For months evidence had trickled out suggesting ties between the White House and the botched Watergate burglary, and pollsters found that the public simply didn’t believe President Nixon’s repeated promises to get to the bottom of it. But Ronald Reagan, the aging California governor and former B-movie actor, was so out of step as to be amusing. On May 15, 1973, two days before the Senate Watergate committee began televised hearings, Reagan issued his latest statement dismissing the investigation as a partisan political stunt that was “blown out of proportion.” It was the latest sign that Reagan was becoming a right-wing fringe figure, the type of political lightweight that the press could seek out for an absurd quote to add a little color to their stories. Certainly Reagan had to be at the end of his electoral career.
It’s ground that’s been covered many times before, but Perlstein’s gift lies in illustrating broad political trends through surprising snapshots of American culture and media. He notes, for example, how the astounding box-office successes of The Exorcist and Death Wish undoubtedly said something about the nation’s growing anxieties about crime and lawlessness. Meanwhile, in baseball, Hank Aaron was greeted with death wishes for chasing Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record—at a time when backlashes were growing against affirmative action and other civil rights policies.
By Rick Perlstein (Simon & Schuster)
Discussion 8/13, 6 PMCindy Pritzker AuditoriumHarold Washington Library Center,400 S. State312-747-4300chipublib.orgFree
