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

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

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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | National Indie Bestseller

"Terrific . . . Vibrant . . . When the Clock Broke is one of those rarest of books: unflaggingly entertaining while never losing sight of its moral core." —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

"When the Clock Broke is leagues more insightful on the subject of Trump’s ascent than most writing that purports to address the issue directly." —Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post

"Lively and kaleidoscopic." —Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker

"John Ganz is the most important young political writer of his generation—just the one our dark moment needs." —Rick Perlstein

A revelatory look back at the convulsions at the end of the Reagan era—and their dark legacy today.

With the Soviet Union dissolved, Saddam Hussein defeated, and U.S. power at its peak, the early 1990s promised a “kinder, gentler America.” Instead, it was a time of rising anger and domestic turmoil, foreshadowing the polarization and extremism of today.

In When the Clock Broke, acclaimed political writer John Ganz explores America’s late-century discontents. He covers events from the upheavals in Crown Heights and Los Angeles to the rise of David Duke and heartland survivalists, the broadcasts of Rush Limbaugh, and the bitter disputes between neoconservatives and the “paleo-con” right. Ganz takes us back to a time when what Philip Roth called the “indigenous American berserk” took on new and wilder forms. In the 1992 campaign, Pat Buchanan's and Ross Perot’s populist insurgencies disrupted the political establishment, as Americans struggled with recession, racial and social change, the rise of new Asian powers, and the end of Cold War political norms. Conspiracy theories flourished, and intellectuals and activists tried to understand the “Middle American Radicals” whose alienation drove new movements. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton seemed to forge a new, vital center, though it wouldn’t last long.

In this engaging and enlightening book, Ganz narrates the fall of the Reagan order and the emergence of a more turbulent America.