How did we go from Lyndon Johnson’s landslide Democratic victory in 1964 to Richard Nixon’s equally lopsided Republican reelection only eight years later? The years in between were among the most chaotic in American history, with an endless and unpopular war, riots, assassinations, social upheaval, Southern resistance, protests both peaceful and armed, and a “Silent Majority” that twice elected the central figure of the age, a brilliant politician who relished the battles of the day but ended them in disgrace. In Nixonland Rick Perlstein tells a more familiar story than the one he unearthed in his influential previous book, Before the Storm, which argued that the stunning success of modern conservatism was founded in Goldwater’s massive 1964 defeat. But he makes it fresh and relentlessly compelling, with obsessive original research and a gleefully slashing style–equal parts Walter Winchell and Hunter S. Thompson–that’s true to the times. Perlstein is well known as a writer on the left, but his historian’s empathies are intense and unpredictable: he convincingly channels the resentment and rage on both sides of the battle lines and lets neither Nixon’s cynicism nor the naivete of liberals like New York mayor John Lindsay off the hook. And while election-year readers will be reminded of how much tamer our times are, they’ll also find that the echoes of the era, and its persistent national divisions, still ring loud and clear.

Richard M. Nixon

[ Reconciliation was the first goal set by President Richard M. Nixon. The Nation was painfully divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas. During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Viet Nam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But the Watergate scandal brought fresh divisions to the country and ultimately led to his resignation.]

Richard Nixon
[ January 9, 1913 - April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States (1969 - 1974) and the only American president to resign the office.

Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California and developed an interest in music. In the mid-1930s, he passed the bar exam and practiced law with a family friend. Amidst the outbreak of war in the early 1940s, he joined the United States Navy and served as a lieutenant commander in the Pacific during World War II.]

Tags: 1970, 60s, 70s, american history, american politics, american presidents, bad president, elections, great president, history, iraq, liberals, Nixon, Perlstein, polarization, politics, politics and government, presidents, republican, richard nixon, Rick Perlstein, ronald reagan, social history, southern strategy, united states presidents, vietnam war