num_pages: 640
description: Evan Thomas delivers the best single-volume biography of Richard Nixon to date a radical unique portrait of a complicated figure who was both determinedly optimistic and tragically flawed. The New York Times bestselling author of Ikes Bluff and Sea of Thunder Thomas brings new life to one of American historys most infamous paradoxical and enigmatic politicians dispensing with myths to achieve an intimate and nuanced look at the actual man. What drove a painfully shy outcast in elite Washington societya man so self-conscious he refused to make eye contact during meetingsto pursue power and public office? How did a president so attuned to the American political id that he won reelection in a historic landslide lack the self-awareness to recognize the gaping character flaws that would drive him from office and forever taint his legacy? In Being Nixon Evan Thomas peels away the layers of the complex confounding figure who became Americas thirty-seventh president. The son of devout Quakers Richard Nixon (not unlike his rival John F. Kennedy) grew up in the shadow of an older favored brother and thrived on conflict and opposition. Through high school and college in the navy and in politics he was constantly leading crusades and fighting off enemies real and imagined. As maudlin as he was Machiavellian Nixon possessed the plainspoken eloquence to reduce American television audiences to tears with his career-saving Checkers speech; meanwhile his darker half hatched schemes designed to take down his political foes earning him the notorious nickname Tricky Dick. Drawing on a wide range of historical accounts Thomas reveals the contradictions of a leader whose vision and foresight led him to achieve dtente with the Soviet Union and reestablish relations with communist China but whose underhanded political tactics tainted his reputation long before the Watergate scandal. One of the principal architects of the modern Republican Party and its silent majority of disaffected whites and conservative ex-Dixiecrats Nixon was also deemed a liberal in some quarters for his efforts to desegregate Southern schools create the Environmental Protection Agency and end the draft. A deeply insightful character study as well as a brilliant political biography Being Nixon offers a surprising look at a man capable of great bravery and extraordinary deviousnessa balanced portrait of a president too often reduced to caricature.Praise for Being NixonA biography of eloquence and breadth . . . No single volume about Nixons long and interesting life could be so comprehensive. Chicago Tribune Terrifically engaging . . . a fair insightful and highly entertaining portrait.The Wall Street Journal Thomas has a fine eye for the telling quote and the funny vignette and his style is eminently readable.The New York Times Book Review Thomas proves an amiable and fair-minded tour guide.The Boston Globe A measured concise and important American biography.Michael Beschloss author of Presidential Courage
language: English
title: Being Nixon: A Man Divided
publisher: Random House