It may be a bit much to begin my remarks by putting pressure, like a deconstructionist, on a single word — a word that may have been just a throwaway — but I’ll take the risk. Near the beginning of his thoughtful essay, Alan Brinkley writes, “[I]t’s not hard to imagine centrist Democrats winning presidential […]
Rick Perlstein
Rick Perlstein is the author of a four-volume series on the history of America’s political and cultural divisions, and the rise of conservatism, from the 1950s to the election of Ronald Reagan. He lives in Chicago.
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Patriot Act?
Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark gave the keynote address at the second annual convention of Military Reporters and Editors (MRE), the professional organization for journalists who cover the military. In his speech, Clark threw in his lot with those who believe that President Bush misled the nation in order to lay the […]
Posted inFeatures
As Reviewed on Amazon
I first delved into the reviews posted by readers on Amazon.com for utilitarian reasons. I will soon be publishing a serious nonfiction book; I wanted to know what kind of attention such a book could expect to get from this particular sample of the reading public. My case study, I decided, would be Susan Faludi’s […]
Posted inFeatures
The TV Campaign
T he morning after the first televised debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush, I awoke to the voice of an earnestly boyish reporter on National Public Radio proclaiming that at long last America has been allowed to hear its candidates “without the filter of the news media.” At which, in wearied frustration, I […]