Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush V. Gore

Posted on by

In Restless Giant, acclaimed historical author James Patterson provides a crisp, concise assessment of the twenty seven years between the resignation of Richard Nixon and the election of George W Bush in a sweeping narrative that seamlessly weaves together social, cultural, political, economic, and international developments We meet the era s many memorable figures and explore the culture wars between liberals and conservatives that appeared to split the country in two.Patterson describes how America began facing bewildering developments in places such as Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, and Iraq, and discovered that it was far from easy to direct the outcome of global events, and at times even harder for political parties to reach a consensus over what attempts should be made At the same time, domestic issues such as the persistence of racial tensions, high divorce rates, alarm over crime, and urban decay led many in the media to portray the era as one of decline Patterson offers a positive perspective, arguing that, despite our often unmet expectations, we were in many ways better off than we thought By 2000, most Americans lived comfortably than they had in the 1970s, and though bigotry and discrimination were far from extinct, a powerful rights consciousness insured that these were less pervasive in American life than at any time in the past.With insightful analyses and engaging prose, Restless Giant captures this period of American history in a way that no other book has, illuminating the road that the United States traveled from the dismal days of the mid 1970s through the hotly contested election of 2000.The Oxford History of the United States The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi volume history of our nation The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship, a series that synthesizes a generation s worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state of the art book Conceived under the general editorship of C Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative. Best Download Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush V. Gore [ Author ] James T. Patterson [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr My final stop on my march through the ages is James T Patterson s Restless Giant This volume has a very different feel from both Patterson s previous book Grand Expectations The United States, 1945 1974 Oxford History of the United States and from the Oxford series in general This book isupbeat than the previous this could be due to the material Grand Expectations leaves you a little emotionally down in a reflection of the disappointment of the time period In contrast, Restless My final stop on my march through the ages is James T Patterson s Restless Giant This volume has a very different feel from both Patterson s previous book Grand Expectations The United States, 1945 1974 Oxford History of the United States and from the Oxford series in general This book isupbeat than the previous this could be due to the material Grand Expectations leaves you a little emotionally down in a reflection of the disappointment of the time period In contrast, Restless Gian...Worthy history but a long haul and frequently rather dull I enjoyed the portraits of the presidents from Nixon to Bush junior but in between were seemingly endless reams of statistics and data that I found a little heavy going.Okay, so it s not an edge of your seat thrillfest.But if you re interested in how your world got so screwed up, Patterson has some answers.From post interation bussing in the 70s through Carter s good ol boy cabinet, Reagan s public spending excesses, Bush s attempts to get the economy back on the rails, through the pop culture and electronic boom of Clinton s 90s, Patterson plots social, political and economic maps that show us how we got to where we are.Since I wasn t born or raised in the Okay, so it s not an edge of your seat thrillfest.But if you re interested in how your world got so screwed up, Patterson has some answers.From post interation bussing in the 70s through Carter s good ol boy cabinet, Reagan s public spending excesses, Bush s attempts to get the economy back on the rails, through the pop culture and electronic boom of Clinton s 90s, Patterson plots social, political and economic maps that show us how we got to where we are.Since I wasn t...A good summary of the last 30 or so years of US history It expains cogently the back story of our current political, social, and cultural problems.Not the greatest, not in depth, and a somewhat conservative analysis of the times Too soon to truly be considered history.A perfectly readable summary of political and cultural happenings between, as the subtitle puts it, the end of Nixon to the start of Bush II Readable, but deeply unsatisfying, since Patterson is unwilling to actually exercise any judgement this is a chronicle, not history There s no causation here and no suggestion that people may have done good or bad things, just events andevents The general tenor is So and so said that this happened But thus and thus said that that happened A perfectly readable summary of political and cultural happenings between, as the subtitle puts it, the end of Nixon to the start of Bush II Readable, but deeply unsatisfying, since Patterson is unwilling to actually exercise any judgement this is a chronicle, not history There s no causation here and no suggestion that people may have done good or bad things, just events andevents The general tenor is So and so said that this happened But thus and thus said that that happened Moving right along So you never know what Patterson actually thinks happened, or why you should care, or, indeed, if even he cares This is all theoffensive when you think about what was about to happen to the U.S 9 11 had just passed, and he opted not to write about it at all I imagine he d make the same decision about the great financial crash So, particularly in the last few chapters, this becomes an extremely odd read you know that all the steady financial growth is based on garbage, and that it s all about to fall down,...From the Oxford History of the United States, Patterson presents a balanced and straightforward history of the U.S from the resignation of Nixon to the contentious SCOTUS decision of Bush v Gore A central theme is the increase in various rights movements throughout the country by various political and sometimes ethnic minorities These movements generated an ever increasing sense of entitlement among these groups and when those entitlements were not met, an increasing sense that life From the Oxford History of the United States, Patterson presents a balanced and straightforward history of the U.S from the resignation of Nixon to the contentious SCOTUS decision of Bush v Gore A central theme is the increase in various rights movements throughout the country by various political and sometimes ethnic minorities These movements generated an ever increasing sense of entitlement ...Patterson struck again with this great summary of US history since 1974 The title is deceiving because he does not deal with Watergate at all Still, the book summarizes the cultural, economic, political, and social developments in the late 20th century My students really enjoyed it.I felt like I already lived through all of this before It felt like a recap of the headlines throughout my life I think it may still be too soon to look at this time from a historical perspective.It s stated early in Patterson s survey of the United States, which begins with Nixon s resignation and ends with the election of George W Bush, that the history we understand least is the one that surrounds the years of our birth i.e., our own time.And how Having read several books on topics of this time period, much of the material here is revelatory and its analyses of the cultural, economic and international events during those pivotal decades fresh Two standouts Patterson ...

Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush V. Gore
  • English
  • 13 June 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 448 pages
  • 019512216X
  • James T. Patterson
  • Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush V. Gore