'The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon. He was inventing the new conservative political culture we know now, in which a vision of patriotism rooted in a sense of American limits was derailed in America’s Bicentennial year by the rise of the smiling politician from Hollywood. In the parlance of Rick Perlsteins latest invaluable book about the modern conservative movement, Reagan had set about a major bridge-building project. Craig Shirley (left) believes Rick Perlstein (right) plagiarized in his new book, 'The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan.' Getty Images (left) YouTube (right) Craig. Like Perlstein’s Before the Storm and Nixonland it is long (804 pages of text), generally engrossing and saturated with detail. Which was why, when he announced his intention to challenge President Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination, those same pundits dismissed him-until, amazingly, it started to look like he just might win. Another colossal history by Rick Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge chronicles the collapse of Richard Nixon’s presidency, the evolution of the New Right and Ronald Reagan’s primary challenge to Gerald Ford in 1976. And as Americans began thinking about their nation in a new way-as one more nation among nations, no more providential than any other-the pundits declared that from now on successful politicians would be the ones who honored this chastened new national mood.

The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives. There’s some really great, rich stuff in there. The next president declared upon Nixon’s resignation “our long national nightmare is over”-but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. Rick Perlstein’s The Invisible Bridge: The Fall Of Nixon And The Rise Of Reagan, comes out today, and TPM has a great excerpt here. Building on his first two books Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2001) and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008)Perlstein once again delivers a. In January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term-until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. 5, 2014 How Ronald Reagan lost the presidency and won the heart of America. The New York Times bestselling dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.

The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein