We Americans love to cite the 'political spectrum' as the best way to classify ideologies. The metaphor is incorrect: it implies symmetry. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
My big subject as a historian is how Americans divide themselves. What are the divisions that structure our political lives. Richard Nixon… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
It takes two things to make a political lie work: a powerful person or institution willing to utter it, and another set… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Reagan's emotional intelligence, his ability to suss out people's longings and to channel them for political purposes, was better than just about… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
While writing books about the past, I think about the present. It's not intentional, but somehow my books end up being written… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Political scientists have long argued that party identification is the best possible predictor of voting behavior and is remarkably sticky over time. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
It is a lesson of the sixties: liberals get in the biggest political trouble - whether instituting open housing, civilian compliant review… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Ronald Reagan knew audiences. It was a key element of his political genius. One of the things at which brilliant politicians are… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
There are two strategies available in a partisan political environment for communities working for justice. You can join the Democratic Party -… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, given the rules of the American political game, people who try to participate by self-righteously refusing to identify with one or… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Why was Barack Obama attractive to people in 2008? If you think about Barack Obama, there's all this anxiety about society, just… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
As an adult, I've always found the stereotype that Jews are liberal a curious one; my parents' circle was predominantly conservative, not… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
I love trade magazines - any trade's magazine: by entering into what is taken for granted in a world not your own, you better… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
When the 2008 victory of Barack Obama and the defeat of grumpy old John McCain began looking, um, inevitable, I started fielding inquiries about… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Watergate got us to think of leaders as mere mortals. America began to think of itself in a very different way - I would… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Part of the fantasy certain pro-reform Republicans like to broadcast about Hispanics, family-oriented, churchgoing traditionalists, is that they are somehow natural conservatives, just waiting… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
The history of American higher education over the twentieth century is an extraordinary one, the story of the creation of a powerhouse set of… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
The only times during my religious instruction I remember hearing God's name invoked with any sincere conviction at all was in the oft-repeated and… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
As a general rule of thumb, Democrats do better in national elections when the year's defining issue is economic fairness, and Republicans do better… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Computers have cut-and-paste functions. So does right-wing historical memory. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Empirical debunking cannot reach the deepest fear of the reactionary mind, which is that the state - that devouring leviathan - will soon swallow… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
I think that all politicians who aspire to the presidency are a little nuts, but for different reasons. What kind of person aspires to… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Chicago's privatization mania began during Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration, which ran from 1989 to 2011. Under his successor, Rahm Emanuel, the trend has… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
