Mad as Hell

November 8, 2010
Inspired by the famous scene in Network in which TV watchers howl their inchoate rage, historian Sandbrook (Eugene McCarthy) offers a shrewd, sparkling politico-cultural history of post-Watergate America. Sandbrook locates the decade's heart in the popular distrust and subsequent resentment of all institutions—governments, corporations, and unions. The individualism that results, Sandbrook argues, resonates with the roots of evangelicalism and develops into the beginnings of right-wing Christian populism. This fertile if not entirely original take on the era offers insightful interpretations of 1970s watersheds, from Jimmy Carter's canny "outsider" presidential campaign to property-tax revolts and battles over school busing and the ERA. Sandbrook sets his chronicle against a panorama of gasoline lines, stagflation, and epochal changes in race relations, women's roles, and sexual mores, woven together with cultural touchstones from Bruce Springsteen to Charlie's Angels. Sandbrook's account of right-wing populism as a mass phenomenon, fed by real grievances over social and economic turmoil and a pervasive sense of decline, largely misses the role of business interests; still, his subtle, well-written narrative of wrathful little guys confronting a faltering establishment illuminates a crucial aspect of a time much like our own. Photos.

Starred review from October 15, 2010

A British historian revisits the politics and culture of a miserable American decade.

Tom Wolfe famously dubbed the 1970s "The 'Me' Decade," when anything hopeful or noble about the '60s either curdled or congealed. Three undistinguished presidencies—Nixon, Ford and Carter—presided over an angry, resentful, self-absorbed populace reeling from Vietnam and Watergate and suffering from high unemployment, inflation and taxes. At the same time, liberalism dozed, either unaware or dismissive of the gathering conservative reaction to a corrupt establishment that, to them, fostered permissiveness, lawlessness and regular assaults on the traditional family. Against this backdrop of cultural decay, working-class discontent and middle-class resentment arose the populist right. Scorned by opponents as kooks and racists, derided as poorly educated and fearful of modernity, these activists helped prepare the ground for the Reagan Revolution. Sandbrook's principal cast includes characters like James Dobson and his Focus on the Family pressure group; Howard Jarvis, the California anti-tax crusader; Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts and Robert Schuller, evangelists who moved boldly into the political arena; singer Anita Bryant, who campaigned against a gay-rights ordinance in Florida; Louise Day Hicks, who led demonstrations against busing in South Boston; Phyllis Schlafly, who spearheaded opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment; Richard Viguerie, who invented direct-mail fundraising on behalf of conservative causes; and Paul Weyrich, who helped bring big money to the movement and whose Heritage Foundation offered ideological guidance. Sandbrook (Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles, 2005, etc.) also surveys a multitude of '70s phenomena, including redneck chic, the booming of the Sunbelt, the revival of country music, the surprising nostalgia for the '50s, Bobby Riggs v. Billy Jean King, Norman Mailer v. Germaine Greer, New York as Fear City and California Dreaming becoming the Golden State Nightmare.

The author's frequent allusions to the era's films, TV shows, books and music lend color and context to an already penetrating and evenhanded political analysis.

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December 1, 2010

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore," screamed antihero Howard Beale in the 1976 blockbuster motion picture Network. British historian Sandbrook (Eugene McCarthy: The Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism) uses this iconic jeremiad to aptly portray the decade that featured a populist resurgence against big government. The book is mostly the story of three unpopular Presidents--Nixon, Ford, and Carter--but Sandbrook describes many more outlets for public rage: Watergate, crime, busing, inflation, job loss, the Iranian hostage crisis, and antigay and antifeminist backlashes. This social turbulence led to the further demise of liberalism and the emergence of Sunbelt conservatism that continues to define the Republican Party. Sandbrook also shows how films, TV, books, music, and even the Dallas Cowboys contributed to the spirit of the times. His book compares favorably to Jefferson Cowie's excellent Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, which investigates the fall of labor during the decade. VERDICT A summation of the events and social upheavals would have been helpful, yet Sandbrook offers a compelling narrative, reminiscent of William Manchester and Theodore White, that will engross general readers and scholars. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10.]--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Township Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2010
British commentator Sandbrook comes to much the same conclusion about 1970s America that countryman Francis Wheen reached in Strange Days Indeed (2010); namely, that a spirit of discontent, even paranoia, pervaded the U.S. throughout the decade. Starting with Richard Nixons resignation in 1974, all the touchstones of the period are detailed: Americas humiliating defeat in Vietnam, an uptick in serious crime, economic malaise, rising fuel costs, environmental degradation, the Iranian hostage crisis, and an overall breakdown in respect for institutions, among others. But unlike Wheen, whos content enough to state his case, Sandbrook lays out just how this discontent found its expression in the emergence of Ronald Reagan and the Republican Right by decades end. Not an easy book to work through, but readers will be rewarded for their effort.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)