I'm a historian. The act of predicting the future discomfits me, in any event - and the bigger the prediction, the more… — 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
Look at liberty's greatest historic advances: ending slavery. Giving women the vote. Outlawing legal segregation. Each and every time, the people at… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
The fact is that the Democratic Party in modern times has always had a conservative wing, one frequently as strong or stronger… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
For a movement supposedly devoted to conserving the past, conservatives are oh-so-splendid at forgetting their own past. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
I can't summarize my favorite movie, Jacques Tati's 'Play Time.' You just have to see it. — 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
History does not repeat itself. Nor does it unfold in cycles. The real future is contingent, rich beyond imagining, a perennial gobsmack,… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
The reason inflation was brought down to manageable levels, by the time of Ronald Reagan's re-election, was directly attributable to Jimmy Carter's… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Back when I was 16, when I should have been doing normal high school things, I availed myself of my brand new… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
That's the way cultural change works in America: the rest of us discard a prejudice that the Right still clings to; in… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
I look to historians for their power to illuminate not just the invisible lineaments of the present, but also that which is… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
When conservatives talk to one another, pay attention: they say what they want to do, and mean it. And will do just… — 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
