Buy new:
$16.84$16.84
$3.99
delivery:
May 10 - 15
Ships from: Trinh Ho Sold by: Trinh Ho
Buy used: $11.37
Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Shipping
94% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
90% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 Hardcover – Illustrated, August 18, 2020
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $80.49 | $66.95 |
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Purchase options and add-ons
From the bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge comes the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power.
Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga’s final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement.
In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford’s defeat, too old to make another run. His comeback was fueled by an extraordinary confluence: fundamentalist preachers and former segregationists reinventing themselves as militant crusaders against gay rights and feminism; business executives uniting against regulation in an era of economic decline; a cadre of secretive “New Right” organizers deploying state-of-the-art technology, bending political norms to the breaking point—and Reagan’s own unbending optimism, his ability to convey unshakable confidence in America as the world’s “shining city on a hill.”
Meanwhile, a civil war broke out in the Democratic party. When President Jimmy Carter called Americans to a new ethic of austerity, Senator Ted Kennedy reacted with horror, challenging him for reelection. Carter’s Oval Office tenure was further imperiled by the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, near-catastrophe at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant, aviation accidents, serial killers on the loose, and endless gas lines.
Backed by a reenergized conservative Republican base, Reagan ran on the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”—and prevailed. Reaganland is the story of how that happened, tracing conservatives’ cutthroat strategies to gain power and explaining why they endure four decades later.
- Print length1120 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateAugust 18, 2020
- Dimensions6.13 x 2.2 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-101476793050
- ISBN-13978-1476793054
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

- +
- +
What do customers buy after viewing this item?
- Most purchased | Highest ratedin this set of products
The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's RevivalHardcover
From the Publisher
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The pointillist canvas of Reaganland is mesmerizing…Perlstein’s book certainly presents the fullest picture we have of the Reagan years.” —Thomas Meaney, The Nation
"Perlstein masterfully connects deep currents of social change and ideology to prosaic politics, which he conveys in elegant prose studded with vivid character sketches and colorful electoral set-pieces....The result is an insightful and entertaining analysis of a watershed era in American politics."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"If you don’t think a chronicle of the rise of conservatism in American politics can be just as entertaining and illuminating as A Song of Ice and Fire, think again. Perlstein, a local historian, wraps up his acerbic, thoroughly researched, and energetic series on the conservative movement with this tome covering the four years just before Ronald Reagan began his tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."—Chicago Magazine
“[M]ajestic…Perlstein sees American culture holistically, and his method is to implant you into the whole of a living tissue. Reaganland is so mammoth in scope and so scrupulously agnostic in presentation, each reader will likely find their own book in there. I walked away grateful for its larger arc.” —Stephan Metcalf, The Los Angeles Times
"One comes away from this book with a better understanding of how Carter was so thoroughly defeated....Perlstein casts a broad net, riffing on everything from Ted Bundy to New York Mayor Ed Koch, but that is part of the package here; by the end readers have more insight on the rising tide of conservative politics."—Library Journal
“A valuable road map that charts how events from 40 years ago helped lead us to where we are now.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"At more than 1,100 pages, Reaganland is the fourth and final volume of Perlstein’s massive, sweeping history of American conservatism in the postwar era...Reaganland is terrific, a work whose characteristic insight and soaring ambition make it a fitting and resonant conclusion to Perlstein’s astounding achievement....Perlstein’s rapid-fire style of chronological narrative is riveting, like the world’s most exciting microfilm scroll...Perlstein’s epic series shows political history and cultural history cannot be disentangled." —Jack Hamilton, Slate
“In Perlstein’s new book, the final volume of his series charting the ascendancy of the right in America, he traces Reagan’s political comeback and how he reinvigorated the Republican Party’s base with his pledge to ‘Make America Great Again.’ Perlstein, an engaging storyteller, offers a clear guide to the intellectual and ideological debates of the time.”—Joumana Khatib, The New York Times (“13 Books to Watch for in August 2020”)
“It’s all here—the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, brother Billy, the Panama Canal Treaty, California’s Proposition 13 cutting property taxes, supply side economics, the ‘killer rabbit,’ direct mail, the Ford Pinto, Ted Kennedy, Three Mile Island, malaise and a hundred other incidents and stories that defined these tumultuous years…Reaganland is essentially sociopolitical history, focusing on the movements and causes that animated public debate so virulently and the impacts of major social changes, such as women’s rights, on American life…[A] meticulously researched narrative history.”—John S. Gardner, The Guardian
“To reduce Perlstein’s works to political biographies would not be accurate. What he is writing is more of an excavation of the sediment produced by the media of the time: Especially in recent works, he uses archival documents sparingly, but reads deeply in the public record. The books are primarily political history, but they also take up cultural changes…Perlstein’s works are less X-rays of the internal structures of the nation at a given time than an MRI of its nervous system, showing when different regions of the brain lit up: here, activated by fear, here by sex, here by joy, here by anger. This is what has made his books grow in size—Reaganland runs to over 1,000 pages—they resemble reading several years of news, with the benefit of hindsight. They succeed when they can make sense of the structure of people’s feelings in a time of significant social division.”—Patrick Iber, The New Republic
“Rick Perlstein brings his series on the rise of conservatism in the U.S. to a conclusion with Reaganland. Examining the four years before Reagan took office, this volume pinpoints what led the country to elect the first man to run with the slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ and the ruthless political tactics devised to secure his win that endure to this day.”—Juliet Helmke, Observer (“5 Most Anticipated Books of August 2020”)
“Perlstein is a great read for both the history and the narrative.”—John Warner, The Chicago Tribune
"[Perlstein's] books are an epic examination of the political, societal, and cultural tides that have brought us to today’s political shores."—Jeff Beer, Fast Company
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 1 “Nibbled to Death by Ducks”
RONALD REAGAN INSISTED THAT IT wasn’t his fault.
In July of 1976, Jimmy Carter emerged from the Democratic National Convention ahead in the polls against President Gerald Ford by a record thirty-three percentage points. By November, Ford had staged a monumental comeback. But it was not monumental enough. Jimmy Carter was elected president of the United States with 50.08 percent of the popular vote, and 55 percent of the electoral college.
What had stopped Ford just shy of the prize? In newspaper columns, radio commentaries, and interviews all through the rest of 1976 and into 1977,
Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Illustrated edition (August 18, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 1120 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1476793050
- ISBN-13 : 978-1476793054
- Item Weight : 3.38 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 2.2 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #445,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,002 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #1,014 in Political Commentary & Opinion
- #1,050 in US Presidents
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on August 30, 2020
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
1. Gerald Ford became POTUS after the fall of Nixon due to Watergate. He lost to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election in a close contest. Ford was challenged and lost power in the Republican Party to the more right wing California governor Ronald Reagan. He later refused to serve as the Vice-Presidential nominee with Reagan in the 1980 election for POTUS against Carter-Mondal.
2. Jimmy Carter was elected with popular support from the electorate. However, the hardworking nuclear engineer and peanut farmer from Georgia served one disastrous term as chief executive. His popularity plummeted and he was soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.
The problems Carter faced while in office included:
a. The Iran hostage crisis in which Americans were kept captive in Tehran for over one year.
b. The Middle East oil embargo and the disaster in gas shortages in America.
c. Rising taxes and inflation.
d. The rise of the religious right led by such people as the Rev. Jerry Falwell which attacked Carter for his liberalism and support of Roe vs. Wade and abortion,
e. The rise of the anti-ERA forces and the burgeoning prolife movement led by Anita Bryant, Phyllis Schlafley, Christian fundamentalist.
f. Carter did succeed in brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt.
g. Carter was perceived by the public as weak, prissy, sanctimonious and failing to display strong leadership in times of crisis.
h. Antisemitism and anti black forces exerted their muscle against civil rights in this country.
The Republican Party became stronger during this dark time in American life. The GOP became strong in the South .
i. The growing home schooling movement and attacks on public education grew during this time.
This book will appeal to scholars and political junkies who want a detailed examination of the Carter presidency.
The text is somewhat dry reading like a textbook but is a worthwhile read on this period in history.
However, this is much more than the story of a failed Presidency - it's the story of how the Republican Party and the right-wing Conservatives really latched on to what America was concerned with and made it their mantra. As the book points out, in the 1970's, the Republican party was not a juggernaut - only around 20% of registered voters identified themselves as Republicans. So how did it come to be that Ronald Reagan, an actor and former Governor of California, won the 1980 Presidential election against an incumbent President?
Reagan was a gifted orator who took advantage of a rising tide of conservative thought (perhaps largely due to backlash against the excesses of the 60's) to catapult himself onto the world stage by becoming President. His many gaffes and factual errors notwithstanding, he was able to capture the hearts of many Americans in his rise to the top.
Reagan is now recognized as one of America's better Presidents, and this book helps us understand how he got there - the next logical volume is to understand how he stayed atop that mountain for 2 terms despite events like the Iran-Contra affair and the fact that he was potentially impacted by the onset of Alzheimer's during his term.
Perlstein is a gifted writer, and has given us a tome well worth reading to help understand the rise of the right in the 1970's and continuing on to the present. As others have pointed out, though, the book is filled with grammatical errors, which suggests the editors did not work as tirelessly as Perlstein did before publication.
For my earliest personal years, I lived in Carterland, birth state of former Vice-President, the late Walter Mondale. My late father selected the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree for 1977 from a sparsely populated county located half-way between Duluth, MN and the Twin Cities. My parents flew to D.C. and got to meet former 8th District Congressman, the late James Oberstar. While the national mood may have been quite somber, Minnesota was just coming through Governor Wendall Anderson's "Minnesota Miracle."
During this time, Pierre Trudeau was still Prime Minister of Canada. He was trying to nationalize oil in Alberta, and he was trying to reconcile Quebec with the rest of Canada by implementing his official policy of bilingualism, multiculturalism, and the metric system. His renewed legacy remains North of the Border with his son after a sharp turn to the Right with Stephen Harper.
The next few years will determine whose side of history this book's thesis is on. Will America completely turn away from the battles those progressives fought during that period or will we have a resurgence of the leftist excitements of years past?
Top reviews from other countries
This is the last of four books charting the rise of the neo-conservative/Christian right from Barry Goldwater’s quixotic 1964 presidential bid to Reagan’s crushing victory in 1980 and the subsequent remodelling of American society eventually leading to the rise of an even more right wing president 36 years later.
Those familiar with our own history will see many parallels in this book between late seventies British history and that of our North American cousins, the breakdown of the postwar consensus, rampant inflation and union excesses. And like us they voted for an option from which there was no return.
Some things were worse then, the blatant homophobia and racism is mortifying to read about. I’d like to think it’s better today (no I’m sure some will think) the cynical manipulation of peoples fears however is ever present.
A great final entry in a superb series.
Mais, chère lectrice, cher lecteur, je te mets en garde quand même : peut-être que, comme moi, malgré ta bonne volonté, tes efforts, malgré le fait que le sujet t'intéresse et que tu le connais déjà un peu, tu risques de te noyer dans l'abondance de détails, d'être submergé par la quantité astronomique des informations. Tu risques de te sentir un peu seul(e).
Car l'auteur, à mon sens, n'a pas suffisamment synthétisé et expliqué : il n'y a pas vraiment de guide de lecture, ni d'analyse. C'est bien beau de tout aligner en bloc, mais le besoin de mise en perspective et d'explication finit par être intenable. Je n'ai pas trouvé qu'il se dégage une direction claire.
Or l'objet du livre est de faire comprendre le tournant politique pris par les USA à la fin des années 1970, lorsque le conservatisme sans complexe dont Reagan fut le héraut (et le héros) a tout balayé sur son passage. Passer en revue, presque jour après jour, les événements, n'est pas suffisant. L'auteur aurait pu de temps à autre lâcher son microscope, se reculer de quelques mètres et nous offrir le tableau en entier.














