The great might-have-been; American politics

• Published in: The Economist Vol. 413; no. 8909; pp. 84 - 167
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: London Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated 18.10.2014; The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
• Subjects: Biographies; Candidates; Careers; Divorce; Personal profiles; Political parties; Politicians; Rockefeller, Nelson A (1908-79); United States > US
• ISSN: 0013-0613; 1476-8860

On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith is reviewed. Charming and shrewd, Rockefeller epitomised the mid-20th-century liberal consensus that flourished in America before the party system was transformed. The Republican Party's nomination of Barry Goldwater for president in July 1964 marked the effective end of Nelson Rockefeller's lifelong ambition to win America's highest office. Rockefeller worked for Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in Washington and in Latin America. He worked too for Dwight Eisenhower. In spite of undiagnosed dyslexia as a child, Rockefeller hurled himself into a bewildering range of fields with unrelenting energy. His sexual activity was restrained only compared with John Kennedy's. At 70, Rockefeller died in the arms of 25-year-old Megan Marshack. Richard Norton Smith spent 14 years researching this life of Rockefeller. It has perception and scholarly authority and is immensely readable. Rockefeller's legacy lives on mostly as a reminder of something lost: like an anthropological curiosity, "Rockefeller Republican" is the label attached to a breed of East-Coast gentry centrist that has no home in today's conservative movement.