Back in the beginning of the 1990's, I went to college (The University of Chicago) with a somewhat hyperactive, always smiling bespectacled kid named Rick Perlstein. Apparently, he was brilliant. I didn't really know that at the time, but I did know that he played a mean jazz keyboard. I remember a Sunday late evening ritual of going to "Jimmy's," a bar on 55th Street in Hyde Park (I may have the details wrong, it's been awhile), and watching Rick jam with a mix of locals and university types. I also vaguely remember a road trip to Michigan to watch a performance by a friend of Rick's, who he informed me was a jazz phenom (I may have the details wrong there too, but that's close to how I remember it). Fun times.
Anyway, I forgot to mention that Rick is now a much-lauded historian, author and honorary member of the progressive blogosphere. His first book "Before the Storm" (about Barry Goldwater), won the Los Angeles Times Book prize.
Anyway, I am going to Hawaii in a week, and I have nothing to read. So I emailed Rick, and guess what.
He sent me an advance copy of his new, much anticipated book -- Nixonland!!!. I believe it will be released to the hoi polloi, ;-), in May. Anyway, I can't wait to read it. As the book jacket states:
From Rick Perlstein, America's most exciting young historian and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History, comes a riveting new account of how the Nixon era laid the groundwork for the political divide that marks our country today.
Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how RIchard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency.
The 881 page book is meticulously researched, and has already won praise from old Nixon hands for both its accuracy and its insight. Former Nixon WHite House counsel and current Olbermann regular John Dean blurbs:
This is a terrific read. What a delight it is to discover the new generation of historians like Rick Perlstein not only getting history correct but giving us fresh insights and understanding of it.
Although this is a book about the late 1960's and early 1970's, I expect that Rick hardwired the perspective of 21st century bloggers into the book's DNA. As Rick notes in the "Acknowledgements":
When I wrote my first book, my ability to reconstruct the mental world of activists working for political change was profoundly enhanced by my work as a participant-observer with the New York Working Families Party. This time, I enjoyed a privileged perch within a sui generis movement for political change and media accountability as extraordinary in its way as the rise of the CIO in the 1930s and the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition in the 1980s and '90s: the progressive blogosphere, or "netroots."
Anyway, I can't wait to get on a plane to Hawaii (assuming my flight isn't struck by the problems that have been bedeviling the airline industry over the past week), so I can start reading. All I've read so far is the first sentence:
You might say the story starts with a television broadcast.
Good first sentence!
Anyway, I plan to review the book, so keep your eye on my diaries if you are interested. And if you are as eager to read Nixonland as I am, you can pre-order it on Amazon, for delivery some time in May (I think). Click here to do so.