Devotees of Ganz’s pugilistic writing on Substack may be surprised by the restraint he displays in his first book. When the Clock Broke is a work of narrative history that is comparatively light on confrontation and polemic ... Opponents of the far right have an unfortunate tendency to caricature it as a coalition of hapless fools, incapable of mustering ideas and therefore beneath serious consideration. Ganz knows better than to take this condescending and intellectually dishonest approach. Instead, he tackles reactionary belligerence with appropriate rigor.
Terrific ... He puts his full range of interests into this book, braiding together history, theory and cultural criticism. When the Clock Broke captures the sweep of the early ’90s in all its weirdness and vainglory ... One of those rarest of books: unflaggingly entertaining while never losing sight of its moral core.
Lively...argues with disarming vim ... Ganz does his most dogged work in the political trenches, particularly in dissecting what would come to be known as the culture wars ... A vivid tour.
Accomplished ... It showcases sophisticated political argumentation, erudite prose, enviable rigor, and a depth of knowledge ... Ganz’s story is compellingly told, with a sharp eye for detail and for unexpected connections, and his implicit argument is largely persuasive, yet one might still quibble with his decision to stop where he does.
When the Clock Broke makes a convincing case for paying closer attention to the early 1990s ... Ganz writes about the right’s trolls and brawlers with an unusual perceptiveness ... When the Clock Broke reads most powerfully as an account of how America fell out of love with the ideology of the civics lesson and embraced the political darkness
