“Teddy White lamented that TV might spell the death of serious politics: to give a thoughtful response to serious questions, politician needed a good thirty seconds to ponder, but television allowed only five seconds of silence at best. DDB (ad men) found nothing to lament and the fact. They were convinced you could learn everything you needed to KNOW about a product, which in this case happens to be a human being, in half a minute – the speed not of thought but of emotion.”

American historian, writer and journalist

Rick Perlstein is an American historian, writer, and journalist known for his accounts of the American conservative movement after the 1960s. He has 117 quotes on the site. He is the author of five bestselling books. His first book, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History. Politico has described him as a careful chronicler of modern conservatism.