This companion offers an overview of Richard M. Nixon’s life, presidency, and legacy, as well as a detailed look at the evolution and current state, of Nixon scholarship. Examines the central arguments and scholarly debates that surround his term in office Explores Nixon’s legacy and the historical significance of his years as president Covers the full range of topics, from his campaigns for Congress, to his career as Vice-President, to his presidency and Watergate Makes extensive use of the recent paper and electronic releases from the Nixon Presidential Materials Project

Biography of the thirty-seventh president of United States, discussing his personal life, education, and political career.

From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, Richard Nixon was a polarizing figure in American politics, admired for his intelligence, savvy, and strategic skill, and reviled for his shady manner and cutthroat tactics. Conrad Black, whose epic biography of FDR was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, now separates the good in Nixon -- his foreign initiatives, some of his domestic policies, and his firm political hand -- from the sinister, in a book likely to generate enormous attention and controversy. Black believes the hounding of Nixon from office was partly political retribution from a lifetime's worth of enemies and Nixon's misplaced loyalty to unworthy subordinates, and not clearly the consequence of crimes in which he participated. Conrad Black's own recent legal travails, though hardly comparable, have undoubtedly given him an unusual insight into the pressures faced by Nixon in his last two years as president and the first few years of his retirement.

This Nixon portrait provides a comprehensive view of the Nixon presidency based on extensive oral histories with some twenty-two intimates of the former President. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

“An authoritative worm’s-eye view of Nixon’s insular presidency” by the New York Times–bestselling author of President Kennedy (Publisher’s Weekly). Who was Richard Nixon? The most amazing thing about the man was not what he did as president, but that he became president at all. Using thousands of new interviews and recently discovered or declassified documents and tapes, Richard Reeves’s President Nixon offers a surprising portrait of a brilliant and contradictory man. Even as he dreamed of presidential greatness, Nixon could trust no one. His closest aides spied on him as he spied on them, while cabinet members, generals, and admirals spied on all of them—rifling briefcases and desks, tapping each other’s phones in a house where no one knew what was true anymore. Reeves shows a presidency doomed from the start by paranoia and corruption, beginning with Nixon and Kissinger using the CIA to cover up a murder by American soldiers in Vietnam that led to the theft and publication of the Pentagon Papers, then to secret counterintelligence units within the White House itself, and finally to the burglaries and cover-up that came to be known as Watergate. President Nixon is the astonishing story of a complex political animal who was as praised as he was reviled and who remains a subject of controversy to this day. Praise for President Nixon “It’s hard to think of a better introduction to [Nixon] and his presidency.” —The New York Times Book Review “Reeves has once again succeeded in making a presidency come alive.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Kissinger: A Biography “A wealth of information that makes the absolute convincing case that Nixon was not just alone but isolated, walled off, and even lonely. May we never again have a president so cut off from the rest of humanity. It is a haunting story that no reader will ever forget.” —Bob Woodward, author of Maestro

This timely compilation of papers was originally presented at the 1987 Hofstra University Conference on the Nixon Presidency. Bringing together noted Nixon scholars, including Stephen Ambrose, Tom Wicker, and Hugh Sidey, and politicos such as Eliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, H.R. Haldeman, and Robert Finch, the editors have included essays primarily on domestic policies. A lively section on Nixon the man is followed by scholarly articles on all aspects of the domestic agenda. Notable contributions include David Caputo's analysis of revenue sharing and Michael Balzano's study of the adrift Democrats who emerged as Nixon's silent majority and ultimately as the Reagan coalition . . . . [A] worthy addition for specialized collections. Library Journal Thirteen years after Richard Nixon left office Hofstra University's sixth conference on the Modern American Presidency sets the stage for an exchange of views on Richard M. Nixon's presidency, his politics, and his administrative abilities. Leon Friedman and William F. Levantrosser bring together the papers and discussions presented at this conference by scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials in this first of a trilogy of volumes issuing from the conference. With the perspective of time, the commentary of leading administration figures such as H. R. Haldeman, Elliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, and Charles Colson takes on a special quality. Papers and discussions explore three major aspects of Richard Nixon: his capacity for greatness, his shortcomings, and his impact on today's youth; the scope and depth of his domestic policy; and his political acumen. Richard M. Nixon: Politician, President, Administrator records the interactions of scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials as they search for a better understanding of the Nixon phenomenon. Part I explores the man--his persona and his presidency. A special panel presents the reaction of today's youth to this segment of American history. Part II concentrates primarily on domestic policy. It uncovers the scope and depth of Nixon initiatives in revenue sharing, social welfare, civil rights, environment, and the economy. In Part III, papers and discussions on the silent majority, election campaigning, and the reorganization of the executive branch, disclose Richard Nixon's role in changing the face of American politics.

"This book features: coverage of Nixon's campaign strategies from his 1940 congressional race to his "Southern strategy" for winning national elections; analysis of Nixon's cabinet and administration, walking students through the events that led up to the Watergate scandal and the consequences of it; the author's personal interviews with Nixon supplementing the most recent research on this fascinating figure; and Study and Discussion Questions at the end of the book to help students check their reading and comprehension. These questions can also be used to facilitate discussions in the classroom or student study groups."--BOOK JACKET.

This book is a collection of essays written on Richard Nixon's presidential decisions, including the political, social, and economic factors behind the problems he faced while in the presidency.

The landmark New York Times bestselling biography of Richard M. Nixon, a political savant whose gaping character flaws would drive him from the presidency and forever taint his legacy. “A biography of eloquence and breadth . . . No single volume about Nixon’s long and interesting life could be so comprehensive.”—Chicago Tribune One of Time’s Top 10 Nonfiction Books of the Year In this revelatory biography, Evan Thomas delivers a radical, unique portrait of America’s thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon, a contradictory figure who was both determinedly optimistic and tragically flawed. 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. 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, Nixon was constantly leading crusades and fighting off enemies real and imagined. He possessed the plainspoken eloquence to reduce American television audiences to tears with his career-saving “Checkers” speech; meanwhile, Nixon’s 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’s biography reveals the contradictions of a leader whose vision and foresight led him to achieve détente with the Soviet Union and reestablish relations with communist China, but whose underhanded political tactics tainted his reputation long before the Watergate scandal. 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 deviousness—a balanced portrait of a president too often reduced to caricature. Praise for Being Nixon “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