by Seth Michaels, May 26, 2008

Right now, our Cool Tools section—the AFL-CIO’s pick of recent books, DVDs and more—features books that examine the way the extreme right has taken and held power in American politics.

This edition of Cool Tools features one of the most impressive and illuminating books that’s ever been written about American politics in the 1960s and 1970s: Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. Rick Perlstein, a sharp historian, examines these turbulent years in America through the lens of the rise of Richard Nixon, from his defeats in the early 1960s, to his landslide 1972 victory, to his disgrace and fall in the Watergate scandal.

Nixonland traces the breaking of the American social contract and asks how it was all possible. America went from the triumphant passage of Medicare and the Voting Rights Act to a divided nation in which the social contract was re-written to leave workers on their own.

Perlstein shows how Nixon skillfully exploited anger, resentment and anxiety and turned them into his own political power, driving wedges between groups in the country and opening the door for the dominance of a corrupt, pro-corporate political ideology.

We’re still reeling from the after-effects. Race and class issues are still being exploited for political gain. The Bush administration and its allies in Congress have borrowed from the Nixon playbook and taken it even further.

Nixonland is a compelling read that brings together the chaotic events of the 1960s and 1970s into a striking, entertaining and eye-opening narrative about how one man helped change politics and policy.

Click here to check out the latest Cool Tools.

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