This narrative history of Goldwater's two presidential campaigns in 19, based on exhaustive research in published primary and secondary sources and significant (but more limited) archival work, is more successful than most in drawing the reader into a sympathetic and complex understanding of its cast of characters, whatever the reader's political bent. Perlstein, a journalist who also writes for The Nation and Lingua Franca, absorbs the reader with vivid language without abandoning historical sophistication or fidelity to his sources. Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm is good evidence that political history can be exciting. Reviewed by Jonathan Soffer (Department of History, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York) Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus.
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