When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

The early 1990s were a time of rising anger and domestic turmoil, anticipating the polarization and resurgent extremism we know today. John Ganz's book, When the Clock Broke, tells the story of America's late-century discontents, ranging from upheavals in Crown Heights and Los Angeles to the advent of David Duke and the heartland survivalists. The 1992 campaign saw Pat Buchanan's and Ross Perot's insurgent populist bids upend the political establishment, while Americans struggled through recession, alarm about racial and social change, the specter of a new power in Asia, and the end of Cold War-era political norms. Conspiracy theories surged, and intellectuals and activists strove to understand the Middle American Radicals whose alienation fueled new causes. Bill Clinton appeared to forge a new, vital center, but it would not hold for long.

Format: Hardback
Length: 432 pages
Publication date: 15 July 2024
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc

The early 1990s, with the Soviet Union extinct, Saddam Hussein defeated, and U.S. power at its zenith, promised a kinder, gentler America. Instead, it was a period of rising anger and domestic turmoil, anticipating the polarization and resurgent extremism we know today. In his acclaimed political book, When the Clock Broke, John Ganz tells the story of America's late-century discontents. Ranging from upheavals in Crown Heights and Los Angeles to the advent of David Duke and the heartland survivalists, the broadcasts of Rush Limbaugh, and the bitter disputes between neoconservatives and the paleo-con right, Ganz immerses us in a time when what Philip Roth called the indigenous American berserk took new and ever-wilder forms. In the 1992 campaign, Pat Buchanan's and Ross Perot's insurgent populist bids upended the political establishment, all while Americans struggled through recession, alarm about racial and social change, the specter of a new power in Asia, and the end of Cold War-era political norms. Conspiracy theories surged, and intellectuals and activists strove to understand the Middle American Radicals whose alienation fueled new causes. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton appeared to forge a new, vital center, though it would not hold for long. In a rollicking, eye-opening book, Ganz narrates the fall of the Reagan order and the rise of a new and more turbulent America.

Weight: 644g
Dimension: 235 x 166 x 36 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780374605445