Connects the activities and influence of today's conservative movements to a deliberate shift toward right-wing policies that began during the Carter administration and led to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Book one: 1976. "Nibbled to death by ducks" -- "What is an Orrin Hatch?" -- Book two: 1977. "Hi, Jimmy!" -- Iceberg -- Human rights -- "Little hot squat" -- Lancegate -- "The moral womanly woman is alive and well in Mississippi" -- "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" -- Boardroom Jacobins -- Book three: 1978. "Hang Sen. Dick Clark on a telephone pole" -- In which the president of the United States is said to have nearly killed an Indian -- Capital gains -- No one shoots Santa Claus -- "The white, American middle class plus blacks who want the same thing" -- "High and dry" -- Almighty politics -- Election season -- Basements -- Book four: 1979. Conventional wisdom -- Superman -- Christian soldiers -- The "front-runner" -- Energy -- To the mountaintop -- "Refusing to fan the flames of moderation" -- "Do you ever feel that we might be the generation that sees armageddon?" -- Shocks -- Kickoffs -- Patriotisms -- Book five: 1980. "The imam does not often respond" -- "Do you believe in miracles?" -- "Jimmy's depression is gonna be worse than Herbert's" -- "Feed your faith and starve your doubts!" -- Conventions -- "Meanness" -- "A shabby business" -- "Carter is smarter than Reagan".