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bailorg's review against another edition
5.0
Great book.
As someone born in 1980 and as a student of history and politics, I never understood the late 1960s to 1970s era until I read this book. I never understood the still extant bitterness that people who experienced this period still exhibit to this day. I never understood the massive societal, cultural, and political divides of this period. I never understood why a Republican president would implement wage and price controls. I never quite understood why the Democratic party practically fell apart, in a big way, nationally and why the Republican party moved sharply to the right and upwards in popularity at the same time. Perhaps most fundamentally to my above quandaries, I never understood Richard Nixon.
An outstanding exposition on the excesses and anger of all sides in American politics in this period and why Richard Nixon was able to emerge and take power and control over the events of this period.
As someone born in 1980 and as a student of history and politics, I never understood the late 1960s to 1970s era until I read this book. I never understood the still extant bitterness that people who experienced this period still exhibit to this day. I never understood the massive societal, cultural, and political divides of this period. I never understood why a Republican president would implement wage and price controls. I never quite understood why the Democratic party practically fell apart, in a big way, nationally and why the Republican party moved sharply to the right and upwards in popularity at the same time. Perhaps most fundamentally to my above quandaries, I never understood Richard Nixon.
An outstanding exposition on the excesses and anger of all sides in American politics in this period and why Richard Nixon was able to emerge and take power and control over the events of this period.
melissabee's review against another edition
4.0
I was too exhausted by this book to write a lengthy review. It's a very long book, and for me, in the current political climate, emotionally draining. It took a long time to get through.
But it was excellent. Yes, the avalanche of detail can be a bit much, but Perlstein's pace manages to stay fast anyway, and his prose is snappy (and funny, and biting, and vivid, and sly). I didn't live through this time period and didn't learn about it in much detail in school (which I think is a shame), so I was riveted.
Sadly, I think he's right that we're still in Nixonland. Perhaps Trump is even the culmination of Nixonland....but that would imply we're at a limit and on our way out, and I don't think we are.
But it was excellent. Yes, the avalanche of detail can be a bit much, but Perlstein's pace manages to stay fast anyway, and his prose is snappy (and funny, and biting, and vivid, and sly). I didn't live through this time period and didn't learn about it in much detail in school (which I think is a shame), so I was riveted.
Sadly, I think he's right that we're still in Nixonland. Perhaps Trump is even the culmination of Nixonland....but that would imply we're at a limit and on our way out, and I don't think we are.
nbrown's review against another edition
4.0
Nixonland is an incredibly broad history of the 1960s. It's not really a Nixon biography, though it follows most of his life up until his resignation. Perlstein tries to find all of the events of the 60s and early 70s that brought us to today - and there's a lot. There are chapters that focus on the last weeks of Robert Kennedy's and Martin Luther King's lives, Southern strategy politics, Vietnam, the Kent State shootings (and campus protests and riots at other schools), and riots in major cities. It's densely packed with article excerpts and quotations and, while I learned a lot, I think there's too much focus on lateral events that don't get adequately tied back to Nixon and the shifts in the GOP.
aloyokon's review against another edition
5.0
How did the New Deal coalition and the liberal consensus it upheld fall apart? How did a has-been failed political aspirant seize power in one of the most tumultuous election years in American history? What could possibly allow a country that cheered on the Great Society in 1964 to move so hard to the right in just 8 years? The answers to these questions and more are provided, in narrative form, through Perlstein's epic book "Nixonland".
bwlane's review against another edition
3.0
I thought this was a reasonable piece of coverage on Nixon's life and work to the presidency, although it takes a curious tack: while positing Nixon's all-consuming paranoia helped Tricky Dick divide the world along two paths, the rich elite (the Franklins) and the hardscrabble, bootstrap achievers (the Orthogonians), Perlstein himself descends into successive layers of scapegoating and conspiracy theorizing over how much Nixon controlled events in the 1960s himself. This seemed, simply, wrong.
As a work of speculative fiction, I could see that kind of approach as a solid way to produce insight about the man, but as nonfiction, the book felt a little crazy at times. All the same, it was a breezy read and fascinating in parts. I would like to read more books about RMN to fill in a lot of the holes.
As a work of speculative fiction, I could see that kind of approach as a solid way to produce insight about the man, but as nonfiction, the book felt a little crazy at times. All the same, it was a breezy read and fascinating in parts. I would like to read more books about RMN to fill in a lot of the holes.
minsies's review against another edition
3.0
This took me forfuckingever to finish. It is very interesting, but it is also very depressing; I'm not sure it was entirely worth the amount of time that it took up in my reading life.
Also, it ends very abruptly; once Nixon is reelected, that's about it. There's a brief anecdote about him in 1992, but that appears earlier. He wins the election, and I guess the damage is done? (Obviously plenty of it is, but I'm sure there are more hijinks. With Nixon, there are always more hijinks.)
The book entirely glosses over Nixon's family life, too. It spends a little time with him growing up, but once he starts on his political career, that's all there is. It would've been worth it to see how his fuckedupness followed him home.
Also, it ends very abruptly; once Nixon is reelected, that's about it. There's a brief anecdote about him in 1992, but that appears earlier. He wins the election, and I guess the damage is done? (Obviously plenty of it is, but I'm sure there are more hijinks. With Nixon, there are always more hijinks.)
The book entirely glosses over Nixon's family life, too. It spends a little time with him growing up, but once he starts on his political career, that's all there is. It would've been worth it to see how his fuckedupness followed him home.
roryjf's review against another edition
4.0
Has a tendency to make sweeping pronouncements of the cultural mood of a given week depending on NYT op-eds that I think weaken the overall amazing scholarship and calcification of a period of incessant fluidity. Terrible sentence. I'm sorry.