Mad as hell : the crisis of the 1970s and the rise of the populist Right
(Book)

"This is a Borzoi book"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 459-480) and index.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" The words of Howard Beale, the fictional anchorman in 1976's hit film Network, struck a chord with a generation of Americans. In this new history, the author ranges seamlessly over the political, economic, and cultural high (and low) points of American life in the 1970s, exploring the roots of the fears, resentments, cravings, and disappointments we know so well today. From Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell, he shows how the 1970s saw the emergence of a new right-wing populism, setting the stage for the bitter partisanship and near-total cynicism of our modern political landscape. He re-creates the schizophrenic atmosphere of the 1970s, an age when feminists were on the march and the Communists seemed to be winning the Cold War, but also when a new kind of right-wing populism was transforming American politics form the ground up.