I am reading Rick Perlstein's new book on Richard Nixon and the rise of modern conservatism, titled Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. It's quite good and I highly recommend it. I am reading through the chapter on Ronald Reagan's run for governor of California; at one point Perlstein sketches the culture wars of the mid-1960s and the moral panic that led many California conservatives to view Reagan as their guy. One example he uses is an excerpt from a review of historian John Hope Franklin's Land of the Free (1966). The publication in question concluded that it:
destroys pride in America's past, develops a guilt complex, mocks American justice, indoctrinates toward Communism, is hostile to religious concepts, overemphasizes Negro participation in American history, projects negative thought models, criticizes business and free enterprise, plays politics, foments class hatred, slants and distorts facts and promotes propaganda and poppycock.
Hey Horowitz…you got nothin' on this guy.