A review by tintinintibet
Richard Nixon: The Life by John A. Farrell

1.0

More history than biography, and while some snippets of Nixon “the person” come out once he becomes president or in the epilogue, Nixon doesn’t come to life for me at all. Farrell writes things like “The son of Frank...” or casually, breezily name drops someone or refers to some event without introduction or set up — too often it made me think that Farrell assumes we know the era/characters already so he doesn’t need to bring anything to life. The gazillions of end notes (ugh) I suppose should be a sign: the book is more of a reference summary of other work than a stand-alone biography. Sadly Farrell also doesn’t have much of an opinion and instead equivocates every time he seems to make the slightest of arguments or judgements. If you’re going to argue both sides, at least TRY to do the fake-debate justice instead of giving up and saying there’s no right answer. I get it, not everything is black or white, but let’s see how grey it is. Nixon: Shrewd or accidental? Criminal or victim? A powerful driving force or reactionary counter-puncher? China rapprochement inevitable (per Kissinger, long view in hindsight) or only with Nixon (per Mao, contemporaneous)? Farrell seems to shrug and say: sort of.