The New York Times Book Review - Gabriel Debenedetti
It can be a strange experience these days to read a book about modern American politics and divisions that is not about Donald Trump. Steve Kornacki's The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism renders such an experience lively and fulfilling, if not uplifting, by making a mostly convincing case that the brutal 1990s political battles led by Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich had brought the country to its stark divide between "red America" and "blue America" by election night, 2000.
Publishers Weekly
08/13/2018
Kornacki, political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, delivers a hard-hitting look at 1990s election politics in this engrossing account of two political rivals and the cultural phenomena they shaped. Kornacki’s narrative, which covers the period from 1984 to 2000, focuses on the rise of Democrat wild child Bill Clinton and his Republican nemesis Newt Gingrich. But it also includes detailed accounts of congressional gridlock, salacious presidential scandals, and outlier billionaires’ third-party presidential runs. Kornacki persuasively argues that this “fateful decade” serves as the precursor to today’s “political tribalism.” He skillfully resurrects the scenes, culture, and major players of the time, including Pat Buchanan, George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, and Henry Ross Perot. Kornacki switches focus between Clinton and Gingrich, highlighting the growing ideological rifts between the two parties; Clinton’s push for universal health coverage and tax increases are set in opposition to Gingrich’s disdainful view of government as the breeding ground for the liberal elite and tax hikes. Kornacki credits Gingrich with a major turning point in partisan politics: the 1994 midterm’s landslide victory for Republicans in Congress, which further cemented the coming tribalism. With rich detail about ’90s pop culture and astute political commentary, Kornacki tells an enlightening tale. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.” — Washington Post
“[Kornacki] is one of the most perceptive political analysts on cable TV. . . . A crisp and fast-paced narrative.” — The Guardian
“A smart and welcome take on U.S. politics over the past two decades.” — The American Conservative
“Kornacki is known for his predictive ability to read electoral tea leaves and spot trends. Now his journalistic prowess is on display in this sharp narrative tracking the steps and missteps over the last quarter-century that brought us to today’s combative political stasis.” — Booklist (starred review)
“A hard-hitting look at 1990s election politics. . . . Engrossing. . . . With rich detail about ’90s pop culture and astute political commentary, Kornacki tells an enlightening tale.” — Publishers Weekly
“Revealing reading to think about before the midterms heat up.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Instructive. . . . Reads like a novel with many footnotes and is ideal for anyone interested in contemporary American politics.” — Library Journal
“The energy and insight Kornacki expresses as a political analyst on television shatters the screen and fills the pages of this carefully crafted book. . . . Engaging, entertaining, and enlightening.” — Lee Miringoff, PhD, Director of Marist Institute for Public Opinion
“Steve Kornacki brings to The Red and the Blue the same intensity, rigorous reporting and incisive analysis that captivate his television audiences. This book sucked us right in and taught us something new about politics on every page.” — Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
“Steve Kornacki is America’s gift to election years. His new book, The Red and the Blue, is every political fan’s playbook about how we got here and where we’re going. I loved it.” — Tom Brokaw
“An insightful, learned, and thought-provoking theory that the political tribalism of the moment is rooted in the worlds of Gingrich and of the Clintons, and the first days of the political-entertainment complex. This is an illuminating argument from a master political journalist and analyst.” — Jon Meacham
Washington Post
Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.
Lee Miringoff
The energy and insight Kornacki expresses as a political analyst on television shatters the screen and fills the pages of this carefully crafted book. . . . Engaging, entertaining, and enlightening.
The American Conservative
A smart and welcome take on U.S. politics over the past two decades.
Tom Brokaw
Steve Kornacki is America’s gift to election years. His new book, The Red and the Blue, is every political fan’s playbook about how we got here and where we’re going. I loved it.
Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
Steve Kornacki brings to The Red and the Blue the same intensity, rigorous reporting and incisive analysis that captivate his television audiences. This book sucked us right in and taught us something new about politics on every page.
The Guardian
[Kornacki] is one of the most perceptive political analysts on cable TV. . . . A crisp and fast-paced narrative.
Booklist (starred review)
Kornacki is known for his predictive ability to read electoral tea leaves and spot trends. Now his journalistic prowess is on display in this sharp narrative tracking the steps and missteps over the last quarter-century that brought us to today’s combative political stasis.
Jon Meacham
An insightful, learned, and thought-provoking theory that the political tribalism of the moment is rooted in the worlds of Gingrich and of the Clintons, and the first days of the political-entertainment complex. This is an illuminating argument from a master political journalist and analyst.
Washington Post
Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.
Tom Brokaw
Steve Kornacki is America’s gift to election years. His new book, The Red and the Blue, is every political fan’s playbook about how we got here and where we’re going. I loved it.
Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
Steve Kornacki brings to The Red and the Blue the same intensity, rigorous reporting and incisive analysis that captivate his television audiences. This book sucked us right in and taught us something new about politics on every page.
The Guardian
[Kornacki] is one of the most perceptive political analysts on cable TV. . . . A crisp and fast-paced narrative.
Jon Meacham
An insightful, learned, and thought-provoking theory that the political tribalism of the moment is rooted in the worlds of Gingrich and of the Clintons, and the first days of the political-entertainment complex. This is an illuminating argument from a master political journalist and analyst.
Washington Post
Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.
Booklist (starred review)
Kornacki is known for his predictive ability to read electoral tea leaves and spot trends. Now his journalistic prowess is on display in this sharp narrative tracking the steps and missteps over the last quarter-century that brought us to today’s combative political stasis.
The American Conservative
A smart and welcome take on U.S. politics over the past two decades.
Kirkus Reviews
2018-07-31
Tired of the political squabbling and incivility of our day? Blame it on hanging chads—and Newt Gingrich.
According to NBC and MSNBC political correspondent Kornacki, the notion that there are two Americas, more or less equal in strength, dates precisely to Nov. 7, 2000, "the product of an entire nation torn perfectly in half." The rupture took time to build, though; one climacteric was the civil rights movement of the postwar era, which led to the formation of a Southern, segregationist wing of the Democratic Party that would in time switch to the Republicans and take the South with them. When Bill Clinton came along in the 1990s, he brought a "New Democratic" style meant in at least some regard to woo the region back into the fold, but Republican firebrand Gingrich would have none of it. Instead, he practiced a slash-and-burn, us-vs.-them politics that verged on civil war. Few of his allies liked him, but indeed, "even if they still despised him, they had to respect him" after he toppled Speaker of the House Jim Wright with a decidedly malign but effective campaign. Gingrich, rising to that position, took it as his brief to "obliterate all that modernism had created," and were it not for his considerable failings, he might have succeeded—unfortunately, others have continued that project. After eight years of Gingrich versus Clinton, and after some serious missteps on the part of Clinton's would-be successor, Al Gore, the electoral map took the form it bears now, with blue states north of the Mason-Dixon Line and red ones mostly below it—and with intractable differences that all but guarantee the impossibility of any future candidate's winning by a transnational landslide as Ronald Reagan did.
Revealing reading to think about before the midterms heat up.
