The Thirty Years War

From the inside cover: Among the 77 million young Americans who came of age during the 1960's were many conservatives activists who — like their liberal counterparts in the Carter and Clinton administrations — were the backbone of the Reagan revolution of the 1980's.

Tom Pauken was one of those sixties "conservative foot soldiers," and he also played a significant role during the first Reagan administration. His is a fascinating story of the right/left civil war of the sixties generation. It begins in Vietnam and then ranges across college campuses and also through state and national political battles during the 1970's and 1980's.

Most of the leading sixties conservatives have not received the media coverage afforded liberal-left leaders like Tom Hayden or Sam Brown (whom Pauken replaced as head of ACTION in 1981), so this book is an especially valuable guide to the leadership and philosophy of this political cohort.…