The past is prologue ( )

I read this book immediately after reading his previous volume, Nixonland, which was his chronicle of Nixon's rise and fall and how Nixon was able to turn the deep polarization of the late sixties to his advantage by playing to the backlash of those elements of American society who felt bewildered and frightened by the social upheaval of the that decade. This book is the continuation of that story into the early to mid-seventies, of Nixon's final fall with Watergate and the mantle of his Silent Majority being picked up by Ronald Reagan. The Invisible Bridge was a revelation to me in many ways, my having only a hazy vision of the political history of that era beyond Watergate. This book is a huge, sprawling book that contains all the major players of the era, as well as many,many minor ones to give the tumult felt by ordinary Americans as well as its politicians greater resonance. There were so many references and events chronicled that I almost lost my grip on the main narrative the author is developing, which is the rise of modern American conservatism and how our political world was shaped by these people and events. That sense of overwhelming detail is the only major problem that I had with both books, as generally I think he is very successful at demonstrating how the personal lives and perspectives of both Nixon and Reagan played out in their later successes and failures as politicians, and how each was able to touch a chord in Americans that were desperate to fight social and political liberalism in the late sixties and early seventies. Even with all the detail and the added knowledge that I gained from both books, I still wish I had a better sense of really knowing both men or seeing them humanized, and I felt he still left a sort of impressionistic vision of both of them. This incomplete sense may be more a fault of mine as a reader rather than his failure, though, and given the already gargantuan size of the book, perhaps he couldn't have added anymore detail or insight than he did. In the end, I do have a better understanding of both men, more so Reagan, as I was almost completely uninformed about his rise from governor of California to being a national player in the Republican party, and knew next to nothing about the floor fight in 1976 for the nomination against Ford, so if only for that, this book was highly instructive and readable for me. I would recommend both it and Nixonland for anyone interested in this period and how it has shaped our own. ( )

Excellent!

I've knocked off a half star because of too much cultural history and the often ambiguity of what year a particular event is occurring in -- he sometimes skips around a bit in time. Otherwise, it's another worthy volume in his series on the rise of the right in America.

The events in this volume coincide with most of my college years -- years in which my interests were my studies and my friendships, with current events something to just shake my head at with dismay. So there is a lot about the 1976 presidential campaigns in this book that I hadn't known about at the time. We all thought Ford was a pretty bad president, but herein are the facts of just how bad. It's also very good on tying together the events in Reagan's life with his emerging political "philosophy", if it can be called that. The first Republican president to be rather on the dim side but just so folksy and seemingly harmless, the book shows how right-wing politicos and pundits were brought into his inner circle and kept his schtick going.

I found the book enlightening on the persona of Jimmy Carter. He was a cagey dude who polished a persona that obscured his almost total lack of ability. He had a great organization and his single real talent was pulling the wool over the eyes of the populace. I don't doubt that there are aspects of him that weren't artificial, but I think they were more of a religious nature. He only beat Ford because of almost a total sweep of the Southern states in the election. Maybe they thought he was truly one of them. Maybe he was.

It was a bizarre election year. You could imagine that Rockefeller would have bailed out, or that Birch Bayh would have been the Democratic nominee, or any of several other outcomes. It's all here, the train wreck of the aftermath of Watergate. ( )

I must say to you that the state of our Union is not good -- President Gerald Ford

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein is a political history of the United States from the late 1960s to the Republican Convention in 1976. Perlstein holds a BA in history for the University of Chicago and did graduate work at the University of Michigan in American Studies. His previous books include Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.

This is a book that covered most of my childhood and brought back a flood of memories. It not only covered the politics but the culture too. Vietnam, Patty Hearst, POWs, Legionnaires disease, horse meat, Dirty tricks, Berkeley student protests, changing sexual ideas, ERA, bicentennial, The Exorcist, Henry Aaron, The Freedom Train, streaking, Evel Knievel, textbook wars, WIN, Born Again, Weather Underground, and Saturday Night Live are all included in this troubled period. From Nixon’s disgrace, to Ford’s healing America, to a Georgia peanut farmer all give rise to a man from California, Ronald Reagan. “People wanted to believe. Ronald Reagan was able to make them believe.” Perlstein captures not only the history but also the spirit of the times.

Perlstein gives detailed biographies of Reagan and Betty Ford. Betty Ford was quite progressive for her time and made quite a stir with her opinions. That was part of the history I did not remember. President Ford, I remembered mostly for his pardoning of Nixon and Chevy Chase’s impersonations on Saturday Night Live. Ford, not Carter, was the “nice guy” president. Ford wanted to heal the nation and return the nation to prosperity. His efforts at times almost seem comical, WIN -Whip Inflation Now was one of the better known programs. My take is, that more than anything, Ford was the bridge that allowed the healing.

In the background are the other players. Kissinger maintains a large role and smaller roles by still familiar names like Pat Buchanan, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson start the beginnings of the Moral Majority and the Christian Right. With Jimmy Carter, Billy Carter is also brought forward and rival Scoop Jackson.

Another revelation for me was just how contested the Republican primary of 1976 turned out to be. Ford nearly became the first sitting president not to win his party’s nomination since Cester A. Arthur. The Republican party was deeply divided between Ford and Reagan. It took the floor vote at the convention to nominate Ford before the result was known for sure. Ford came very close to losing and may have loss if it wasn’t for Reagans choice of running mate -- Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania.

What makes The Invisible Bridge a great book is the writing. I knew the history before reading the book. History records that it was Ford and Dole in 1976 and not Reagan and Schweiker, but reading the book creates a sense of suspense. There are several situations where history may have been very different, and I just never realized how close things came to being very different. Perlstein writes a history book that wants to be read and keeps the reader’s interest through to the end. An outstanding modern history. ( )