With mainstream cultural criticism increasingly dominated by ideologues, Richard Perlstein is something of a rarity: an intelligent, self-professed progressive with an abiding interest in the right. His first book, Before the Storm, narrated the other '60s story — the one in which a few impassioned thinkers helped launch modern conservatism. After receiving rave reviews from disparate sources (William F. Buckley and the Village Voice were both fans), Perlstein has written a fresh chapter in the conservative saga. His upcoming Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America is one of this election season's most hotly anticipated histories.