The Inheritance: How Three Families and the American Political Majority Moved from Left to Right

by Samuel G. Freedman

Book Overview

From Simon & Schuster, The Inheritance is Samuel G. Freedman's exploration of how three families and America moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and beyond.

A saga covering more than eighty years of American history investigates how three obscure immigrant families made and unmade the Democratic majority and how their grandchildren eventually ended up as ardent Republicans.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684835363
• ISBN13: 9780684835365
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

One of the best books on American political history.

The Wall Street Journal publishes a list of Five Best Books every Saturday. On 30 June 2007, they asked David Gelernter, an author who has written about American history, to name five of the books he felt were representative of the best histories about our nation. The Inheritance was one of the five, and I am very impressed with the depth and breadth of the author's research on the subject of political change. The character studies are excellent, and he brings many diverse thoughts and movements together to show how politics has changed America. I have learned more about American politics in this book than in many others, and I am very interested in it. I can't tell whether the author is liberal or conservative, because he skewers both political parties with equal relish. The other books listed by Mr. Gelernter are: 1. On Two Wings, by Michael Novak; 2. Fields of Battle, by John Keegan; 3. The Religion of Abraham Lincoln, by William J. Wolf; 4. The Two-Ocean War, by Samuel Eliot Morrison; and lastly, 5. The Inheritance, by Samuel G. Freeman. Having read every one of them now, I think these are quite representative of the American character and history.

Interesting Evaluation Of Today's Political Environment

This book is a wonderful synopsis of the radical shift from the democratic majority thinking of the WWII era and a bit beyond to the right wing "nimby" politics that are the general focus of many of the young population today. As a 30-something self-procalimed democatic-socialist, this study in shifting politics and populace theory has helped me to understand and comprehend the political environment in the U.S. today.