Clocking in north of 1,100 pages (when you included the end papers, he’s quick to point out), Reaganland is the final chapter in Rick Perlstein’s massive tetralogy documenting the rise of contemporary conservatism in America through 1980.

The series offer unique insight into a history that feels both intensely relevant to the current moment and impossibly far away. It’s a sometimes-dry and frequently infuriating topic that the author captures with a panache that has made him one of the most consistently engaging historians of the modern era. When I first emailed Perlstein to set up an interview about writing, he sent a series of videos featuring him playing solo jazz piano, somewhat jokingly stating that it his process. There’s truth to the sentiment, as he explains in this conversation, “I don’t understand how anyone can be a writer if they’re not a musician.”

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