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hellokateye's review against another edition
5.0
This book clearly illustrates the partisan division in the US. It’s also terrifyingly relevant to the current political climate. At times, it felt like a how-to guide for Trump’s campaign.
jsisco's review against another edition
5.0
One of the most thoroughly enjoyable and heavily researched books I have ever had the fortune of reading. Perlstein is relentless in his anecdotes, quotations, and facts; his focus on Nixon's political career and its ramifications on America are unwavering. I specifically liked that he discussed Watergate but by no means gave it disproportionate attention. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in history or politics. The depiction of American culture in its entirety is unprecedented.
ambyrdawn's review against another edition
5.0
In short: "I think I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending."
tsharris's review against another edition
5.0
Superb political and cultural history of how American politics came to be the way it remains: two camps utterly convinced that the other means to destroy America. Perlstein manages to capture the resentments that animated the "silent majority" not unsympathetically, while meticulously tracing the ways in which Nixon exploited those resentments. The liberal establishment also looks horrendous, feckless, out of touch, completely incapable of understanding the resentments that Nixon was able to draw upon in his campaigns. It was depressing to see although the faces have changed, politicians continue to read from the scripts first written during this period.
bflynnp's review against another edition
4.0
This was a re-read for me in anticipation of reading Reaganland this summer. This book is excellent history, fascinating politics and astonishing in its deft handling of one of the most complex decades in US politics and sociology.
barkingstars's review against another edition
5.0
It's not often a political biography can be called a page turner but this definitely can. It remains so gripping by bypassing stats and eye watering legal debates in favour of those key details that paint a vivid picture of its characters. Throughout there are details about the culture of the period, all to ensure that we don't just know that people voted for Nixon but perhaps why they voted for Nixon.
Nixon once supposedly said that when he looked in the mirror he saw no one there. In this book Nixon is simultaneously a man of basic motivations and yet also enigmatic. Eventually all that mendacity makes him mysterious. Will you understand him any better at the end of this book? Perhaps not. But then the real mystery is why people voted for him - and that becomes a lot clearer. Ultimately this is a horror story, telling us how Nixon may have ended in political disgrace but probably did more to form the future of American politics than anyone else.
Nixon once supposedly said that when he looked in the mirror he saw no one there. In this book Nixon is simultaneously a man of basic motivations and yet also enigmatic. Eventually all that mendacity makes him mysterious. Will you understand him any better at the end of this book? Perhaps not. But then the real mystery is why people voted for him - and that becomes a lot clearer. Ultimately this is a horror story, telling us how Nixon may have ended in political disgrace but probably did more to form the future of American politics than anyone else.
jamiebooks15's review against another edition
4.0
This book was maybe the most dense and challenging book I've ever read. It was a college class. I am super-interested in the 60's and politics so the topics were very much on-brand for me, but I feel like this should be a warning to you if you might want to read this: it is a *commitment.*
Nixonland is a term that refers to the exploiting of our differences in new and much bigger ways than before to create a divisive us v. them politics. We still live in it.
So many things stood out at my from this book at different times. Perlstein covers several elections in the 50s and 60s, and sort of follows Nixon's rise throughout. I thought it was fascinating how he framed Nixon's biography: he was a misfit. In college, he couldn't get into the cool guy frat so he made his own of the outsiders. And that was a parallel for his whole political life. The author brought that anecdote into the telling of later stories often - Nixon was shut out of the more elite circles so he made his own and changed the game. Often using very nasty and underhanded tactics.
Nixon, in so many ways, was just a pre-Trump. He set the stage for a lot of what we see in politics today that we've slowly become accustomed to. He was a master of making any attack on his (usually deserved) into an opportunity to be a victim. A master of reading tea leaves and back room deals while telling the public the complete opposite.
Seeing his 1972 election described in painful detail was ... painful. The Nixon campaign had a huge hand in the Democratic primary, basically effing up everyone but McGovern's chances of winning (bc McG was the one they thought they could beat.)
Nixonland is a term that refers to the exploiting of our differences in new and much bigger ways than before to create a divisive us v. them politics. We still live in it.
So many things stood out at my from this book at different times. Perlstein covers several elections in the 50s and 60s, and sort of follows Nixon's rise throughout. I thought it was fascinating how he framed Nixon's biography: he was a misfit. In college, he couldn't get into the cool guy frat so he made his own of the outsiders. And that was a parallel for his whole political life. The author brought that anecdote into the telling of later stories often - Nixon was shut out of the more elite circles so he made his own and changed the game. Often using very nasty and underhanded tactics.
Nixon, in so many ways, was just a pre-Trump. He set the stage for a lot of what we see in politics today that we've slowly become accustomed to. He was a master of making any attack on his (usually deserved) into an opportunity to be a victim. A master of reading tea leaves and back room deals while telling the public the complete opposite.
Seeing his 1972 election described in painful detail was ... painful. The Nixon campaign had a huge hand in the Democratic primary, basically effing up everyone but McGovern's chances of winning (bc McG was the one they thought they could beat.)
solaana's review against another edition
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME - barely any watergate?!? [enraged_Punisher.gif]