America's Right Turn: From Nixon to Bush

by William C. Berman

The decline of New Deal liberalism and the resurgence of Republican conservatism that began with the 1968 election of Richard Nixon culminated in the 1980s in the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. In America's Right Turn historian William Berman examines the political, cultural, and economic context in which Republican conservatives operated and explores the crisis of the liberal welfare state against the background of presidentialpolitics. In seeking the reasons for the end to Democratic hegemony, Berman first acknowledges the key role played by conservative populism. He also examines the effect of the conservative backlash to the rights revolution. But most importantly, he shows how conservative politics became allied with conservative economics--an alliance forged with singular success during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Inflation and globalization had more to do with conservatism's success in 1980 than any other single factor, Berman contends, and Republican conservatives held the presidency through the decade largely because an improving national economy was working in their favor. After examining the Reagan administration's social and economic policies, as well as the reasons for liberalism's moribund state in the 1980s, Berman concludes with an analysis of how and why George Bush lost control of both the national political agenda and the White House in 1992.

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

A specialist in post-1945 American history, William C. Berman was Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Toronto. Berman earned both his bachelor's and doctorate degree at The Ohio State University, and taught at the California University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Louisville before joining the University of Toronto in 1968 where he taught until his retirement in 1997.

Reviews

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feeling enlightened. Dems really were between a rock and a hard place for like twenty years, and now we're right back to it lol. They can't fix the economy, which determines many folks' vote, and they simply can't establish a coalition that doesn't appear to just be made up of "special" interests to the average joe. How much of this struggle for a new coalition is just because the median American is ignorant and racist is up for debate, but either way the Dems have to work around it like Clinton but be less inept and actually help poor people in the process. What a mountain to summit

(Gutted for class)