Rating: 
Summary: A Very High-Quality Book
Review: This book is political history at its best-- absorbing, non-partisan, and blissfully free from shallow and anachronistic pontificating from the author. Despite what the other reviewers have said, it is not at all overlong-- it tries to capture the national mood of the times by straying from Goldwater himself, but this only strengthens the presentation of the '64 campaign. And, yes, the book does rely on an "assumed store of political knowledge," but what one reader calls "absence of any real or substantive analysis" is really just Perlman's decision to let the facts and the story speak for itself, like good history should, instead of resting on argument. Indeed, one of its great strengths is that it allows the reader to draw on his "assumed store of political knowledge." Finally, this book is completely non-partisan, and is an agreeable read for those of any ideology-- apparently not an easy task to pull off, as evidenced by the stacks of partisan histories that are perpetually being turned out.
There is an extraordinary amount of bad popular history on the market, but this is a book of exceptional quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Goldwater's Disastrous 1964 Campaign Revisited
Review: This is a very enjoyable and knowledgeable book about the events of 1964 and the overwhelming victory of Lyndon Johnson against "extremist" Barry Goldwater. For those who remember back that far, it is doubtful that anyone could have defeated Johnson that year, even the most "Liberal" and popular Republican (Nelson Rockefeller). The country was still enthralled with how LBJ had made such a smooth transition after Kennedy's death and he was able to ramrod just about any legislation he wanted through Congress. Vietnam wasn't on the map yet and, in reality, Goldwater never really had a chance. This book is excellent at pointing out the obvious in why his defeat turned into such an historic landslide. Perlstein is correct in his assessment that the devastating defeat was not only due to the Republicans misguided campaign strategies but to Goldwater himself. Goldwater, though very charismatic and honest to a fault, was his own worst enemy and his possible election was seen by most as the beginning of World War III. The Democratic television commercials of the day also had much to do in portraying Barry as a trigger-happy warmonger intent on blowing up the planet for the sake of an ideal. In Perlstein's final analysis, the Republicans learned the hard way in 1964 about how NOT to run a national campaign. Lessons that would serve them well when another conservative, Ronald Reagan, came on the scene.
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Summary: The origins of the modern Right, as seen from the Left
Review: Why should you read this book? Lots of reasons. First, read BEFORE THE STORM for it's look at the origins of the modern political era. When the polls closed on Election Night '64, the Democrats had just won the Presidency for the seventh time in nine elections, and they held huge majorities in both houses of Congress. The experts debated whether the Republican party could survive, but all agreed that the Conservative movement was dead as vaudeville. Within two years, the Republicans came roaring back in Congress and the state capitols, and the Conservatives held veto power in the Party. The GOP won five of the next six Presidential elections, captured the Senate in the eighties and both houses of Congress in the nineties, and the only Republican presidential candidates to lose were two incumbents who had shown themselves as not conservative enough for the fire-eaters. Who ordered this? Perlstein shows how the charges that blew apart the consensus were laid. He follows the people who were determined to create a Conservative movement, and shows how they eventually succeeded in forcing their champion, Barry Goldwater, into running for the office he didn't want. BEFORE THE STORM also shows us how crazy politics can make people. It's jaw dropping to read of Clarence Manion's efforts to make Orville Faubus into the standard bearer of Constitutional govt. Faubus arguably should have been hanged for treason! And how many of knew that Barry Goldwater was either a totally incompetent politician, or he deliberately sabotaged his presidential effort? The story of Goldwater's '64 'campaign' is a near-perfect record of doing the wrong thing. Yet it didn't matter. Goldwater did the three things necessary to birth the modern Conservative movement: he ran, he allowed Clifton White to organize the volunteers who would take over the Republican party, and he introduced the politician who knew how to reach the people: Ronald Reagan. (My wife, hearing Reagan give "The Speech" for Goldwater, wished she could vote for Ronnie for President instead. Took a while, but ...) It's also illuminating to watch LBJ and his sanctimonious minions attempt to frighten the public into believing Goldwater was a madman who'd get us involved in a war, while secretly planning to do it themselves. How could so many, including me, be taken in by that fraud? Well, reading Perlstein, we're shown how easy it is to miss what's important. The public didn't know what Johnson would do, and the pundits had no idea a Conservative tidal wave would sweep away New Deal politics. Remember that the next time some television gas bag confidently predicts the future, or candidates assure you they'll never do 'X'. BEFORE THE STORM also reminds us of things we prefer to forget or deny, such as the way Goldwater and others abandoned principle to appeal to racists. As a Known Fascist, I hang my head in shame for what we compromised with. But most of all, read BEFORE THE STORM for a great piece of objective history. No one will fail to realize that Rick Perlstein is a Leftist who disagrees with almost every political position Barry Goldwater ever held. But he hardly ever lets his point of view get in the way of explaining his subject's viewpoint. Occasionally, Perlstein stumbles. His claim that Walter Knott got rich off Big Govt. is just silly, and his criticism of western water projects not much better. I could also wish he'd bothered to read books like McCARTHY AND HIS ENEMIES, instead of relying on summaries by hostile critics, or concentrated more on how liberal Democrats like Reagan and Charleton Heston became conservative Republicans. But far more often, he gets inside the heads of those he profiles, as when he tells of the white South's genuine fear that ending racism would also mean ending everything good in Dixie's distinctive subculture. I'm impressed. I look forward to reading future books by Rick Perlstein on any subject, and only hope that my eventual work on Robert Oppenheimer and his times can be as insightful, thorough, and above all, honest. I may even delve into (shudder) THE NATION just to read his articles. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Politics and the '60s
Review: You don't have to be a political junkie to enjoy Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm - the ultimately quixotic tale of the 1964 nominating fight and presidential campaign of conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. A product of exhaustive research (the Notes and Bibliography alone stretch for nearly 120 pages), Before the Storm transports the reader to the very heart of the '60s where the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict loom large, the assassination of JFK shocks the nation, the Civil Rights movement and college unrest define a generation - and a band of conservative activists establishes a public policy agenda which, though mightily rejected in the 1964 election of Lyndon Johnson, bears surprising fruit a scant two years later in the election of Ronald Reagan as Governor of California. If you are a fledgling activist, Before the Storm will usher you into the realities of the American political process where politics is war, even the most minute organizational details matter, and all things are ultimately possible. If you are a student of American history, Before the Storm will bring new life to the story of the '60s for you with real people, real ideas and terribly real events pushing and shoving you in every imaginable direction. After reading Before the Storm you will never view the '60s with simple, rose-colored glasses again. If you are a child of the '60s, Before the Storm will bring back your youth in bold strokes and striking colors. Whether you see yourself as conservative or liberal, you will feel once again the siren call of human freedom that so clearly marked that generation of Civil Rights Workers and Young Americans for Freedom. Reading Before the Storm will help make you a more astute observer of the political scene - chuckling to yourself over the apocalyptic mutterings of big-time pundits like Scotty Reston, Tom Wicker and Walter Lippmann forty years ago even as you develop a healthy mistrust of the the McLaughlins, Blitzers and Dowds of today. And if you are an admirer of Barry Goldwater, as I was, Before the Storm will upset you with his Keystone Cops campaign (after winning the nomination) and the bull headedness of your hero. In the end you will appreciate Goldwater for what he truly was - an uncompromising advocate of freedom whose integrity, loyalty and conviction were unquestioned by friend and foe alike.
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