New York Times bestselling author John Dean and the son of conservative icon Barry Goldwater come together to show why Goldwater matters. Publishers Weekly Starred Review.Senator Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), whose 1960 best-seller Conscience of a Conservative helped define the modern conservative movement, was by 1996 describing himself and Bob Dole as "the new liberals of the Republican Party." Author Dean (Broken Government, Conservatives Without Conscience) and Goldwater Jr., the Senator's son and an eighth-term California congressman, explore the complicated figure in this "scrap book" of journal excerpts, correspondence, articles and other primary testimony. A Republican maverick who valued principle over political expediency, Goldwater can be predictable-maintaining loyalty toward Nixon even as the President edged him out of inner White House circles (as late as May 1973, Goldwater called for Jack Anderson's Pulitzer to be re-dubbed "the Benedict Arnold Award")-but he was neither an ideologue nor a mud-slinger: for instance, his hard-hitting fight against President Johnson stopped short of scandalizing LBJ's chief of staff, arrested for "disorderly" conduct in a men's toilet, and in 1994 he went against the powerful new GOP congress by saying publicly of Whitewater, "I haven't heard anything yet that says this is all that big of a deal." Covering personal life, career and retirement, including his 1964 bid for president, this is an invaluable chronicle of the times, told by an American who changed politics by being, simply, "an honest man who tried his damnedest."Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Preface ixThe Early YearsThe Boy Who Became the Man 3Journals and Opinions 15A Break from Business to Explore Arizona 23Military Life 45Political Beginnings 67The Senate Years: 1952-1965The First Senate Campaign 75Learning How Washington Worked 87Playing on the National Stage: 1959-1963 103After the 1964 Presidential RaceSetting the Record Straight 139Seeing the World and Spreading the Word 177Nixon and WatergateRecalling Nixon 197Nixon's Presidency: First Term 213Nixon's Presidency: Second Term 255Watergate 275On the IssuesAmerican Foreign Policy 331Domestic Issues 341Retirement Years 365Epilogue 373Chronology 379Acknowledgments 389Index 393