With No Apologies: The Personal and Political Memoirs of United States Senator Barry M. Goldwater

Goldwater was the man. It's too bad more politicians don't remember him more. This book is a bit jumpy at times but it is a great look into this Goldwater's amazing and forthright mind.

Senator Barry M. Goldwater in this book of memoirs provides us with important background information to much of what was going on in Washington in the years in which he represented Arizona in the Senate. I found especially interesting and informative his discussions of the McCarthy era, his unsuccessful race against Lyndon Johnston for President in 1964, and the fall of the Nixon presidency. Goldwater was one of the most vocal representatives of conservatism before the rise of neo-conservatism, and much conservative wisdom and common sense can be found in this book.

As everyone sadly knows, Barry Goldwater -- never a quitter -- failed to quit while he was ahead. No one will ever know, I guess, whether he became senile in his old age; but as time progressed, the fierce champion of the Right became more and more the gadfly, happily reveling in taking abhorrent Leftist stands and letting the media use him, laughing at him all the while. These memoirs are Goldwater before the fall, the man who gave us the modern conservative movement, still in rare form and fighting the good fight. Published in 1979, they include not only his political thoughts but his autobiography too (the book is worth buying simply for Goldwater's recounting of the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis, which have not generally been reported as this Armed Services Committee member actually witnessed them). Ronald Reagan said of this book that "everyone in America should read this frank accounting of backstage Washington by an honest man. With No Apologies is required reading for those who want to know the inner workings of the political world." I couldn't agree more; and we may all be deeply grateful that the good Senator gave us this tome before his decline began.