Against the wind : Edward Kennedy and the rise of conservatism / Neal Gabler.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Crown, [2022]Edition: First editionDescription: xxviii, 1227 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- still image
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780593238622
- 0593238621
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | Biography | KENNEDY, E. G115 | Available | 33111010919641 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * From the author of Catching the Wind comes the second volume of the definitive biography of Ted Kennedy and a history of modern American liberalism.
"Magisterial . . . an intricate, astute study of political power brokering comparable to Robert A. Caro's profile of Lyndon Johnson in Master of the Senate ."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Against the Wind completes Neal Gabler's magisterial biography of Ted Kennedy, but it also unfolds the epic, tragic story of the fall of liberalism and the destruction of political morality in America. With Richard Nixon having stilled the liberal wind that once propelled Kennedy's--and his fallen brothers'--political crusades, Ted Kennedy faced a lonely battle. As Republicans pressed Reaganite dogmas of individual freedom and responsibility and Democratic centrists fell into line, Kennedy was left as the most powerful voice legislating on behalf of those society would neglect or punish: the poor, the working class, and African Americans.
Gabler shows how the fault lines that cracked open in the wake of the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam were intentionally widened by Kennedy's Republican rivals to create a moral vision of America that stood in direct opposition to once broadly shared commitments to racial justice and economic equality. Yet even as he fought this shift, Ted Kennedy's personal moral failures in this era--the endless rumors of his womanizing and public drunkenness and his bizarre behavior during the events that led to rape accusations against his nephew William Kennedy Smith--would be used again and again to weaken his voice and undercut his claims to political morality.
Tracing Kennedy's life from the wilderness of the Reagan years through the compromises of the Clinton era, from his rage against the craven cruelty of George W. Bush to his hope that Obama would deliver on a lifetime of effort on behalf of universal health care, Gabler unfolds Kennedy's heroic legislative work against the backdrop of a nation grown lost and fractured. In this outstanding conclusion to the saga that began with Catching the Wind, Neal Gabler offers his inimitable insight into a man who fought to keep liberalism alive when so many were determined to extinguish it. Against the Wind sheds new light both on a revered figure in the American Century and on America's current existential crisis.
Sequel to Catching the Wind by Neal Gabler.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 1043-1161)and index.
Introduction: A countervailing wind -- A man of the senate -- The chemistry of the senate -- "A special place in his animus" -- Sniffing the wind -- "In the lap of the gods" -- "Just another Clark Kent" -- "Keep the rudder true" -- "Everything but the nomination" -- Life after disaster -- "The powerful appeal of our most decent values" -- A new man -- "We need the results" -- The undertow -- Mea culpa -- "Stability and tranquility" -- "The battle of his political life" -- Stiffening their spines -- Running the senate -- Endings and epilogues -- The charm offensive/the war offensive -- "A fraud cooked up in Texas" -- "The moral challenge of doing the right thing" -- Hope -- Return to the sea.
"From the author of Catching the Wind, called "one of the truly great biographies of our time," comes the second volume of the epic, definitive biography of Ted Kennedy-in which America's tectonic shift toward conservatism leaves Kennedy the lone powerful voice in the fight to advance protection for the poor and working-class. In Against the Wind, Ted Kennedy enters 1975 no longer in his brothers' shadow but as a force in his own right, having assumed their mantle as a leading liberal, borne along by the progressive wind that they had helped generate. But as the seventies grind on, Ted Kennedy sails largely against the wind as it shifts direction-first with the election of Jimmy Carter, a moderate who prioritized budget-balancing over the old causes for which Ted had labored, and then with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who bundled the discontents of the white working and middle classes into the most powerful force in American politics. When the liberal hour wound down, those resentments would consume American politics for decades. Ted Kennedy, then, was tasked with advocating for the poor and the dispossessed at a time when the idea of individual responsibility overwhelmed that of communal responsibility. This volume tells the story of how a political titan used his legislative mastery to beat back the most dire threats to the nation's most vulnerable individuals. Both politically and personally, Kennedy found himself lost at sea in a time of conservative ascendancy. But he ultimately regained his ballast and emerged not only as the political conscience of the nation but also as the "Lion of the Senate," with a reputation among both Democrats and Republicans as the most effective legislator of his own and possibly all time. In Against the Wind, Neal Gabler brings his inimitable insight to bear on a man who fought to keep liberalism alive when so many were determined to extinguish it. This outstanding conclusion to the epic biography that began with Catching the Wind sheds new light on the great American century and one of its most revered figures"-- Provided by publisher.