{"product_id":"the-invisible-bridge-the-fall-of-nixon-and-the-rise-of-reagan-9781476782423","title":"The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term--until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. The next president declared upon Nixon's resignation \"our long national nightmare is over\"--but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives. The economy was in tatters. And as Americans began thinking about their nation in a new way--as one more nation among nations, no more providential than any other--the pundits declared that from now on successful politicians would be the ones who honored this chastened new national mood. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRonald Reagan never got the message. Which was why, when he announced his intention to challenge President Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination, those same pundits dismissed him--until, amazingly, it started to look like he just might \u003ci\u003ewin\u003c\/i\u003e. He was inventing the new conservative political culture we know now, in which a vision of patriotism rooted in a sense of American limits was derailed in America's Bicentennial year by the rise of the smiling politician from Hollywood. Against a backdrop of melodramas from the Arab oil embargo to Patty Hearst to the near-bankruptcy of America's greatest city, \u003ci\u003eThe Invisible Bridge\u003c\/i\u003e asks the question: what does it mean to believe in America? To wave a flag--or to reject the glibness of the flag wavers?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePerlstein, Rick:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Rick Perlstein is the author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eNixonland: The Rise of a President\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eand the Fracturing of America\u003c\/i\u003e, a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by over a dozen publications; and \u003ci\u003eBefore the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the 2001 \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Award for history and appeared on the best books of the year lists of \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e. His essays and book reviews have been published in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Village Voice\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e, among others. A contributing editor and board member of \u003ci\u003eIn These Times \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, he lives in Chicago.","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50641708089618,"sku":"9781476782423","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f68f12f3-16bb-49c3-8c09-13fdba84501e.jpg?v=1733031635","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-invisible-bridge-the-fall-of-nixon-and-the-rise-of-reagan-9781476782423","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}