Books : Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781586486747
ISBN: 1586486748
Label: PublicAffairs
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1168
Publication Date: November 10, 2008
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Release Date: November 10, 2008
Sales Rank: 54962
Studio: PublicAffairs
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, 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. In deft, masterful prose, Black separates the good in Nixon—his foreign initiatives, some of his domestic policies, and his firm political hand—from the sinister, with his questionable methods and the collection of excesses and offenses associated with the Watergate scandal. Black argues that the hounding of Nixon from office was partly political retribution from a lifetime of enemies and Nixon’s misplaced loyalty to unworthy subordinates, and not clearly the consequence of crimes in which he participated.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I was once told by an expert on Richard Nixon that to get a fair biography of President Nixon you needed to find ones that did not try to be psychological and ones written by Brits. Previously Jon Aitken Richard Nixon: A Life fit that bill but it is outdated already. Conrad Black's new book does fit this bill today. He is a Brit and he presents the facts and historical context of Nixon fairly.
Recently Dallek wrote an excellent book on Kissinger and Nixon, but as good as the book was it was held back by the authors obvious dislike of both men. Still a great book but biased a bit for me.
Black has filled the void with an up to date, well written, well researched, and fair and balanced.
Yes the book is a bit long, but quite worth the read.
Black is not afraid to be critical of Nixon, but lots of authors do that, what I liked about this book is that it was not afraid to show the good things Nixon did, which many authors do not like to do.
I really liked this book despite its length and with a British author it provided a bit of neutrality that many American books on Nixon lack.
Rating: -
I have been reading Presidential biographies over the last few years beginning with Washington and just completed this one on Nixon. This one by Conrad Black is an excellent read (his one FDR is also excellent)!
The author takes the approach of giving you detailed information and facts and allows you to decide whether decisions and actions were good, bad, indifferent, etc.
Certainly Nixon abused his presidency, but so did the other Presidents in the 1960's (JFK and LBJ), and Black doesn't let that fact go unnoticed.
If you are looking for a quick summary of Nixon's life and presidency this is not the book for you. If you are looking, however, for an exhaustive biography of Nixon this is the book for you.
Rating: -
the author has his own problems, but if you want to understand the period covered by Nixon, it helps to have a full narrative without all the analysis. the new yorker has opined that this effort is essentially an apology, but in the years since Nixon's flawed presidency, we are able to see that so much of what Nixon wanted was just right, even as he also made some terrible decisions and surrounded himself with a few crooks.
it is an easy though exhausting read (lots of pages) but for those of us under 70, it captures so much that after the reader is done, then he can reassess the more venomous acccounts. for example, nixon's childhood here seems less about the creation of neurosis, than simply a hard one, but his parents really did love him.
but then we have watergate. oh well!
Rating: -
This was a great read. I was thrilled to discover that Conrad wrote a fair and even-handed biography of the late President. (I enjoyed Nixon's memoirs, too, so lengthy tomes aren't a problem for me, as they might be for a few of the reviewers.) I liked the book's emphasis on Nixon's persistence and ability to remain on the political scene for so many years, despite media prejudice and pumped-up mobbings. Nixon had to perform on one of the most volatile stages of American history, and this book made it clear that he managed to stay on it, decade after decade.
Rating: -
Richard Nixon was one of the most influential man in the world, and also someone who was misunderstood
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