Deadlock and Disillusionment: American Politics Since 1968 is an insightful consideration of the events people, and policy debates that have shaped and continue to influence, even control, the current political era. Rejects conventional wisdom that the dominant force shaping recent American politics in the last half century has been the "rise of the Right" Considers the achievements and frustrations of each administration, from Nixon to Obama, in its assessment of contemporary U.S. politics Features authorship by an expert scholar in the field who takes a thematic rather than a partisan approach to recent American politics Offers a concise, comprehensive, and thoroughly up-to-date synthesis of the literature in the field and concludes with a comprehensive bibliographical essay, an aid to student research

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations vii Preface ix Introduction: 1968—The End of an Era 1 1 The Politics of Cynicism, 1968–1974 5 The Shaping of a New Majority 7 Conservatism as Reform 16 The Politics of War and Détente 19 Watergate and Its Aftermath 30 2 The Futility of Moderation, 1974–1976 43 The Politics of Forgiveness 44 President as Political Prisoner 48 Détente Derailed 53 3 Dashed Hopes, 1976–1980 60 Fractured Majority 61 Threading the Needle 73 The Abandonment of Idealism 78 4 Dogma and (More) Disappointment, 1980–1988 89 The Rise of the Right 90 Reaganomics 96 Culture Wars and Party Politics 107 Reagan's World 117 5 Squandering the Inheritance, 1988–1992 136 Succession by Hardball 137 The Bills Come Due 144 New World (Dis)Order 153 6 The Deepening Divide, 1992–2000 171 The Illusion of Liberal Revival 172 The Politics of Triangulation 187 Quest for a Post-Cold War Foreign Policy 200 Crises of the Clinton Presidency 212 7 The Politics of Polarization, 2000–2008 221 Ultimate Deadlock: Bush v. Gore 222 The Politics of Anti-terrorism 233 Imagined Mandate 248 The Politics of Certitude 262 8 The Politics of Red and Blue, since 2008 277 The Politics of Hope 279 Government by Dysfunction 296 The Politics of Trench Warfare 315 Conclusion: Deadlock and Disillusionment 328 Bibliographical Essay 335 Index 355