Jonathan Darman. (2014). Landslide: LBJ and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America. Random House Publishing Group.

Jonathan Darman. 2014. Landslide: LBJ and Ronald Reagan At the Dawn of a New America. Random House Publishing Group.

Jonathan Darman, Landslide: LBJ and Ronald Reagan At the Dawn of a New America. Random House Publishing Group, 2014.

Jonathan Darman. Landslide: LBJ and Ronald Reagan At the Dawn of a New America. Random House Publishing Group, 2014.

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1. • value: Ronald Reagan
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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Darman, Jonathan
   • bioText: Jonathan Darman is a writer in New York City. He is a former correspondent for Newsweek, where he covered national politics, including John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004 and Hillary Clinton’s in 2008. This is his first book.
   • name: Jonathan Darman

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title

Landslide

fullDescription

In politics, the man who takes the highest spot after a landslide is not standing on solid ground.
 
In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, Jonathan Darman tells the story of two giants of American politics, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and shows how, from 1963 to 1966, these two men—the same age, and driven by the same heroic ambitions—changed American politics forever.
 
The liberal and the conservative. The deal-making arm twister and the cool communicator. The Texas rancher and the Hollywood star. Opposites in politics and style, Johnson and Reagan shared a defining impulse: to set forth a grand story of America, a story in which he could be the hero. In the tumultuous days after the Kennedy assassination, Johnson and Reagan each, in turn, seized the chance to offer the country a new vision for the future. Bringing to life their vivid personalities and the anxious mood of America in a radically transformative time, Darman shows how, in promising the impossible, Johnson and Reagan jointly dismantled the long American tradition of consensus politics and ushered in a new era of fracture. History comes to life in Darman’s vivid, fly-on-the wall storytelling.
 
Even as Johnson publicly revels in his triumphs, we see him grow obsessed with dark forces he believes are out to destroy him, while his wife, Lady Bird, urges her husband to put aside his paranoia and see the world as it really is. And as the war in Vietnam threatens to overtake his presidency, we witness Johnson desperately struggling to compensate with ever more extravagant promises for his Great Society.
 
On the other side of the country, Ronald Reagan, a fading actor years removed from his Hollywood glory, gradually turns toward a new career in California politics. We watch him delivering speeches to crowds who are desperate for a new leader. And we see him wielding his well-honed instinct for timing, waiting for Johnson’s majestic promises to prove empty before he steps back into the spotlight, on his long journey toward the presidency.
 
From Johnson’s election in 1964, the greatest popular-vote landslide in American history, to the pivotal 1966 midterms, when Reagan burst forth onto the national stage, Landslide brings alive a country transformed—by riots, protests, the rise of television, the shattering of consensus—and the two towering personalities whose choices in those moments would reverberate through the country for decades to come.
 
Praise for Landslide
 
“Richly detailed . . . Landslide is a vivid retelling of a tumultuous three years in American history, and Mr. Darman captures in full the personalities and motives of two of the twentieth century’s most consequential politicians.”—The New York Times
 
“Novel and even surprising . . . Landslide deftly reminds readers that Johnson and Reagan both trafficked in grandiose oratory and promoted utopian visions at odds with the social complexity of modern America.”—The Washington Post
 
“Riveting . . . Darman portrays [Johnson and Reagan] as polar opposites of political attraction. . . . Animated by the artful insight that they were men of disappointment headed toward an appointment with history . . . A tale about myths and a nation that believed them, about a world of a half century ago now gone forever.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Alert to the subtleties of politics and political history,...

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Library Journal (starred review)
   • content: "Richly detailed . . . Landslide is a vivid retelling of a tumultuous three years in American history, and [Jonathan] Darman captures in full the personalities and motives of two of the twentieth century's most consequential politicians."--The New York Times "Novel and even surprising . . . Landslide deftly reminds readers that Johnson and Reagan both trafficked in grandiose oratory and promoted utopian visions at odds with the social complexity of modern America."--The Washington Post "Riveting . . . Darman portrays [Johnson and Reagan] as polar opposites of political attraction. . . . Animated by the artful insight that they were men of disappointment headed toward an appointment with history . . . A tale about myths and a nation that believed them, about a world of a half century ago now gone forever."--The Boston Globe "Alert to the subtleties of politics and political history, Darman, a former correspondent for Newsweek, nimbly explores delusion and self-delusion at the highest levels."--The New York Times Book Review "[Darman] has a deft grasp of Reagan's and Johnson's biographies and of the last half-century of American political history. Setting the book as a dual story . . . both rescues the story from the fatalism (for Johnson) and pluck (for Reagan) of biography and refreshes both of their stories by contrasting the simultaneous reversals of their respective political fortunes."--The Daily Beast "Darman's compelling, sweeping narrative explores the myths that Johnson and Reagan invented about themselves. . . . Reminiscent of such spellbinders as Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm . . . and Jeff Shesol's Mutual Contempt. . . . This title will engross readers of political history."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
   • content: "Smart and perceptive . . . Darman sizes up the careers of two political powerhouses and craftsmen, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan, while claiming that each man's impressive litany of achievements influenced the historical arc of American leadership. . . . Darman's sincere and informative approach animates these historic figures, bringing them from the nostalgia of old TV clips and fading newsprint to the forefront of an engaging historical discussion."--Publishers Weekly "A rich, fly-on-the-wall narrative. If the current partisan gridlock has you pulling your hair out, this book will help you understand where these ripples originate."--Booklist "An intimate chronicle of the 1,000 days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, during which there was a sea change in the American electorate. . . . The author masterfully conveys LBJ's agony, as well as former actor Reagan's freewheeling spirit: He was the 'Errol Flynn of the B movies' who had aged out of his previous roles and needed a new gig as an American hero. Ambitious, studious portraits pulled together nicely by Darman."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Lesley Stahl
   • content: "Jonathan Darman turns fresh eyes on two political giants of the late twentieth century, LBJ and Ronald Reagan. Landslide is full of surprises and new insights on these two presidents, and is written with flair. A delicious feast of a read."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
   • content: "Masterly . . . In taking us back to a moment in American history when politics worked, Jonathan Darman provides a resonant reality check on a system that now seems all too dysfunctional. The intertwined stories of Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan offer us a window on the intrinsic give-and-take that makes governing possible. Anyone who cares about politics, biography, and current affairs will find this a delightful and illuminating book."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff and Robert Kennedy
   • content: "Jonathan Darman writes with power, sweep, vivacity, and humor. He is at once a gifted storyteller, a keen judge of character, and a genie of political insight. He gives us two giants, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, in all their glory and human vanity, and takes
6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     September 15, 2014
     Former Newsweek political reporter Darman sizes up the careers of two political powerhouses and craftsmen, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan, while claiming that each man's impressive litany of achievements influenced the historical arc of American leadership. In this smart and perceptive narrative, Darman discusses the contrasts between the two Americas they envisioned—more specifically, the disparities between LBJ's liberal Great Society policies and Reagan's hardline conservative agenda. Both driven and ambitious, Johnson, the down-to-earth Texas cowboy and career politician, and Reagan, "the Errol Flynn of the B-movies" and rising Goldwater heir, zigzagged their respective ways to the White House, overcoming personal setbacks, political ambushes, and intraparty conflict along the way. On the one hand, LBJ championed the poor and civil rights, yet his hugely popular regime was leveled by the Vietnam War's economic and military burden. On the other, Reagan's amiable right-wing chatter made him the darling first of Californians and later of the entire country, yet critics panned him for his lackluster Tinseltown history. Darman's sincere and informative approach animates these historic figures, bringing them from the nostalgia of old TV clips and fading newsprint to the forefront of an engaging historical discussion. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, the Wylie Agency.

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2014
     An intimate chronicle of the 1,000 days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, during which there was a sea change in the American electorate.President Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan both enjoyed huge election landslides, the former in his 1964 re-election bid as the standard bearer of the Great Society programs and the latter leading the conservative backlash in his defeat of Pat Brown as governor of California in 1966. In this sympathetic dual character study, former Newsweek correspondent Darman focuses on these two savvy politicians, who managed to capture the prevailing public mood and convince the voters that the best was yet to come-either for the progressive cause or the less-government-is-better platform, respectively-during a time of wrenching change in American society. Despite the prevailing shock and gloom that ensued after the assassination, LBJ, the depressed vice president largely ignored by Kennedy's administration, was galvanized by a sense of duty and legacy, becoming the "Man-in-Motion" who effected a staggering number of progressive achievements in the spirit of the dead president: civil rights legislation, poverty alleviation and education reform, Medicare and voting rights, among others. In his accomplishments during his first 100 days of office, LBJ rivaled those of FDR. Soon after, however, everything began to unravel, sowing a sense of anxiety within the country: the racial confrontation on the Selma, Alabama, Edmund Pettus Bridge; escalation of the Vietnam War; and the Watts riots. Although LBJ had crushed Barry Goldwater, the conservatives gained new impetus in Reagan's more appealingly packaged, moderate, yet still-hard-hitting anti-government speeches. The author masterfully conveys LBJ's agony, as well as former actor Reagan's free-wheeling spirit: He was the "Errol Flynn of the B movies" who had aged out of his previous roles and needed a new gig as an American hero.Ambitious, studious portraits pulled together nicely by Darman.

     COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from September 15, 2014
     

     President Lyndon Baines Johnson was riding high in 1964 when he routed Barry Goldwater in the presidential election that swept in a period of dynamic liberal legislation. Just two years later, LBJ's Great Society imploded, setting the stage for former TV and movie star Ronald Reagan and the modern conservative movement that would dominate America for the rest of the 20th century. Former Newsweek political reporter Darman's compelling, sweeping narrative explores the myths that Johnson and Reagan invented about themselves. As the author reveals, both men were driven to portray themselves as heroic "men on horseback" who would lead America to greatness, ultimately impossible roles to play. More of the book is devoted to Johnson, notably his insecurity and the depression brought about by the loss of his constituents over Vietnam and urban riots. Reagan was much more comfortable with himself and basked in the limelight of his election as governor of California in 1966 while planning for a future presidential run. VERDICT Reminiscent of such spellbinders as Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus and Jeff Shesol's Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade, this title will engross readers of political history.--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

     Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 1, 2014
     Mythmaking is integral to politics. Since history is often written by the victors, in a democracy, he or she who gets the most votes wields the biggest pen. Darman's work is concerned with political mythmaking and contrasts the narratives of Lyndon Johnson with rising upstart Ronald Reagan. Both men, in Darman's view, radically reoriented American politics and birthed, in the author's view, today's politics of unreality. The book covers the blow-by-blow account of mid-twentieth-century party politics engagingly well with the entwined stories of Johnson and Reagan. Still, the thesis seems a bit off. Haven't American politics always been part fantasy? From our founding, Americans have been told by politicians of our uniqueness, of our manifest destiny, of our je ne sais quoi. Was not America first conceived as a fabled city upon a hill ? Regardless, Darman's account has plenty of juicy tidbits that make for a rich, fly-on-the-wall narrative. If the current partisan gridlock has you pulling your hair out, this book will help you understand where these ripples originate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

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In politics, the man who takes the highest spot after a landslide is not standing on solid ground.
 
In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, Jonathan Darman tells the story of two giants of American politics, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and shows how, from 1963 to 1966, these two men—the same age, and driven by the same heroic ambitions—changed American politics forever.
 
The liberal and the conservative. The deal-making arm twister and the cool communicator. The Texas rancher and the Hollywood star. Opposites in politics and style, Johnson and Reagan shared a defining impulse: to set forth a grand story of America, a story in which he could be the hero. In the tumultuous days after the Kennedy assassination, Johnson and Reagan each, in turn, seized the chance to offer the country a new vision for the future. Bringing to life their vivid personalities and the anxious mood of America in a radically...

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Landslide LBJ and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America

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