout this plain-talk autobiography, written with Casserly ( The Ford White House ), and so is his orneriness. Former defense secretary Robert McNamara comes in for a drubbing over his numbers-game approach to the Vietnam war, for instance, and the senator pulls no punches in his discussion of Richard Nixon's "long record of political treachery." Nor has he forgotten Bill Moyers's anti-Goldwater ads during the 1964 presidential campaign, calling them "the beginning of 'electronic dirt.' " The media, he grumbles, has since then become the fourth branch of government. Goldwater has little use for "the present crowd of glory hogs" in Congress, and proceeds to skewer many of them by name and particulars. Photos. First serial to Play boy; BOMC featured alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 414 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1ST edition (September 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385239475
• ISBN-13: 978-0385239479
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Read, August 31, 2005

By 

Robert Fishman (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Goldwater (Hardcover)

Though I read this book some time ago, I remember it as one of the most interesting political memoirs that I have ever read. Goldwater offers a refreshingly candid look at his long career in public life, as well as his prescriptions for the future of conservatism (it was written back in the late 1980s, but I think that his thoughts on this subject have been on-target). His advocacy of a broad-based conservative movement is the best example of this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Goldwater...the conservative?, July 6, 2011

By 

V-ROD "Bookworm" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goldwater (Paperback)

In my discussions of Barry Goldwater with various people there is always one general theme that always comes to surface. The prevailing theme being; whether you agreed or disagreed with Barry, at least you always knew where he stood. And so that also comes through loud and clear in this book. Barry doesn't pull any punches in this book and lets his opinions fly. I believe the man was a true patriot who loved his country.

I do however, have a problem with many of his views. While I do acknowledge there are many a hypocrite in the Religious right, he seems to want to throw the "baby out with the bath water". I couldn't help but notice an anti-religious theme in his words. He stated in the book he wanted to give Jerry Falwell a "kick in the ###". He also wanted to give more power to the CIA with less accountability to Congress. Apparently he was ignorant of the drug running and money laundering occurring in the Iran/Contra scandal. But who knows, maybe he viewed this as a means to an end to fight communism. This twisted patriotic thought process is absurd to me. He also writes of his wife being a charter member of Planned Parenthood. He tells a story of his venture to get a tatoo. To top it off he writes about dropping his britches to the delight of his grandchildren. An old man doing this! Sounds perverted to me.

I think the end of the book tells the whole story. He promised his wife he wouldn't run again but later decides to run. He states that he has become Washington. She later dies and he ends up a lonely man in a cold, impersonal political world. This book reads as a bitter tragedy to me.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still Relevant, August 12, 2008

By 

Robert Szarka (Norwich, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Goldwater (Paperback)

As with most political memoirs, the charm comes not from great writing but from Goldwater's first-hand perspective on his career. Not all his recollections remain significant, but I found Goldwater's comments about the religious right nearly as relevant today as they were twenty years ago.