Revelations 2.0
Graceful, witty and fascinating, dense with a compelling choice of facts and narratives. It's a timely, probably classic history book. Meanwhile its parade of well-chosen anecdotes would make for quite the hilarious movie.
It's astonishing how many operatives mentioned in Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America returned to headlines during Bush II's reign to continue their lives of privilege, lawlessness, fear-mongering and incompetence.
The Amazon reviewers here condemning Perlstein's book inadvertently support its thesis: well-oiled, well-financed Nixononian/GOP propaganda schemes have convinced a good portion of the country to vote their fears, resentments and superstitions -- and if anything goes wrong it's always the fault of unnamed "elitists."
ONE OF THE BEST OF 2008
NIXONLAND is one of the most entertaining historical tomes of the last decade. The author's subversive sense of humor and sarcasm permeate every page, and speak to the cynical in a way that entertains and educates. I am particularly obsessed with the history of this period, have read most everything there is to read about the Trickster, and feel this work stands alongside ARROGANCE OF POWER as the work that best captures this insecure, maddening, and fascinating human being who managed, in spite of himself, to ascend to the most powerful position in the world.
Nixonland is a long history of the 1960s when American exploded in division, destruction and disillusionment
Richard Milhous Nixon was one of the most complex, crafty and corrupt presidents of the United States! Nixon was born poor to a farmer/grocer in Yorba Linda California in 1913. He and his brothers were raised in a strict Quaker household by his pious mother. His father was morose, unloving and demanding. Nixon was born with a chip on his shoulder against wealthy elitest on the eastern seaboard. While at Whittier College he became a member of the Orthogonian fraternity. This fraternity made up of men from the middle class who were not rich were opposed by the Franklin fraternity of wealthy young men. Perlstein sees Nixon's whole career as being that of an Orthogonian at war with the elites of the Franklin class of American society.
Nixon was ... Read More
Boring
I'm 29 years old and have always wanted to learn more about Nixon and the 60's. I'm liberal, but do not like liberal bias. Since I have no first hand knowledge of the subject, I was looking for something objective that would present the facts and allow me to make my own conclusions.
When I read the first 10 pages of 'Nixonland' in the bookstore I was instantly hooked, and bought it on the spot. However, after about 80 pages I became confused and lost in the tedious minutea of senators, governors, obscure civil rights leaders, republican and democratic party members, congressmen, advisors, news stories, riots, and social activists. The timeline jumped around, and the subject of a chapter would change by the paragraph in some cases with ... Read More
A Fractured Nation
The country was already fractured by the time Nixon took office. Why do you think LBJ voluntarily gave up his second term? Protestors had already begun marching in the hundreds of thousands, chanting "Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many babies did you kill today?" Draft cards had long since started being burned by the thousands, race riots had already spread across the nation. So the title of the book is inaccurate. Nixon's presidency may have exacerbated things, but the greatest leaders imaginable couldn't have stopped the radical juggernaut that began in LBJ's term from rolling inexorably forward and completely altering the American landscape forever. And our commitment in Vietnam actually began under Eisenhower and was intensified under Kennedy, but it was on LBJ's ... Read More
