One is that I don't think anyone can read "Reaganland" and come away without understanding that sort of the viciousness, the naked will to power wasn't always a part of the conservative Republican coalition. But I'll make, you know, two points about that. PERLSTEIN: Well, I think any historian worth his or her salt has to master the phrase it's complicated. Is Donald Trump the product of the conservative movement? Is he a usurper of it? How do you connect him to the dynamics that you've studied? It's really great to be here.ĭAVIES: You have studied the roots of the conservative movement in modern American politics for decades, and now the Republican Party is renominating a president who really didn't come from a traditional party background but who has nearly the unanimous support of the Republican Party.
Well, Rick Perlstein, welcome back to FRESH AIR. He spoke to me from a neighbor's apartment in Chicago about his new book "Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980." He's a contributing editor and board member for In These Times magazine. Jimmy Carter was running for the White House and culminating four years later with Reagan's triumph over Carter after a chaotic term for the Democrat.īesides his three previous volumes on American conservatism, Perlstein has written essays and book reviews for The New York Times and other publications. This one focuses on the period from 1976 to 1980, beginning when Georgia Gov. He's just published his fourth volume about the roots of modern American conservatism. Perlstein is one of the country's foremost students of the rise of the New Right in American politics. He would be nearly 70 by the time he was sworn into office. But our guest historian Rick Perlstein says for much of Reagan's campaign for the presidency, he was written off as too old to have a chance. It ushered in the two-term presidency of Ronald Reagan, who's still idolized by many Republicans. For American conservatives, the election of 1980, 40 years ago, is remembered as a critical turning point.
You hear a lot of people say these days that the 2020 election is the most important of our lifetimes.
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