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| Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America | 
 enlarge | Author: Rick Perlstein
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $37.50
Buy New: $16.95
You Save: $20.55 (55%)
New (46) Used (14) Collectible (1) from $15.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 772
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Scribner Hardcover Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 896
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 2
ISBN: 0743243021
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.924
EAN: 9780743243025
ASIN: 0743243021
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New - may have a small remainder mark on the edge.
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| Customer Reviews:
Almost a great book July 15, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I love this book. I hate this book. It is one of the best histories of post-'60s politics ever written. It is lousy with stupid factual errors that detract from its overall greatness. The writing at times soars; other times one must reread whole paragraphs to find the verb. Still, it was the book I grabbed every day to be entertained, amused, enlightened and only occasionally irked. It is a classic in search of a good editor and a corps of fact checkers.
 Nixonland: A Trip To No Where October 17, 2008
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am a student of Richard M. Nixon and was looking forward to reading Rick
Perlstein's "NIXONLAND" after hearing him on NPR discuss the book. I made myself read the 748 pages of Rick's random thoughts. Was his first draft published by mistake? Did Scribner assign an editor? Very little in the way of new information was exposed only the author's point of view. This could have been a very good book had someone told Perlstein to stop with the unlated side trips to nowhere. I expected more and got less.
Rog
Columbia, Md
 Nixon and the Rise of the Republicans June 16, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
With another presidential election upon us, it is useful to look at past elections and learn both the mistakes and successes of prior elections. Rick Perlstein's Nixonland does just that, offering a glimpse at the United States between 1965 and 1972 that to many readers will be simultaneously alien and familiar.
The hero of this book, as the title indicates, is Richard Nixon, but he is only a hero the way Shakespeare's Richard III is a hero: both Richards are diabolical schemers who stop at nothing to achieve power. The analogy is imperfect, though; while the English king would reign only a couple of years and would bring about a new dynasty of his rivals, Nixon would merely represent the beginning of a Republican regime that continues to this day.
The key thing with Nixon, according to Perlstein, is his political cunning and his mastery of dirty tricks. Of course Nixon was hardly alone at doing this (plenty of examples could be made for both parties), but Nixon had a no-holds-barred nastiness that would become a centerpiece of Republican campaigning.
From 1932 to 1964, the Democrats dominated presidential politics, a power base that resulted from the failings of Herbert Hoover during the Depression. For the Republicans, the only triumph - Eisenhower - was an exceptional case, a relatively apolitical candidate whose popularity stemmed from his war record. Otherwise, the Republicans would fail over and over, occasionally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (most notably with Dewey's loss to Truman in 1948). In the mid-1960s, as Perlstein's book begins, Lyndon Johnson is another Herbert Hoover, unable to contend with the crises related to Vietnam.
Nixon would take advantage of the failings of the left and would start a string of strong Republican campaigns that only Bill Clinton could beat (I don't count Carter who barely squeaked by even with the advantages of Watergate and a non-elected incumbent opponent). The book chronicles how this transformation took place by showing the political and social landscape in which it evolved. It was a time when blatantly racist politicians could rise to national prominence and "law-and-order" was often just code for allowing segregation and stopping protestors. Nixon - power-hungry and paranoid - would even use the instruments of government to spy on, harass and even arrest his opponents. Unfortunately, these opponents may have been on the side of the angels, but they were politically inept, as most disastrously seen in George McGovern's presidential campaign.
Although critical of both sides, it is also apparent that Perlstein leans a bit to the left. Most Republicans and other conservatives in Nixonland are true villains, including Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Wallace and Spiro Agnew. Democrats and other liberals are portrayed as incompetents, unable to deal with the various dirty tricks (innuendos, sabotage, etc.) that the Republicans would throw at them or counteract them with dirty tricks of their own.
It's a legacy that continues to this day, which is one reason the world of Nixonland is so familiar. So are some of the lies of that past era, such as being against the war (or even questioning it) is being somehow anti-American. On the plus side, while racism does still exist today, at least it has been toned down compared to this volatile era. And if you do have progressive views, you can take heart that George W. Bush (based on polling numbers and his own lackluster performance in crises) may well be the next Hoover or Johnson, able to swing the pendulum back to the Democrats.
Perlstein's book is a long read (750 pages of text plus copious notes) and not always a quick one, and he has a tendency to get a little too relaxed in his style at times, but overall, this is a good book. Even if you don't agree with his slant, this is still a informative book that brings to life an era that was not very long ago, but still is quite different from our own.
Franklins and Orthogonians June 17, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Not a biography of Nixon so much as a history of the period, around 1965 to 1974. The book covers Vietnam, the civil rights movement, student demonstrations, etc, and the backlash to them, in particular, how Nixon used the backlash to win votes.
One of the primary tropes in this book is the division between Franklins and Orthogonians. When Nixon was in college he was denied admission to the Franklins - the main frat on campus. In response, he created a frat for the rest of the people called the Orthogonians. According to the book, Nixon used this division between the elite, ivy league, old money types, and the less fashionable, less educated, as a way to divide up the country. The silent majority vs. Columbia student protestors for example.
All in all this is a good, readable, occasionally glib, popular history of the period. The author seems reasonably objective though I suspect he would have been voting for McGovern.
Now, More Than Ever June 23, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a faithful reader of Digby's political bloc Hullabaloo, I was primed for "Nixonland" well before its release, and was not disappointed. If you like to wade more than knee-deep into the cultural history of a particular place and time, this is a great book to latch onto.
As a slightly narcissistic Baby Boomer, I am now obliged to insert myself into this review. I was a 12-year old paperboy when I had to get up at the crack of a rainy dawn to deliver our local newspaper's "Extra" announcing the foregone conclusion of Nixon's re-election. (My gloominess was somewhat offset by the fact that Republican Luther Hackett, who had been prominently depicted on TV and in the newspaper ads as being in the same room and chatting it up with Nixon, was roundly defeated for the Vermont governorship by the Democrat, Tom Salmon.) So, this book brought back some memories. (As fate would have it, our family was on vacation the first part of August 1974, so I didn't get to deliver the "Nixon Resigns" issue.)
Having never read much about the student revolts of the late Sixties, I was a bit surprised to learn just how violent and stupid they could sometimes be, which brings me to a better understanding of how easily Nixon, Agnew et al could exploit people's annoyance with (and fear of) them. Although Fox News has given "balance" a bad name, it's good to get a view of the 60s and 70s liberal vs. conservative divide that doesn't totally demonize one side or the other (and also has a convincing argument as to how it all came about). It doesn't hurt to have a historian who didn't actually live through all of these years, who can perhaps more easily take a sensible view of events.
Even though I think this book deserves five stars, I nonetheless can't resist a little carping. With the sheer volume of sources Rick Perlstein must have consulted, he may have understandably grown weary of the many words of uncritical praise for the martyred Robert Kennedy. This may explain why I don't recall reading a kind word about RFK in "Nixonland," nor anything particularly critical about his rival Eugene McCarthy, who has elsewhere been not so tenderly handled (perhaps by the same aforementioned praisers of RFK). And George McGovern is described twice as "pious as ever," which doesn't seem particularly fair to me. (Not surprising, though, considering McGovern was the only major party nominee in my lifetime so far whom I would ever have voted for enthusiastically.) And, although his name is spelled correctly elsewhere in the book, future printings would do well to eliminate the reference to "Jimmy" Hendrix.
Perlstein's first book, "Before the Storm," is inexplicably out of print and commanding high prices wherever copies of it are sold. I would recommend that book as well. If you can't afford the going price (approximately $98.00), there's probably a wonderful program at your local library called Inter-Library Loan.
Finally, I don't know if it's polite to do this, but I'd also recommend Bruce Miroff's recent book "The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party" for further insight on the '72 campaign.
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