Barry Morris Goldwater

Barry Morris Goldwater 1909-98, U.S. senator (1953-65, 1969-87), b. Phoenix, Ariz. He studied at the Univ. of Arizona, but left in 1929 to enter his family's department-store business. After noncombat service in World War II, he won election to the Phoenix city council. In the U.S. Senate, Goldwater advocated state right-to-work laws, a reduction of public ownership of utilities, and decreases in welfare and foreign aid appropriations. He attacked subversive activities and opposed the senatorial censure of Joseph R. McCarthy . Goldwater became the acknowledged leader of the extreme conservative wing of the Republican party. In 1964, as the Republican presidential nominee, he was decisively defeated by President Lyndon B. Johnson . Nonetheless, many believe that Goldwater initiated a conservative revolution in Republican politics and American public opinion that ultimately led to the election (1980) of President Ronald Reagan . Goldwater was again elected to the Senate in 1968, 1974, and 1980. In his later years, Goldwater, basically libertarian, often clashed with cultural conservatives. He wrote The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), Why Not Victory? (1962), The Conscience of a Majority (1970), and Goldwater (1988) with Jack Casserly. His son Barry Morris Goldwater, Jr., 1938-, b. Los Angeles, was a U.S. congressman from California (1968-83).

Bibliography: See biographies by L. Edwards (1995) and R. A. Goldberg (1995); studies by K. Hess (1967), J. H. Kessel (1968), and R. Perlstein (2001).

Goldwater, Barry Morris (b. 1 Jan. 1909, d. 29 Aug. 1998). US Senator 1953–65, 1969–87 Born at Phoenix, Arizona, he became a Senator for his home state and was Republican candidate for president 1964. Goldwater was identified with the radical right in the 1950s and 1960s and was the first important national figure to represent a prominent new republicanism, including the demand for lowered taxes, brinkmanship with the Soviet Union, and reduced government. Although he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (losing 44 states and taking only 38 per cent of the popular vote), ultimately it was this new conservatism which underpinned the Republican presidencies of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush.