Changing of the Guard: Power and Leadership in America

by David S. Broder

Book Overview

" An Essential Book For Anyone Concernced About The Future Of American Politics" -Chicago Tribune This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067124566X
• ISBN13: 9780671245665
• Release Date: September 1980
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

wonderful look at up-and-coming leaders (in the early 80s)

This is a very interesting look at the leaders that were rising a generation ago, describing what their concerns are and how they operate. There are wonderful vignettes in it as well as a good deal of analysis - they are seen are more grassroots and local than DC-centric. It is a wonderful evocation of potential, and any aspiring politico would have wanted to read this then. Of course, the problem with old political books is that they are dated. As such, this is a worthy snapshot in time, in the beginning of the Reagan era. (Amazingly, many of my students have no memory of that era - shows how old I am getting!) While this limits its value, I enjoyed it greatly nonetheless. Broder did not, for example, see the rise of the do-nothing supplysiders as anything but temporary, concentrating instead on those who want to use government to attck very concrete problems. It is not about the new hard right media-savvy types who specialise in symbolic measures like banning flag burning or keeping Terry Schiavo alive, and they are a big part of what is going on now. Warmly recommended. Broder is one of our most thoughtful and connected journalists. He is first rate and covers, with the freshness of genuine inspiration in the American political process, what many others deem boring.