Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America

Product Information

Throughout the book there are numerous insults and slights which convict Nixon for being a clever, calculating and even conniving politician. But given Nixon’s obvious and often obtuse faults, it is surprising that Perlstein bothers to indict his subject for the same traits exhibited by many successful politicians before – and since. But even avid fans of Nixon (as well as readers interested in his complex life) will come away from this book having learned something new. One of the prominent spokesmen for Vietnam Veterans Against the War was a “handsome, charismatic 27 year old” called John Kerry – yes, THAT John Kerry. I had no idea! In Reaganland, one after another, major players take the stage. More than 40 years later, many are still there. It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it or because it is part of you and you need it as much as an arm or a leg… You continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close to the edge you can walk without losing your balance. P460 Lennon appears to be radically oriented however he does not give the impression he is a true revolutionist since he is constantly under the influence of narcotics. P714

In these cases, and in others, Perlstein is unsparing in his critique of the political failures of mid-century liberalism; I only wish he had meditated more deeply on liberalism’s policy failures as well, and at least grappled with the possibility that voters rejected liberal governance for pragmatic reasons as well as atavistic ones. But to do so might have required him to give Nixon’s Republican Party—if not Nixon himself—more credit for restoring domestic tranquillity than I imagine he thinks the GOP deserves. Indeed, a minor theme of Perlstein’s book is the extent to which domestic tranquillity has never been restored; Americans, he argues, inhabit “Nixonland” even now. Perlstein sees some patterns and has his own story on what the major takeaways should be. There is something I should be taking away about how Nixon is a flashpoint or symbol for how everything changed. I didn’t always follow the author’s logic for how we should connect the dots into his central narrative. However, it never failed to be interesting, so I did enjoy the ride.

Need Help?

Prophets of doom are as common as girls in bikinis (there are even a few prophets of doom in bikinis). P541

Perlstein masterfully explores how a nation split at the seams gave way to a wide array of colourful politicians, and how one disgraced former vice president was able to successfully foster a message of unity. For understanding the brilliance and resilience of the man at his height, Nixonland is one of the best Richard Nixon books up for grabs. President Nixon: Alone In The White House – Richard ReevesFour years later, LBJ declined to run again knowing that he may not even be able to win his own party’s nomination, and the country was tearing itself apart along right wing/left wing battle lines. And Richard Nixon got voted in as a president leaving everyone to scratch their heads and wonder what the hell just happened. The one that’s the simplest is it’s a patriotic and humane act to say that the person who has in their possession the sole authority to launch a nuclear strike is not a responsible person. That’s the simplest thing and good for them.

How does Perlstein feel about the Never Trumpers, Republicans working to eject a Republican from the White House itself? Perlstein is frequently cited these days by middlebrow political commentators in the us as someone with his finger supposedly on the pulse of history.A self-identified left-liberal Democrat—useless though such terms are as political locators in a talk-radio grading system that slots Teddy Kennedy in as a Spartacist—Perlstein contributed a long and rather laboured essay for the Summer 2004 issue of the Boston Review on what the Democrats should do. It added up to a vague call for return to some sort of fdr programme. Nixonland, then, offers historical grounding for these sympathies; appropriately enough, its title comes from words spoken by Adlai Stevenson on the campaign trail in 1956: The final section of the book focuses on the 1972 reelection of Nixon, the beginnings of Watergate, and the disastrous presidential campaign of Democratic South Dakota Senator George McGovern. Throughout the book, Perlstein argues that Nixon and the forces he unleashed divided the country socially and politically. While I do think there is merit in this, in fact a great of merit, I think Americans were divided prior to this period. Just not as divided. This country has always struggled – and sadly continues to struggle – with race. This took place way before Nixon burst on the scene. Kennedy, and especially Johnson, created the American disaster in Vietnam. Nixon poured fuel on an already raging fire, and that is after his treasonous actions to scuttle a potential peace plan in 1968. Nixon should be, and has been, vilified for that. His abuse of power once he became president is mind-bogglingly atrocious. Nixon deserves a lot of blame for many things. I do not think, however, he deserves all of the blame. This is a good book, though long. Anyone interested in this period of American history, the Vietnam War, or Nixon, will find it simultaneously absorbing and appalling.Edited 12/12/18: Cruz is a footnote in Presidential politics and Trump won and is possessed of very paranoid insecurities. But as the saying goes, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you... Between 1965 and 1972 America experienced a second civil war. Out of its ashes, the political world we know today was born. It speaks to what is most profound to me, which is basically contributing to a civic conversation about this nation and its prospects. I write it as an American for Americans.” After Nixonland came out,” Perlstein says, Stone “came out with one of his books about Nixon [and] basically proposed that we go on tour together: ‘We can sell a lot of books and make a lot of money.’ At the time he was very adamant he was no longer a Republican. He was running for the Senate, I believe, from Florida as a Libertarian. The depths of his attention-starved behavior. . In Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America, author Chris Matthews explores how an amicable friendship descended into a bitter feud that would last for far longer than the close of election night in 1960.