Reviews
In the New World: Growing Up with America from the Sixties to the Eighties by Lawrence Wright
jgn's review
4.0
This is Lawrence Wright's personal memoir, the publication of which preceded his Pulitzer-winning books The Looming Tower and Going Clear. In the New World is about coming in of age in a conservative world. He says that his family was moving up the class structure, and, as such, were always worried about losing what they had gained. His parents' generation discovered a kinship with the constituencies of Nixon and Reagan, while over the 60s and the 70s, Wright went left (but with a lot of doubts).
The basic idea is that the economic/social world of his parents -- the world of the South and Southwest in the USA -- is essentially the "new world" and is the dominant political pattern, especially for whites, in the USA after the 50s.
There's a lot of subtlety here and setting the record straight. For instance, Wright is good on noting the paradoxes of Nixon: Anti-communist, but also, in matter of implemented policies, essentially a mainstream liberal. Similarly, he points out the similarities between John F. Kennedy's and Reagan's policy proposals.
Thus the book is the "inside story" that might go with a history such as Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm. Highly recommended for people in their 20s who are perplexed by the politics of their grandparents.
Recommended. My only gripe is that the book really doesn't get that robustly into the 80s, and maybe peters out some in the final chapter or two.
The basic idea is that the economic/social world of his parents -- the world of the South and Southwest in the USA -- is essentially the "new world" and is the dominant political pattern, especially for whites, in the USA after the 50s.
There's a lot of subtlety here and setting the record straight. For instance, Wright is good on noting the paradoxes of Nixon: Anti-communist, but also, in matter of implemented policies, essentially a mainstream liberal. Similarly, he points out the similarities between John F. Kennedy's and Reagan's policy proposals.
Thus the book is the "inside story" that might go with a history such as Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm. Highly recommended for people in their 20s who are perplexed by the politics of their grandparents.
Recommended. My only gripe is that the book really doesn't get that robustly into the 80s, and maybe peters out some in the final chapter or two.
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