Book Description
Barry Goldwater IS the conscience of a conservative. --Ronald Reagan New introduction by Patrick Buchanan.
Customer Reviews:
Why the barking moonbat RFK Jr??.......2007-08-29
I was going to add a newer addition to my library, as my earlier edition is pretty worn. I'll find an earlier edition in good condition rather than buy this one. Why the forward by RFK Jr, I'll never know...
Perfect book until the new Afterword by RFK Jr. CC Goldwater what were you thinking?.......2007-08-25
Mr. Conservative explains what the job of the Federal Government was originally intended to do. It was Not created to make Pyramid schemes like Social Security, not for health care, not for Education, not for creating jobs, not for creating bureaucracy after bureaucracy, not giving over our sovereignty to the United Nations etcetera etcetera. I was so satisfied reading this book up until the end. How can CC Goldwater let a Left Wing Hack Job like RFK Jr. write the Afterword? He is for all of the Government intrusion/handing over sovereignty to the U.N. that Barry Goldwater was completely against. And then he puts words in this great man's mouth! The audacity! RFK Jr. only gets a forum to speak because of his father, he is a LOSER!! Using the Afterword Forum to rail against modern day Republicans that he despises is pathetic. Hey RFK JR., I'm still waiting for you to agree to have windmills installed by your place in Nantucket...you private jet flying HYPOCRITE!!
The Essense Revisited.......2007-08-22
This is a great statement of true Conservatism. What was the point of an afterword by a Socialist Loser. That's the only reason I didn't rate this a 5 star. I would buy an earlier edition if I had it to do over again.
All Political Leaders Need to Read This Book.......2007-06-28
Given the horrible state of politics in our nation and federal infringement on state rights and the constitution, now more than ever all leaders especially conservatives need to read this book. And most importantly after reading it, they need to apply it in how they govern and formulate policy.
Excellent.......2007-03-16
A truly enlightened book. Written by a brilliant man. It is sad that it took 16 years for his votes to be counted when Reagan one the 1980 election. A must read for all Conservative and Patriotic intellectuals.
Book Description
". . . a comprehensive account of the battle to make the GNA a reality. Skillfully bringing to life not only the players but also the issues, Mr. Locher, who was a prime mover in framing the legislation that resulted in Goldwater-Nichols, has written the definitive history of the Act."--Washington Times
". . . a monumental Washington battle in prose that is both exciting for experts and informative for novices . . . offers a unique historical lesson in rational decision making and civilian control of the military, and reminds us that the United States never pauses on the path to perfection."--William S. Cohen, former Secretary of Defense
"A definitive case study of the most important and successful American defense legislation of the twentieth century. Victory on the Potomac is probably the best informed book we are ever going to get on this critical chapter in the history of U.S. military policy. As such, it is must reading for military professionals and civilian defense policy experts alike."--Air and Space Power Journal
". . . a tale of the careful preparation and tenacity required to overturn an entrenched bureaucratic position . . . lays out the manner in which a handful of senior officers, vigorously supported by farsighted members of Congress, managed to overcome bitter institutional resistance to pass the Goldwater-Nichols Act--which embodied a veritable organizational revelation."--James R. Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense
". . . provides a superb insight into how the system works in the marble, stone, and cement battlefields of Washington. For anyone interested in Congress, the Department of Defense, or the White House, this book provides a unique view into details not revealed in textbooks or biographies."--Proceedings
Customer Reviews:
Required reading, but with a big caveat.......2006-03-18
My rating is in the middle because the book should be required reading for anyone who wants to know how Goldwater-Nichols came about, however, at the same time, it is extremely biased in its delivery, analysis and conclusions. The author was appointed by Senators Nunn (D) and Goldwater (R) to be the senior reorganization staffer who, "led the team that helped congress 'get smart' on this complex but critically important subject." Because of Locher's involvement from the Act's beginning through to its approval, which gives him unique insight, he has a vested interest in presenting his justifications for the Act in a positive light. This is best seen in his portrayals of the principals involved; those who supported reform are heroes who were not afraid to stand up to the establishment and the institutionalized bureaucracy. Those who opposed Goldwater-Nichols were more interested in their own power and often presented emotional rather than factual or issues based arguments.
Unfortunately, the book was published in 2002, which means the work was done before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003; it would be interesting to see his analysis of the relationship between the SECDEF and the JCS now.
Bottom line: if you're interested in how Goldwater-Nichols evolved, buy the book; I did, and I have no regrets. But read it with a (big) grain of salt.
Gripping and Insightful, "Victory" for Studying Policymaking.......2003-01-13
This is quite easily one of the best books I've ever read on the creation of public policy. Locher paints a full and colorful picture of the military reform efforts culminating in the Goldwater-Nichols Act. I never realized what a role the Beirut/Lebanon operations played in creating an atmosphere in which military reform began to be viewed as necessary, and I found both the strategy and actions used to push the legislation through the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1985-86 particularly fascinating. With regards to balancing personal insights and meticulous research, in my opinion "Victory on the Potomac" is unequalled, and I consider it one of the top prizes in my personal library. If your interests include public policy, successful reform attempts or the organization of the U.S. military, you will find this book to be an entertaining and informative treasure.
Powerful study of Congress and the Pentagon.......2002-08-03
Jim Locher tells the fascinating story of how Congress forced the Pentagon to undergo major reform in the mid-1980s. Locher, who was a major participant in the process, tells the inside story of the Goldwater-Nichols reforms and really takes the gloves off. Locher is a careful researcher and skillful writer who demonstrates vividly the courage of Senators Barry Goldwater and Sam Nunn, Congressman Bill Nichols, Admiral Bill Crowe and others. Locher highlights both the brilliance and the manipulative skills of Secretary of the Navy John Lehman in the debates and interactions between the Congress and the Pentagon. . My only criticism is that Locher is a bit too critical of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger who did so much to build up the military during the early 1980s. Must reading for all who will work with or within the Pentagon or the Congress in the years ahead
Book Description
The insider account that sets the record straight about the election that gave birth to modern conservatism in the United States
The 1964 presidential campaign lives on in conservative circles as an origin myth for the modern conservative movement. Even though their preferred (and now revered) candidate lost to Lyndon B. Johnson by a landslide, Barry Goldwater's failed presidential run was a major turning point of the twentieth century. Without Goldwater's philosophy to pave the way--and, just as importantly, without the strategic and political infrastructure created by the "Draft Goldwater" movement that preceded it--there likely would have been no Reagan or Bush administrations, and possibly no Nixon administration either. The policy positions and electoral strategies of the Goldwater campaign became standard tenets of Republican politics.
William Middendorf had better than a ringside seat for this pivotal campaign. A key member of the "Draft Goldwater" movement as early as 1962, he was Goldwater's campaign treasurer and, afterwards, a major force within the Republican Party. No one knows the real inside story better, and A Glorious Disaster tells that story in all its rollicking, agonizing, and never-before-published detail. Following his work on the Goldwater campaign and four years as treasurer of the Republican National Committee,
Customer Reviews:
An Insider's Look at the Beginnings of a Movement.......2007-06-26
Bill Middendorf offers a delightful insider's view of Barry Goldwater's trailblazing 1964 campaign for President.
As a true insider -- he was on the inner circle as campaign treasurer, a key fundraiser, an early Draft Goldwater leader and a seeming voice of seasoned maturity (at age 37) -- he certainly offers a view that is signficantly more robust than most historical accounts.
It's a very enjoyable read.
Of course, Goldwater was utterly shellacked in 1964. But in losing, his principled admirers won by helping establish the foundation for a conservative movement that would build and last for decades.
A fascinating insider account.......2007-02-26
J. William Middendorff II, A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the origins of the Conservative Movement ( 2006, basic books, new york, 303pp)
This is a fascinating and lively insider report from someone who really was an insider. Ambassador Middendorf played a significant role in the rise of modern conservatism within the Republican Party. As a Connecticut Republican with many friends in the moderate wing of the party he nevertheless early on saw the need for a new approach and a new movement.
Bill was part of the draft Goldwater effort and part of the Goldwater Campaign and then Treasurer for the Republican National Committee as it bounced back from the disaster of 1964. He was in on an amazing number of meetings and worked with virtually every major conservative of that period.
His observations are insightful and in some cases unique.
Even though I had lived through virtually every campaign this book covers I still found myself with new reflections and new insights.
From the perspective of 2007 the most stunning reminder was the level of ruthlessness, dishonesty, and viciousness which characterized the Lyndon Johnson campaign and Johnson's entire behavior. It is worth reading as a reminder of what a 2008 Clinton campaign might be like.
Middendorf repeats a story I first heard from Tim Russert about Goldwater and Kennedy agreeing that in 1964 they would tour the country on Air Force One holding a series of debates and proving that there could be civility and collegiality even in presidential politics. Building on the debates of 1960 and enjoying each other's company a Goldwater-Kennedy contest would have led to a much healthier America.
Middendorf also reminds us that results can shift with remarkable speed. The Goldwater defeat was seen as the beginning of the end for the GOP yet two short years later in 1966 there was a remarkable rebound. The GOP lost 529 legislative seats in 1964 and gained 700 in 1966. The GOP lost 37 house seats and gained 47 in 1966.
One other fascinating reminder about how the world can change is the question of being a frontrunner for the nomination. On the Friday before the 1964 California GOP primary Nelson Rockefeller was ahead by 49 to 40 and on Tuesday Goldwater won the primary and with it the nomination. After the 1966 elections Governor George Romney was the front runner and polls showed him beating President Johnson 54 to 46, After he said "the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get when you go over to Vietnam....they do a very thorough job" his campaign collapsed.
This is a useful book for anyone who would like to understand the rise of modern conservatism and anyone who would like to better understand presidential politics.
Interesting memoir, but not historical analysis.......2007-02-14
When I read the title of this book, I expected an in-depth analysis of why the Conservative movement started with Barry Goldwater's failed candidacy for the Presidency in 1964. Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.
The author of this book was a critical player in the Goldwater campaign, and, as such, has tremendously valuable memories of Goldwater's unsuccessful attempt to become President of the United States. This book, however, is nothing more than a political memoir - how this one individual got involved in the Goldwater campaign and what the ride meant to him. It is filled with exciting and fun stories, and is an enjoyable book to read, but most assuredly is not for the historian.
I believe that this book is a good start towards understanding whether or not Goldwater's ascendancy to the head position in the Republican party really did start the Conservative movement that has been so powerful in the last 25 years, but it certainly does not live up to its title.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an enjoyable political memoir - if the reader is conservative, this book will delight. Even a liberal will enjoy the book, though some of the disparaging remarks about LBJ or Jimmy Carter may not bode well with those who possess a leftist slant.
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear!.......2007-02-11
Wow. The origins of the conservative movement indeed!How much of a revolution was it? Consider this. In 1960,Richard Nixon received 50,000 contributions in his Presidential run,about the same as JFK.In 1964,Barry Goldwater received 1 1/2 MILLION!
This is the story of how a small band of pioneers plotted to literally draft a man who didn't want to run and who knew he would lose,but who changed the party and the entire world by doing so.
A glorious well-written historical work. As George Will wrote,"Barry Goldwater won..but it took 16 years to count the votes."
Highly Recommended.5 stars.
Nice light book.......2007-01-18
It really deserves 21/2 stars. I enjoyed it and maybe it was unrealistic to expect an in depth story of the draft and election from the Republican point of view but that's what I wanted.If you want a brief overview this is fine but not for the historian
Amazon.com
Not every presidential election is worth a book more than a quarter-century after the last ballot has been counted. The 1964 race was different, though, and author Rick Perlstein knows exactly why. That year, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, trounced his opponent, Barry Goldwater, a Republican senator from Arizona, in a blowout of historic proportions. The conservative wing of the GOP, which had toiled for so long as the minority partner in a coalition dominated by more liberal brethren, finally had risen to power and nominated one of its own, only to see him crash in terrible splendor. It looked like a death, but it was really a birth: a harrowing introduction to politics that would serve conservatives well in the years ahead as they went on to great success. Conservatives learned a lot in 1964:
It was learning how to act: how letters got written, how doors got knocked on, how co-workers could be won over on the coffee break, how to print a bumper sticker and how to pry one off with a razor blade; how to put together a network whose force exceeded the sum of its parts by orders of magnitude; how to talk to a reporter, how to picket, and how, if need be, to infiltrate--how to make the anger boiling inside you ennobling, productive, powerful, instead of embittering.
These were practical lessons that anybody in politics must pick up. For conservatives, the rough indoctrination came in 1964, and Perlstein (who is not a conservative) tells their story in detail and with panache. Before the Storm is not a history of conservative ideas (for that, read The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America, by George Nash), but a chronicle of how these ideas began to matter in politics. The victory of Ronald Reagan in 1980--to say nothing of Newt Gingrich in 1994 and George W. Bush in 2000--might not have been possible without the glorious failure of Barry Goldwater in 1964. As Perlstein writes, "You lost in 1964. But something remained after 1964: a movement. An army. An army that could lose a battle, suck it up, regroup, then live to fight a thousand battles more." --John J. Miller
Book Description
A bold and astute narrative history of conservatism's climb and one of the best-reviewed books of 2001.
Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm tells the story of the rise of the conservative movement in the liberal 1960s -- a story that, until this book, had never been told. The figure at the heart of the story is, of course, Barry Goldwater, the handsome renegade Republican from Arizona who loathed the federal government, despised liberals on sight, and mocked "peaceful coexistence" with the USSR. But Perlstein's narrative shines a light on a whole world of conservatives and their antagonists, including William F. Buckley, Nelson Rockefeller, and Bill Moyers. Vividly and thrillingly written, Before the Storm is already recognized as an essential book about the 1960s.
Customer Reviews:
A brilliant narrative history of the underdog American conservative movement of the 1960s.......2007-08-19
~Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus~ is a sweeping narrative history of the American conservative movement in the 1960s. The author Richard Perlstein, a liberal journalist, actually offers a fairly balanced and objective view of the American Right in the 1960s. He doesn't quite picture the American conservative as the racist Archie Bunker character from Norman Lear's All in the Family television show, but rather sympathetically reveals their concerns and convictions, which were deep rooted in the American psyche. Conservatives were animated by a love of country, a principled anti-communism that was sometimes paranoid, and a desire for fiscal restraint in government particularly at the federal level. Many hoped to repudiate the New Deal of FDR. Perlstein leaps right into the streets of conservative bastions like Orange County, California and Dallas, Texas, and offers a snapshot of the conservative movement in microcosm. With clarity, he communicates their concerns and response to the troublesome and insecure world around them. Against the backdrop of the beleaguered conservative movement of the 1960s were the tumults of radical Leftist activists in and out of the government. The Great Society of the Lyndon Johnson administration marked the ascendancy of welfare-statism in the United States, which proved especially baneful to principled conservatives and constitutionalists.
Perlstein's trenchant commentary is well-researched and offers a bombastic flare which captures the spirit of the insurgent, albeit beleaguered conservative movement. Against the backdrop of liberal dominated 1960s, the conservative movement in the 1960s solidified into well-organized constituency which eventually propelled the Reagan Revolution forward in 1980. While the political tides propelled an activist centralized government in Washington, D.C. to the helm, there was a deep-rooted libertarian streak to American conservatives which desperately desired to fight tooth and nail against political consolidation and central planning.
Perlstein chronicles the failed Goldwater campaign of 1964, and illustrates how its mass appeal to free markets and constitutionally limited government rallied throngs of conservatives under the American banner. The powerful Rockefeller dynasty shifted all their fortunes in favor of the Johnson bid for the Presidency, and labored against Goldwater every step of the way. The Lyndon Johnson presidential campaign itself shamelessly exploited the heightened Cold War anxieties and insecurities in the wake of the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jr. This sensationalism was encapsulated in television advertisement which pictured a little girl in a field plucking a daisy, and then a brilliant flash of light followed by an atomic detonation. Johnson was always viewed by the American Right with suspicion. Johnson, a racist Texas politician by instinct and an opportunist, pandered to the worst socialist instincts of the Civil Rights movement with his Great Society proposal, and he made no qualms about the reality it was a vote-buying scheme.
Perlstein sympathetically elucidates upon some of the anxieties felt on the Conservative Right. The anxieties were multi-faceted and owed to racial and social strife, as well as the heightened Cold War tension with the communist world following the Cuban Missile Crisis. There was grave apprehension that elements of the American Left and the Civil Rights movement were conciliatory to the Soviets, or worse yet, treasonous pawns of Moscow. Herein, we see an erudite profile of the various factions of political activists on the Right from the Young Americans for Freedom to the more conspiratorial minded members of the John Birch Society. The Right lacked cohesiveness and men like President Eisenhower and William F. Buckley were viewed by some as trojan horses on the political Right. The conservative movements began to emulate the mass-organization of their antagonists on the Left. Groups like the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) were very articulate and erudite in the quality of scholarship they produced. Both defended the free-market economy and constitutionally-limited government with extraordinary intellectual rigor. While Yippies and student radicals were protesting on college campuses, articulate conservative activists like Phyllis Schlafly and Robert Welch pandered to the concerns of American conservatives. They pressed for repeal of New Deal policies and sounded alarms about communism and the emerging feminist movement. A former G-Man Dan Smoot who left the FBI, warned tirelessly of subversive plots from Moscow. Other enigmatic voices came and went. As pamphleteers and propagandists, activists on the Right told prescient tales of communist subversion in our midst. Given the radicalism of the Left from the Black Panthers to the SDS, some of their fears were certainly warranted; but some of their conspiratorial speculations often proved to be unfounded.
Perlstein stumbles from time to time, but overall this is a quality work. It is well-researched and possessed of extraordinary clarity and a meticulous quality that makes one wonder that it is possible for an outsider to the conservative movement to put such a monumental work together.
An important story, well told.......2007-05-12
Rick Perlstein has done a magnificent job telling one of the most important political stories of our time: the triumphant journey of American conservatism from the political fringes to the center of power. Or at least the opening chapters of that story: Perlstein focuses on the doomed 1964 presidential campaign of conservative icon Barry Goldwater, a short-term setback that, in the prescient words of William F. Buckley, "planted seeds of hope, which will flower in a great November day in the future.'' Although Perlstein writes from a left-wing perspective, he is scrupulously fair. Goldwater emerges as a principled, decent, somewhat simple-minded man, baffled and often disturbed by the intensity of his supporters. Perlstein clearly admires the passion and resourcefulness of Goldwater's early backers such as Clif White. He doesn't hesitate to expose the hard-ball tactics Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats used against Goldwater in '64; young Bill Moyers comes off as especially Machiavellian. Sometimes Perlstein's narrative is a bit jarring, as he struggles to smooth over the ups and downs of political campaigns. On page 280, for instance, Perlstein writes that Nelson Rockefeller "knocked them dead in New Hampshire.'' By the next page, Rockefeller's "popularity was plummeting, his chances of (success) remote.'' Similarly, the Goldwater campaign sometimes comes across as an unstoppable force; at others like the fringe effort it proved to be on election day.
But that's a quibble. I learned a lot from this book. I never before realized the extent to which the money and venom of anti-union industrialists helped get movement conservatism started. I hadn't realized how early - pre-1964 -- Republicans started making inroads in the South, exploiting the white backlash against civil rights. I enjoyed many vignettes, including one on Lady Bird Johnson's courageous campaign trip across a hostile South. Perlstein is unsparing toward the era's elite political reporters, blinded by their own biases and comfy assumptions, who failed to see the movement emerging right before their eyes. Even after 516 pages of Perlstein's through reporting, intelligent analysis and fine story-telling I still can't really understand the conservative worldview. I'm a little like Adlai Stevenson, mystified when confronted by an unhinged rightwing protester. "What is wrong?'' he asked plaintively. "What do you want?'' Why did they see communist plots everywhere and a society lurching toward doom? Why did they overlook the violence and injustice in the South and see civil rights legislation as the first step toward a fascist dictatorship? I just don't get it.
Super-Dense Book.......2006-10-13
This book was an excellently written portrayal of presidential politics in the early 60's. Short of actually being there, "Before the Storm" gives a fully-developed experience of the time. Well done!
Political history at its BEST.......2005-05-23
Quite simply, this is an amazing work. It starts as the book the cover would suggest it is: tightly focused, part Goldwater biography and part tale of the conservative movement's early days. By the end, however, the story is less Goldwater and the election and far more a sweeping survey of American life in the early 60s. The campaign fades away, Perlstein masterfully weaves in tales of the civil rights movement, demonstrations, and other events, and Johnson becomes as central to the close of the story as does his opponent. And this only adds to the impact of the book, since both aspects are written amazingly well. Following the Goldwater campaign with all its missteps is as agonizing as the wider diversions are educational. In the end, there is a complete and engaging portrait both of the election and the massive changes in American society that it portended (not to mention how different things are today: the chaos of Goldwater's campaign is utterly surreal in comparison to the machines of current elecitons).
Perhaps most importantly, the book is amazingly even-handed. Perlstein's politics are obvious, but his observations come across as more therapeutic than enraged, almost seeming to sympathize with Goldwater as he tries to fight off the truly lunatic elements. It means that Before the Storm is a book that both conservatives and liberals can and should enjoy. Anyone seeking to understand why politics and society are what they are today should start here.
The Man who Lost in 64 emerged as the Big Winner.......2005-05-16
The LBJ campaign was where liberalism beared the fangs and claws it had hidden in the Kennedy election. Goldwater emerges here as a naive principled man thoroughly ill-suited to go up against an unprincipled win-at-any-cost candidate like Lyndon Johnson. Dick Nixon drew valuable lessons from both Goldwater's ineptitude and the scheming of LBJ.
A good follow up to this book would have been to interview all those who eagerly helped put LBJ back in the White House only to see him preside over the disaster of the no-win/unwinnable Viet Nam war and the crop of radical antiAmercian protestors it unleashed on the American political system.
Book Description
The swinging seventies -- behold the rise of bubble-gum pop! Experience the women's movement as it spreads through Riverdale! Witness the emergence of patches, pet rocks, Pong and CB radios! Boogie with Archie and the gang at the disco and laugh again at the antics of America's #1 teenagers!
Customer Reviews:
Really great!.......2007-02-01
Again, I loved this one as well. They are right in saying that it is a bit difference; the focus that is. It really concentrates on the fashion and electronics; everchanging as it was. Add it to the collection and read them all.
THE FANTASTIC FADS OF THE 1970'S.......2005-08-02
Archie Americana the Best of the 1970's is, I think the best of all the Archie Americana series of trade paperback collections because it does the best job of capturing the look and feel of its decade. The 1970's was perhaps the most eclectic and trendy decade in American history with a new fad coming along every few months to capture the imagination of Americans. Archie comics marched right along in time to all the changes the 1970's brought from protests to disco. This volume collects 17 Archie stories that will make readers year for the days of pet rocks and CB radios. Shirley Jones, Mrs. Partridge herself introduces this volume.
In "Protest" from 1970, Archie is on the warpath and wants to get a sit-in protest staged with the rest of the gang. The only trouble is that Archie can't seem to find a cause to protest but merely wants to protest because the rest of the country is. Too bad for Arch that everyone if Riverdale seems relatively happy.
"Bubble Trouble" features "The Archies" band in action. You can almost hear them singing "Sugar Sugar". When an editor of a music magazine calls their music "bubblegum music" Archie is not happy and goes to see the editor to voice his displeasure. You wonder how much fun the writer had with this story since the Archies WERE about as bubblegum as you could get.
In "No Fuel like and old Fuel" the gang finds themselves paralyzed by the energy crisis of the mid-1970's. When Archie cannot get any gas to take Betty & Veronica on a picnic, he and Jughead cleverly make do by attaching a sail from Mr. Lodge's boat to sail to the park. But what happens when it's time to leave and there is no wind?
"You Came a Long Way Baby" finds Archie, or rather Betty and Veronica tackling the subject of Women's liberation in this tale from 1975. Of all people, Miss, I mean Ms. Grundy leads the way!
In "Bi-centennial Banter" the boys are working on their Bi-Centennial pageant when the girls, who had been excluded from the festivities, strongly display how many women played important roles in the fight for independence as well.
"Over and Out" highlights one of the great fads of the 1970's the CB radio craze. We all remember that don't we? Arch and Veronica are staying in touch with oh-so-cute little handle names, not knowing that everyone is listening into their conversations.
"Video Vexation" features another great fad and one that has actually survived and grown to this very day...the video game fad. The boys are so into playing "Pong" that they begin to lose interest in the girls...until the girls turn out to be better players...
"Costume Caper" Pop culture comes home full tilt. While not mentioning it by name, a costume party features several people dressed in Star Wars costumes. Arch wins when he accidentally dresses up as "C3PO"
As with the other Archie Americana books there are also cover galleries featuring some of the classic covers from the 1970's. If you lived during this era like I did, you'll be certain to get a lot of laughs at looking back at some of the ridiculous fads and fashions of the wonderful decade of the 1970's.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
Interesting time-capsule of the 1970's.......2004-08-08
The 'Archie Americana' series continues on with this book highlighting the best stories from the 1970's. This book seems to take an intersting focus featuring stories with a heavy 1970's specific pop-culture bent that gives this book an almost time-capsule'ish feel capturing the trends/fashions/slang and even politics of this most colorful of contemporary decades. For example, we get references to 'Star Wars,' in an amusing Halloween costume contest story, disco dancing (of course) and even a delightfully quaint story on the rising popularity of videogaming (Pong) and a bit of gender wars as the girls attempt to unseat the boys from the throne of videogame dominance. While this book may seem different in that the general storylines seem to deviate from the standard Archie-esque plotlines (love triangles, archie-reggie rivalry, etc.) it's interesting to note a shift in tone as this comic series attempts to keep intact a teen audience shifting their attentions away from comics to more electronic forms of entertainment media.
Book Description
The sensational sixties -- see the girls in slim jims! Experience Beatlemania as it hits Riverdale! Behold flower children, Pop art, mod fashions, surfing and drag racing! Laugh again at the antics of America's #1 teenagers!
Customer Reviews:
Love it!.......2007-02-01
Again... Love it and that is all that I have to say. Great collector's items to keep for the kiddies.
ARCHIE IN THE EVER-CHANGING 1960'S.......2005-06-21
If there is one era I associate most with Archie comics, it's the 1960's. When I was a kid, my oldest brother, who was seven years older than I, had a huge collection of Archie comics, all from the mid 1960's through the early 1970's. He had them in a big box in his closet and I would go in and read them over and over. More than any other era Archie comic followed all the trends of the 1960's as they briskly came and went. From Elvis and hot-rods to The Beatles, miniskirts, Nehru jackets and flower power. Reading Archie comics in the 1960's is truly a time capsule of that era. This volume begins with an introduction by one of the icons of the 1960's, Frankie Avalon. Frankie's introduction is more an ode to the 1960's than it is about Archie comics, but it's still nice to hear from a guy who is so identified with one particular era. In all this volume has over a dozen stories ranging from 1961 through 1969 and it's so interesting to see how the gang has been transformed from the big-band, bobby-soxer era to the psychedelic 1960's over the course of over twenty years.
My favorite stories in this collection include:
"Too Close for Comfort" Jughead and Archie are making fun of Betty & Veronica's tight fitting Slim-Jim pants until a dunk in a park water fountain finds the boy's pants shrunk to a very uncomfortable level of tightness.
"Bop that Beatle" is a Beatle-era story from 1964 as Beatle mop top wigs are all the rage. When Veronica sends one to Archie as a gift, he and Jughead think it's a pest and try to kill it.
"Board Game" Archie tackles the era of beach parties and surfing. Reggie is showing off his surfer skills to the girls making Archie jealous. Arch tries a crash course at surfing with disastrous results.
"Mini-skirt Madness" Yet another 60's icon is covered as the boys go ga-ga over the girl's new mini-skirts.
"Flower Power" from 1968 has Juggy turning into a hippie. Interesting in that going Hippie was dealt with as almost a monster-like transformation and something to be shown off as Veronica wants to Juggy to the Country Club for all her friends to see.
"The Time of your Life" shows true 60's influence as the gang plans a trip to a park for a picnic, throwing the park guards into a panic over what they think will be a marauding band of rambunctious teens.
"Ding a Ling" from 1969 is yet another fashion-oriented story as Reggie is showing off his new Nehru jacket, beads, and bell he wears around his neck. Archie counters him by showing up to the big dance with a cow bell!
Archie Comics has put out two volumes from both the 40's and 50's and I certainly hope they do so with the 1960's as well. To me it's the era that really reminds me of the comics. The ever-changing fashion styles and events always stayed current with the times. No era saw so many changes as the 1960's did and Archie moved right along and grew up as well.
An interesting transition takes place........2004-08-04
An interesting transition takes place during the 1960's run of the 'Archie' comics series, namely a shift in its visual style. In the early 60's the artwork is still very much in the same vein as it was in the 1950's - each frame packed with detail and a overall high-quality, stylized look. From the midpoint of the 1960's and on the artwork seems to take a more economical approach with less detail, etc. that will come to define the look of 'Archie' comics in the 70's, 80's and on. With this point in mind this 1960's volume of the 'Archie Americana' series serves as an intersting example of the gradual loss of detail that the artwork took throughout the decade and on. The stories collected in this volume are also interesting in that for the first time 'Archie' comics refers back to real-life pop culture on a regualr basis. For example, the stories collected in this volume feature such cultural icons as, 'The Ed Sullivan Show,' Beatles wigs, Nehru jackets, the hippie movement, etc.
Book Description
"The best traditions of community and urban sociology come alive in this fantastic work of participant observation. Sherri Grasmuck shows us the people, narrates their lives, and links them to as sophisticated a take on race and class to be found in any contemporary urban ethnography. She is a beautiful writer with that rarest of gifts—a sober critical voice, an unrelenting systematicity, the wisdom of personal experience, and a sense of humor that comes together in a deep act of interpretation and explanation. Janet Goldwater's fantastic photographs merge with the text to produce a documentary account of how we live today in multicultural America, one that takes its place among the finest firsthand studies."—Mitchell Duneier, Princeton University, author of Sidewalk and Slim's Table
"Based on skillful ethnographic research, and deploying a creative and evocative narrative voice, Protecting Home gives us fresh insights into the ways that youth baseball shapes race, gender, and class relations in a changing community. With this elegant piece of research, Grasmuck has connected and gone deep."—Michael A. Messner, author of Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports
"An inspired and inspiring look at the rhythms of life in and around urban youth baseball. . . . Sherri Grasmuck shatters our stereotypes surrounding gender, class, and race."—Kathleen Gerson, author of No Man's Land: Men's Changing Commitments to Family and Work
Through a close exploration of a boys' baseball league in a gentrifying neighborhood of Philadelphia, sociologist Sherri Grasmuck reveals the accommodations and tensions that characterize multicultural encounters in contemporary American public life.
Chapters explore coaching styles, parental involvement, institutional politics, parent-child relations, and children's experiences. Grasmuck identifies differences in the ways that the mostly white, working-class "old-timers" and the racially diverse, professional newcomers relate to the neighborhood.
Through an innovative combination of narrative approaches, this book succeeds both in capturing the immediacy of boys' interaction at the playing field and in contributing to sophisticated theoretical debates in urban studies, the sociology of childhood, and masculinity studies.
Customer Reviews:
A state-of-the-art work..........2005-05-08
It's all here: beginning with one baseball field this book examines parenting, gender roles, urban race relations, gentrification and social class in the contemporary US city. But the most amazing part about it is its personal approach and style. We're right in there with dads (and moms) and especially with kids learning how to live through the kids' baseball league. Beautiful color photos show the joy and pain, the triumph and tragedy of an "ordinary" scene that is also truly epic. Grasmuck is a highly talented sociologist who finds in everyday life the political, moral, and spiritual struggles and lessons of our time and place. A unique achievement.
Book Description
This now classic study maps the profound effect of primitive art on modern, as well as the primitivizing strain in modern art itself. Robert Goldwater describes how and why works by primitive artists attracted modern painters and sculptors, and he delineates the differences between what is truly primitive or archaic and what intentionally embodies such elements. His analysis distinguishes the romanticism of Gauguin; an emotional primitivism exemplified by the Brücke and Blaue Reiter groups in Germany; the intellectual primitivism of Picasso and Modigliani; and a "primitivism of the subconscious" in Miró, Klee, and Dali. Two of Goldwater's related essays--"Judgments of Primitive Art, 1905-1965" and "Art History and Anthropology"--have been added for this new paperback edition.
Book Description
In the wake of the Nineteenth Amendment, Republican women set out to forge a place for themselves within the Grand Old Party. As Catherine Rymph explains, their often conflicting efforts over the subsequent decades would leave a mark on both conservative politics and American feminism.
Part of an emerging body of work on women's participation in partisan politics, Republican Women explores the dilemmas confronting progressive, conservative, and moderate Republican women as they sought to achieve a voice for themselves within the GOP. Rymph first examines women's grassroots organizing for the party in the decades following the initiation of women's suffrage. She then traces Marion Martin's efforts from 1938 to 1946 to shape the National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs, the party's increasing dependence on the work of women at the grassroots in the postwar years, and the eventual mobilization of many of these women behind Barry Goldwater, in defiance of party leaders.
From the flux of the party's post-Goldwater years emerged two groups of women on a collision course: a group of party insiders calling themselves feminists challenged supporters of independent Republican Phyllis Schlafly's growing movement opposing the Equal Rights Amendment. Their battles over the meanings of gender, power, and Republicanism continued earlier struggles even as they helped shape the party's fundamental transformation in the Reagan years.
Customer Reviews:
Activist Women.......2006-07-13
Growing up as one of Jane H Macauley's daughters, I heard all the great backroom and campaign stories, but I never put them in the wider context of the growing engagement of women in politics until reading Rymph's fascinating account. My mother and her friends are passionate believers in the grassroots and the precincts, and crisscrossed the country to get out the vote. Feminist slogans peppered my childhood, and the ERA was the grail. The hijacking of the progressive and moderate Republican women's organization is an enlightening chapter -- let's hijack it back, ladies!
An endorsement from a Democrat.......2006-03-06
Examining how different factions of women sought access to and within the GOP, this book was a gripping read.
Beginning in the aftermath of the 19th Amendment's ratification, the book chronicles women's political activity. Rymph then goes on to explain how different factions developed different definitions of 'women' and 'Republicanism' as the decades subsequently passed.
The rise of the modern conservative movement came through the 1964 campaign. Many of the women party activists independently mobilized behind Barry Goldwater's campaign. They demonstrated that they would not just rubber stamp whomever the party bosses had wanted to receive the nomination.
Such action also illustrated that conservative Republican women were (if not necessarily how I and colleagues would immediately think of it) leaders with political power of their own which would effectively be flexed. Researched from a strictly nonpartisan and scholarly perspective, this work concedes that conservative women are politically effective.
I've read many other books on women and politics, but this work provided a never-before-read perspective. Prior to reading this book, I honestly had no idea that women's role in the Republican party was so complex.
Books:
- Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1)
- Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and Their Families
- Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
- Crisis
- Cuban Death-Lift
- Day Of The Dragon-King (Magic Tree House 14, paper)
- Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
- Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever
- Fear No Evil: A Novel
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements
- Trees of Texas: An Easy Guide to Leaf Identification
- Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods
- The Corporate Cult; Surviving and Transforming Your Career
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State & Local Government
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The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement
God and Man at Yale
Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater
