Rick Perlstein
Rick Perlstein
Eric S. "Rick" Perlsteinis an American historian and journalist, who has won wide acclaim for his chronicles of the 1960s and 1970s and the American conservative movement. Perlstein is the author of three bestselling books and is the winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. Politico has dubbed Perlstein "a chronicler extraordinaire of modern conservatism."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
CountryUnited States of America
basically historian historical inaccuracy mistaken overlook poetic shakespeare speaking
Personally, speaking as a historian and a storyteller, when it comes to inaccuracy in historical fictioneering, I follow the Shakespeare principle: I'm willing to overlook gobs of mistaken detail if the poetic valence is basically correct.
candidates colossal pay power publicly source symbolic
For conservative leaders, making candidates pay them court, publicly and ostentatiously, is a colossal source of their symbolic power before their followers. It's kabuki theater, mostly.
adolescent angry circle curious dialogues found intensely israel jews liberal political remember repeating stereotype word
As an adult, I've always found the stereotype that Jews are liberal a curious one; my parents' circle was predominantly conservative, not just on Israel but on most political issues. Most of all, they were intensely (and this is a word I remember repeating in my own angry adolescent dialogues with myself) tribal.
america built deal express fault founded huge lines states
America was founded on the fissure between slave states and free states, so these huge fault lines are just built into the American project. How we repress them, express them, deal with them, talk around them, think through them, don't think through them, is fascinating to me.
best care gain pieces
When you're a writer, you never know which of your pieces are going to gain a toehold and which will not, and it's best not to care too much.
considered given
What is considered 'conservative' and what is considered 'liberal' changes in any given era.
failure kennedy proverbial thousand utter
There's no question that Kennedy was an utter failure as a passer of laws during his proverbial thousand days.
business side
Social conservatism, business conservatism: the one side constitutes the other, like some infernal Mobius strip.
argued behavior best party political possible predictor remarkably scientists sticky time
Political scientists have long argued that party identification is the best possible predictor of voting behavior and is remarkably sticky over time.
among good people
One thing Republicans understand: In American elections, you have to choose from among only two people - not between the perfect and the good.
act bigger event future predicting
I'm a historian. The act of predicting the future discomfits me, in any event - and the bigger the prediction, the more distrusting I am.
conserving devoted supposedly
For a movement supposedly devoted to conserving the past, conservatives are oh-so-splendid at forgetting their own past.
issues
Economic issues are a subset of social justice. Social justice is unimaginable without economic justice. Isn't that obvious?
people
Do people still read before bed? I play 'Words With Friends.'