Mad as Hell: The Crisis of the 1970s and the Rise of the Populist Right

Mad as Hell: The Crisis of the 1970s and the Rise of the Populist Right. By Dominic Sandbrook. (New York: Knopf, 2011. xvi, 506 pp. $35.00, isbn 978-1-4000-4262-3.)

Dominic Sandbrook effectively synthesizes scholarly literature, contemporary periodicals, and a sprinkling of archival source material to probe the era between Richard M. Nixon's resignation and Ronald Reagan's inauguration. Surveying an American landscape of rising sun belt political power, odd-even gas rationing, and calamity over court-ordered busing, he identifies populism as the unifying theme behind a disparate aggregation of contentious forces. The author's engaging profiles of rhe California tax revolt catalyst Howard Jarvis, the Moral Majority founder Jerry FaI well, rhe an ti- equal rights amendment crusader Phyllis Schlafly, and rhe anti- gay rights activist Anita Bryant reveal how these figures accrued power by tapping into the discontent of "ordinary American people." These were the same people that Nixon had appealed to as the "silent majority"...