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A review by jeremyanderberg
Richard Nixon: The Life by John A. Farrell
5.0
“Nixon would have been recorded as being a very great president had it not been for the fatal character flaw. He did not believe in anything.”
Few of my 2020 reads have been as arresting as John Farrell’s biography of Richard Nixon. (Yes, the incarceration pun is intended.) I had a hard time putting it down and devoured all 550+ pages in about a week. When I closed the back cover I wished it had been longer, while also feeling like I had a good sense of the man’s life. That’s about as tall a task as there is in the world of biography.
Nixon came from humble beginnings and was always a pretty odd figure. He was bookish, prudish, not particularly likable. Winning, along with fitting in and being liked by the cool kids, was always terribly important to his well-being and psyche. This led to paranoia, and ultimately, of course, his downfall.
Throughout much of the book, Farrell actually portrays Nixon pretty sympathetically. You can’t help but feel for the guy. Richard was incredibly intelligent and even did good work—often great work—for his constituents, and yet very early on in his career became okay with using less than savory methodologies to achieve his goals.
Like the great arc of how it played out in real life, Farrell builds and builds to what everyone is waiting for: Watergate. The eminent biographer covers it masterfully, finding the perfect balance of which details to include and where to skip over the minutiae. Nixon really thought he’d get away with it all and be able to sweep the lying and deceit and criminal activity under the rug—it was a slow burn, until it wasn’t.
I can’t recommend Richard Nixon: The Life highly enough. This is definitely a book that can be read by a far wider audience than just POTUS enthusiasts. The anti-leadership lessons found within are remarkable, plus it’s just a really well-told and compelling story.
Few of my 2020 reads have been as arresting as John Farrell’s biography of Richard Nixon. (Yes, the incarceration pun is intended.) I had a hard time putting it down and devoured all 550+ pages in about a week. When I closed the back cover I wished it had been longer, while also feeling like I had a good sense of the man’s life. That’s about as tall a task as there is in the world of biography.
Nixon came from humble beginnings and was always a pretty odd figure. He was bookish, prudish, not particularly likable. Winning, along with fitting in and being liked by the cool kids, was always terribly important to his well-being and psyche. This led to paranoia, and ultimately, of course, his downfall.
Throughout much of the book, Farrell actually portrays Nixon pretty sympathetically. You can’t help but feel for the guy. Richard was incredibly intelligent and even did good work—often great work—for his constituents, and yet very early on in his career became okay with using less than savory methodologies to achieve his goals.
Like the great arc of how it played out in real life, Farrell builds and builds to what everyone is waiting for: Watergate. The eminent biographer covers it masterfully, finding the perfect balance of which details to include and where to skip over the minutiae. Nixon really thought he’d get away with it all and be able to sweep the lying and deceit and criminal activity under the rug—it was a slow burn, until it wasn’t.
I can’t recommend Richard Nixon: The Life highly enough. This is definitely a book that can be read by a far wider audience than just POTUS enthusiasts. The anti-leadership lessons found within are remarkable, plus it’s just a really well-told and compelling story.