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Nixonland

2008

  • politics and government
  • politische kultur
  • polarisierung
  • presidents
  • election
  • biography
  • university of south alabama
  • conservatism
  • nixon, richard m. (richard milhous), 1913-1994
  • united states, politics and government, 1969-1974

The story

Richard Nixon's political history, from Congress to the White House, with an emphasis on his political strategies.

What it’s like

Dense, sprawling and crowded with voices: this is a nonfiction history whose prose works like a newsreel montage, cutting fast between rallies, backroom memos, sweaty television close-ups and the roar of crowds. Perlstein writes in a brisk, wry, deeply researched voice, full of vivid quoted fragments and colloquial asides, so the 1960s and early 1970s feel crammed with sound: marching bands, hecklers, campaign jingles, the clatter of teletype machines. Its mood is restless and bitter-sweet, a feverish unease threaded with dark irony, and the pacing is relentless, moving year by year and rally by rally rather than resting anywhere for long. Its people are a tangle of ambition and resentment, and the arc follows how a political style of grievance and division takes shape. Violence appears in the historical record, including assassinations, riots and protest clashes, described plainly and without gore. It suits a long weekday read with concentration rather than a relaxed evening, and it is for readers who enjoy political history, American culture and the making of modern partisanship.

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