Nixonland

I’ve read dozens and dozens of history books and have liked the most. Boy, this one was no fun at all. I love the “inside the room” stuff where you really get a front seat to what it was like to make these decisions, be in middle of a crisis, find out what people are really like, etc. Another trait of a good non-fiction book is the ability to tell a narrative, bring a couple of characters into the forefront, and then use them as a jumping-off point (Michael Lewis does a good job of this). There is very little of either of these aspects in this book.

What this book does have is lists…endless lists. Basically, the author did a google search or lexus-nexus search of early August ’67 and then has paragraphs listing facts…

“…in Cleveland so and so happened. In New Mexico a cop did such and such. At Small College in upstate New York the students…” and on and on and on.

I suppose there’s an interesting 400-page book somewhere in there, but hard to get to with this boring data dump.

The final insult was in the last couple of pages when the author flips to first person and starts about a dozen paragraphs with, “I have written…” So arrogant.

Skip this one!

I typically don’t write reviews, but what a waste of time this book was. I hope this might help some people to avoid this book.

This is the best singe-volume history of the 1960s I’ve ever read. Perlstein’s thesis is that between 1964 when Lyndon Johnston won the presidency in a landslide and 1972 when Richard Nixon won an overwhelming victory in the presidential race, America divided into two ill-defined, warring camps that have continued into the next century. Fueled by rising frustration over the senseless war in Vietnam and the slow pace of achieving racial equality, people became hippies, anti-war protesters, black nationalists and cultural rebels. The other side morphed into the Silent Majority, the hard hats, the middle class and the friction between these two groups made the sixties one of the most dynamic decades in American history.

The author uses Richard Nixon as the central figure in this conflict and does an excellent job of detailing Nixon’s reliance on status politics from his days as a college student to his election as President of the United States in 1972. Along the way, Perlstein uses not only military and political history but social and cultural history to vividly illustrate his points.

The book is extremely well written and well documented and, as a former history teacher, I would highly recommend Perlstein’s work to anyone who remembers the sixties or anyone looking for an introduction to the most exciting decade of the second half of the 20th century.

What an achievement! If you read no other book about the Nixon years, read this one. Nixonland is an important book because it is the first utterly coherent analysis of what happened to America in the years 1966 to 1972. Anyone who lived through those years knows that the America we were born in died sometime in that era, and the America we now inhabit is not out of the shadow of those years.

Rick Perlstein has an incredibly witty and readable style. There are so many segments you’re going to want to read aloud to anyone willing to listen — and you’ll have fun doing so because of Perlstein’s excellent writing. I had to stop reading selections to my wife: after a while, I realized it was really the entire book I wanted to read to her. Instead, I bought her a copy for her own use. I know I’ll be referring to this one frequently in the future.

It is an unforgettable story, told by a master writer.

I like the exhaustive effort the author put into writing this book.
I lived thru these years , but forgot a lot of things and was not aware of much that happened.
The media’s presentation of historical facts is much more exhaustive in today’s world than it was back then.
Its a great read and this is the second time I have read it.
This book is relevant to understanding where our country is today and how we got here.
And this book is an exhaustive historical document for anyone interested in knowing and understanding the past.
All the things described in this book happened not too long ago; many of the actors are still alive and still influencing world and local events.

The Pros:
1. A very thoroughly researched, insightful, penetrating book about one of the most interesting periods in American history;
2. While it isn’t completely about Nixon, it describes the man and his history in some detail and Nixon is a very interesting man;
3. Perlstein does an excellent job describing the ‘fracturing of America’ in a way that doesn’t really take a side but provides perspective on both sides.

The Con:
1. I found Perlstein’s writing, on occasion, unduly dense and difficult to sift through. He often selects sentence structure that seems unnecessarily complex. Even though I have an extensive vocabulary, I had to use the Kindle dictionary more than a few times. He even used some words that stumped the Kindle dictionary. When I’m trying to make my way through an 800 page book, I really don’t want to go back and re-read a sentence three or four times or hunt around for a dictionary to look up an especially esoteric word. (In the context of this review, I even feel a little sheepish using the word ‘esoteric.’) If I were a friend of Perlstein’s, I would suggest he spend a summer reading Steinbeck.

Moreover, the book is very thought-provoking and worth the considerable effort.

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