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The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of Nixonland: a dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.
In 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.
Ronald 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 might just win. 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, The Invisible Bridge asks the question: what does it mean to believe in America? To wave a flag—or to reject the glibness of the flag wavers?
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“Perlstein once again delivers aterrific hybrid biography of a Republican leader and the culture he shaped…Thescope of the work never feels limited. Perlstein examines the skeletons in theReagan, Ford, and Carter closets, finds remarkable overlooked details, andperfectly captures the dead-heat drama of the Republican convention. Just asdeftly, he taps into the consciousness of bicentennial America. He sees thisworld with fresh eyes…Always at the center of the narrative is Reagan, theself-appointed hero who assured a jittery populace that Vietnam and Watergatewere just bad dreams. He was America’s cheerleader…A compelling, astute chronicle ofthe politics and culture of late-twentieth-century America.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Rick Perlstein has established himself as one of our foremost chroniclers of the modern conservative movement…Much of The Invisible Bridge is not about politics per se but about American society in all its weird, amusing, and disturbing permutations. He seems to have read every word of every newspaper and magazine published in the 1970s and has mined them for delightful anecdotes…It would be hard to top it for sheer entertainment value.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“A Rosetta stone for reading America and its politics today…a book that is both enjoyable as kaleidoscopic popular history and telling about our own historical moment…Epic work.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Engrossing…invaluable to readers aching to find answers to why the country is so deeply polarized today.”
— New York Times -
“The Invisible Bridge covers three years in eight hundred pages, but somehow, you don’t want it to end…One of the most remarkable literary achievements of the year.”
— NPR -
“The latest tome by the author of Nixonland links the fall of Richard Nixon and the rise of Ronald Reagan to today’s charged political climate.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“The author of Nixonland is certain to generate new debates among conservatives and liberals about Reagan’s legacy.”
— USA Today -
“For Americans younger than fifty-five, the story of conservatism has been the dominant political factor in their lives, and Rick Perlstein has become its chief chronicler, across three erudite, entertaining, and increasingly meaty books…The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan…finally brings into focus the saga’s leading character, Ronald Reagan…What gives The Invisible Bridge its originality is the way Perlstein embeds Reagan’s familiar biography in the disillusionments of the seventies.”
— New Yorker -
"The Invisible Bridge is a magnificent and nuanced work because of Perlstein’s mastery of context, his ability to highlight not just the major players but, more important, a broader sense of national narrative.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“[What is] extraordinary is the writer’s herculean research and the many relevant or just colorful items he uses to fill in the edges and corners and form the frame of this sprawling portrait…there’s much to enjoy here.”
— Newsday -
“This is gripping material…Perlstein’s gift lies in illustrating broad political trends through surprising snapshots of American culture and media.”
— Chicago Reader -
“Full of the tragic, the infuriating, and the darkly funny, Perlstein captures the frantic nature of the period.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“This is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and superbly written account filled with wonderful insights into key players, from the prominent to the unjustifiably obscure…A masterful interpretation of years critical to the formation of our current political culture.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Sweeping, insightful, and richly rewarding…His riveting narrative continues the author’s efforts to chronicle the ascendancy of conservatism in American political life…This is a fascinating, extremely readable account of an important decade in America’s political history.”
— BookPage
Awards
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An August 2014 Amazon Best Book of the Month for History
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A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week, August 2014
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A New York Times bestseller
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A Washington Post bestseller
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A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller
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An NPR bestseller
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A Publishers Weekly bestseller
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New York Times Notable Book
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A 2014 New York Times Notable Book
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One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2014
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About Rick Perlstein
Rick Perlstein is the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan; Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, a New York Times bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by over a dozen publications; and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, which won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history and appeared on the best books of the year lists of the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. He is a contributing editor and board member of In These Times magazine.
About David de Vries
David de Vries, an Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator and veteran stage actor and director, spent three years in the cast of Wicked and was the last Lumiere in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. He has also appeared in numerous films and voiced commercial campaigns for companies large and small, including American Express, AT&T, UPS, Motorola, Georgia-Pacific, Delta Airlines, Coca Cola, and Ford, among others. He can be seen in a number of feature films, including The Founder, The Accountant, Captain America: Civil War, and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. On television, his credits include House of Cards, Nashville, and Halt and Catch Fire.