Barry Goldwater

by Robert Alan Goldberg and Professor Robert Alan Goldberg

Book Overview

Barry Goldwater is regarded by some as one of the most prominent and controversial politicans of the 20th century. This biography draws on interviews with Goldwater, and with his friends, family and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300062613
• ISBN13: 9780300062618
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 463 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Imformative and Fairly Well-Balanced Biography

It has been said that Barry Goldwater ran for President in 1964 but was elected in 1980. This refers to the fact that he set the stage for the movement, back in the 1960's, that set the stage for the Reagan revolution in 1980. Goldwater energized a base of largely young conservatives and brought a whole new great of people into the process. The book also tells us a lot of details of Goldwater's early life. Most people probably don't realize the he is of Jewish heritage. He worked hard his entire life to get where he was. This is a strong contrast with the Kennedy family and many others (including George W. Bush) who were children of wealth. The book gives an excellent account of Goldwater's entire career including his retirement in 1987....such that he ever really completely retired. It is a faily well balanced book.....at least compared to most others. It is clear, as others have said, that Goldberg approaches the subject from the left. But it doesn't spoil the contents of the book and he doesn't revise history or distort Goldwater's record. It is a fairly good account of a great man's life!

Illuminating account of a major conservative figure

Few people have had the impact on the American political scene that Barry Goldwater made in his career. Born into one of the wealthiest families in Arizona, his embrace of the Western myth and his opposition to increased role the government played in economic management after the Great Depression (one influenced by his experience managing the family's chain of local department stores) combined to shape his political philosophy. After service in the Army Air Force in World War II, he entered politics and became a leader of the effort to "clean up" the Phoenix city government - though Goldberg writes that, as most of the members of the effort themselves acknowledged, the charges of civic corruption that led to their victory were largely overstated. Upon winning election to the United States Senate in 1952, Goldwater quickly emerged as one of its most prominent conservatives, becoming chair of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee just three years later. The role played to Goldwater's gift for marketing, and he quickly developed a national following among thousands of Americans. He benefited as well from the emergence of a new radical right, fueled by growing concerns over race and embodied in organizations like the John Birch Society. With the publication of his 1960 book Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater cemented his position as the leading figure of the movement, their natural candidate for the presidency. Goldwater got his chance in 1964. With the front-runner for the Republican nomination, Nelson Rockefeller, politically damaged by his divorce and remarriage, Goldwater was the front-runner. He accepted the nomination at a convention that Goldberg terms "the Woodstock of American conservatism," with a speech that galvanized his supporters. Goldwater's nomination became a pivotal moment in the history of the Republican Party. While Goldwater himself was defeated in the subsequent campaign by Lyndon Johnson (who succeeded in depicting Goldwater as an unstable reactionary ideologue), his candidacy signaled the party's ideological, social, and political shift away from its traditional base in the Northeast towards its new home in the South and West. Yet Goldberg sees Goldwater's candidacy as the high-water mark of his role as a conservative leader, as he began moving away from the ideas of the radical right and towards a more libertarian style of conservatism. Though he returned to the Senate in 1968, his support for Nixon's opening of relations with China and his backing of Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan in their race for the Republican nomination in 1976 led many former Goldwater supporters to turn on their former champion. By the 1980s, Goldwater had become a leading opponent of the growing role of the religious right in the Republican Party, and he remained an uncomfortable gadfly after his retirement from the Senate in 1987 by speaking out against many of the actions of the party he did so much to change. Goldberg's bi

The most balanced political biography I have read

Barry Goldwater,as someone once pointed out, last name speaks of the 2 most important things in the American west. this biography,meticulous in its balance,shows Goldwater from his lonely days as a western conservative ina republican party dominated with eastern power and money{how wird does that sound now?],to his latter days a conscience of the conservaties,who found little to cheer about from the new right who claimed its parnetage to him.From his biting prescience on LBJ and Vietnam, to his condemnation of modern politcs,Goldwater was an original.truly .Would his vision and sheer balls be available on this convuluted and viscious landscape of politics today.Very,very well written,balanced,nuanced biography of a seminal figure of modern america.

The definitive Goldwater

Goldberg's biography is the definitive work on Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater. Essential reading for anyone interested in Goldwater and an excellent reminder that Goldwater's brand of conservatism is a far cry from the conservatism of the religious right. The book is a balanced view of the man from Arizona written by a scholar with an engaging and highly readable writing style.