""At last---a book that treats the Ford and Carter years as more than a postscript to Nixon or a prelude to Reagan. Kalman's sharp wit and keen historical judgment put Right Star Rising among the very few indispensable texts on the 1970s. Anyone who wants to know how that strange decade shaped American politics should read this book."---Beverly Gage, author of The Day Wall Street Exploded" ""Right Star Rising displays Laura Kalman's expert understanding of the political wrangling over women's rights, supply-side economics, racial divisions, [and] foreign policy issues of the troubled Ford and Carter years."---James T. Patterson, author of Restless Giant" ""With remarkable narrative verve, Kalman tells the fascinating and often forgotten story of all that happened between the shameful fall of one Republican president, Richard Nixon, and the meteoric rise of another, Ronald Reagan. Prepare yourself to be deeply engrossed."---Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers' Republic" ""In this thoughtful book Laura Kalman analyzes the origins and growth of the conservative movement in American politics [during] the failed Ford and Carter presidencies....Her sprightly account explores divisive developments that still roil national politics today."---John Morton Blum, Yale University" ""A riveting account of the transformation of American politics in the 1970s: Kalman skillfully shows how the rise of the conservative movement and the failures of the Ford and Carter administrations produced a watershed moment in 1980."---Julian E. Zelizer, author of Arsenal of Democracy" "On the face of it the Ford-Carter period seems completely forgettable. These were years of weak presidential leadership and national drift. Yet, as we see in Laura Kalman's rich and entertaining narrative history, the outlines of our contemporary politics took shape in these years." "This was the incubation period for a powerful movement on the right that was soon to triumph with Reagan's election in 1980. It also marked the coming of age for the social movements of the 1960s as their causes were mediated by the courts in major decisions on affirmative action and the right to privacy. The nation experienced an energy crisis, a sharp economic downturn, and a collision with fundamentalism in Iran that set the terms for coming crises. The ideological politics born in this period still divides the parties today. Kalman's navigation of this eventful political and social terrain is consistently expert and absorbing." ""Laura Kalman has written an unusually interesting and incisive account of what she convincingly labels the s?hort decade' of 1974-1980. One reads it not only for the first-rate history but also for the overtones regarding contemporary debates about American politics. An altogether excellent book."---Sanford Levinson, author of Our Undemocratic Constitution"--BOOK JACKET.