Gang of Five

Gang of Five is the story of the conservative activists of the babyboom generation, who arrived on campus in the 1970s in rebellion against everything "sixties" and went on to fight for social and political change in the '80s and '90s. As she redefines the development of modern conservatism, former LA Times staff writer Nina Easton also narrates the rise of the babyboomer conservative movement through the intertwining lives and careers of five major political figures --Bill Kristol, Ralph Reed, Clint Bolick, Grover Norquist, and David McIntosh -- a few of whom are now household names but whose backgrounds are largely unknown. That is, until now.

Gang of Five tells the interlocking stories of these conservative rebels, the cultural forces that shaped them, and their three-decade-long war against the political establishment. Even though they came to their politics as social pariahs, they've managed to rise to positions of national influence in the 1990s, and, most important, still maintain control of the national agenda.