Richard Nixon cover art

Richard Nixon

The Life

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Richard Nixon

By: John A. Farrell
Narrated by: Dan Woren
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £21.19

Buy Now for £21.19

Summary

 PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • From a prize-winning biographer comes the defining portrait of a man who led America in a time of turmoil and left us a darker age. We live today, John A. Farrell shows, in a world Richard Nixon made.
 
At the end of WWII, navy lieutenant “Nick” Nixon returned from the Pacific and set his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now-legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon’s finer attributes gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. The story of that transformation is the stunning overture to John A. Farrell’s magisterial biography of the president who came to embody postwar American resentment and division.
     Within four years of his first victory, Nixon was a U.S. senator; in six, the vice president of the United States of America. “Few came so far, so fast, and so alone,” Farrell writes. Nixon’s sins as a candidate were legion; and in one unlawful secret plot, as Farrell reveals here, Nixon acted to prolong the Vietnam War for his own political purposes. Finally elected president in 1969, Nixon packed his staff with bright young men who devised forward-thinking reforms addressing health care, welfare, civil rights, and protection of the environment. It was a fine legacy, but Nixon cared little for it. He aspired to make his mark on the world stage instead, and his 1972 opening to China was the first great crack in the Cold War.
     Nixon had another legacy, too: an America divided and polarized. He was elected to end the war in Vietnam, but his bombing of Cambodia and Laos enraged the antiwar movement. It was Nixon who launched the McCarthy era, who played white against black with a “southern strategy,” and spurred the Silent Majority to despise and distrust the country’s elites. Ever insecure and increasingly paranoid, he persuaded Americans to gnaw, as he did, on grievances—and to look at one another as enemies. Finally, in August 1974, after two years of the mesmerizing intrigue and scandal of Watergate, Nixon became the only president to resign in disgrace.
   Richard Nixon is a gripping and unsparing portrayal of our darkest president. Meticulously researched, brilliantly crafted, and offering fresh revelations, it will be hailed as a master work. Americas Politicians Politics & Activism Presidents & Heads of State United States Richard Nixon Vietnam War Military Liberalism China Biography War Franklin D Roosevelt Imperialism Dwight Eisenhower Russia Soviet Union Imperial Japan Civil rights Socialism Cold War Social justice First Lady
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
All stars
Most relevant
Really interesting to learn about 'Mr Evil' and understand his motivations and accomplishments. I really recommend this book.

Really interesting profile

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nixon, like most interesting people, was a contradictory mix of good and bad. I think we sometimes forget that people we simply classify as "evil" or "dishonest" etc. are in fact often unable to control their behaviours and impulses and are all too aware of their own shortcomings and strange idiosyncrasies and how this prevents them from ever operating normally in society, which in itself is punishment enough for these lost, lonely souls. Until listening to this audio book I considered Richard Nixon as merely a selfish and one dimensional crook. He was of course much more than that and I came away from this listen with a new found empathy for him and indeed I actually felt sorry for the man; a highly intelligent yet socially awkward person who yearned for people to like him but yet inadvertently drove them away. I think the fact that he realised fully his effect on people makes it all the more poignant. A well-balanced biography; neither vilifies him nor tries to protect him, just presents him as a human - a man with numerous positive and negative attributes.

Incredibly interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing story, and with the horror show of the Nixon seen in the Cold War context, it is possible to now view the Presidency as a mixed bag. Judged against the atmosphere of its time, he achieved equally great and horrible things.

I had an unfairly biased opinion of this flawed character.

History being rewritten?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a brilliant audiobook. It is comprehensive, balanced and engaging. I fully recommend it.

Outstanding

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The ultimate outsider, the thinking man’s Trump. If only he had had confidence in his abilities and been less hyper sensitive to criticism from those he claimed to despise. A marvelous book read beautifully which brings us into the world of America’s most troubled leader.

Great book about a great President

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews