Two Textures

Pick your adjective. He is the brilliant Michael Barone. The encyclopedic Michael Barone. The unparalleled Michael Barone. Every other year, Barone co-authors The Almanac of American Politics, a bible for political junkies and journalists on deadline who need to know something about Kentucky’s Fifth congressional district and know it fast. Barone doesn’t just write the Almanac, he seemingly memorizes it. Being around him istobeina constant state of saying, “Gee, Michael, I didn’t know that.”

Barone writes a political column for U.S. News & World Report, in which he analyzes contemporary political and social trends, and has also written a substantial work of history, Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan. The new book Hard America, Soft America combines a little of both, as Barone takes a theme he has worked out in his columns—the opposition of two cultural and operational styles, which he at first called (borrowing from The Economist magazine) “crunchy” and “soggy”—and applies it to 20th-century American history.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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Pick your adjective. He is the brilliant Michael Barone. The encyclopedic Michael Barone. The unparalleled Michael Barone. Every other year, Barone co-authors The Almanac of American Politics, a bible for political junkies and journalists on deadline who need to know something about Kentucky’s Fifth congressional district and know it fast. Barone doesn’t just write the Almanac, he seemingly memorizes it. Being around him istobeina constant state of saying, “Gee, Michael, I didn’t know that.”

Barone writes a political column for U.S. News & World Report, in which he analyzes contemporary political and social trends, and has also written a substantial work of history, Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan. The new book Hard America, Soft America combines a little of both, as Barone takes a theme he has worked out in his columns—the opposition of two cultural and operational styles, which he at first called (borrowing from The Economist magazine) “crunchy” and “soggy”—and applies it to 20th-century American history.