The Terror War Era
HISTORIANS WOULD LABOR to explain the 1920s without reference to World War I, even if that era’s Americans preferred to forget it. Same with the 1980s and Vietnam: Ronald Reagan’s partisans somehow simultaneously disowned, denied, and defended Nixonera excesses that no longer burdened them. Today, Trumpism is both the glib repudiation and the shameless vindication of Bushism.
Spencer Ackerman’s Reign of Terror, a refreshing if distressing account of contemporary continuities and fractures, brings war back to the center of politics. Its narrative of the modern right is textured and damning, its treatment of the national-security blob and liberal Democrats unsparing.
When pundits manage to avoid caricaturing the right, they often overemphasize former President Donald Trump’s alleged noninterventionism. Ackerman tells a more convincing story. Under George W. Bush, the neoconservatives united most of the right—including most of the future MAGA movement—in their enthusiasm for war and
