This weekend, Rick Perlstein confessed to feeling that his highly regarded histories of modern U.S. conservatism may have led liberals and progressives to misconstrue and underestimate the appeal of Donald Trump. Or as he puts it, “We [meaning historians of modern conservatism like Perlstein] advanced a narrative of the American right that was far too constricted to anticipate the rise of a man like Trump.” David Frum, for his part, took Perlstein’s mea culpa as an opportunity to wag his finger: although he disclaims a desire “to score points off Perlstein” Frum states that Perlstein’s essay demonstrates a need “to Read more