Publishers Weekly
★ 06/29/2015
In this surprisingly sympathetic investigation of President Nixon's psyche, Thomas (Ike's Bluff) depicts the infamous president as a man torn between optimism and anxiety, whose "strengths were his weaknesses, and vice versa." Beginning with a 16-year-old Nixon overcoming his first crisis (a disastrous school play), Thomas understands Nixon as introverted, insecure, solitary, and self-conscious of his humble origins, but able to bear humiliation and defeat in the pursuit of his goals. Fundamental to Nixon's tenacity were the women in his life—first his mother, and later his wife and two daughters—who saw the fundamental goodness in a man often maligned by the media and whose unyielding support quietly sustained Nixon across the many defeats of his political career. In Thomas's view, the long path to Nixon's fall began with anti-war protests and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which upset the delicate balance of Nixon's warring selves and led him to give in to his worst impulses. Thomas doesn't shy away from showing Nixon at his worst, acknowledging Nixon's penchant for the "maudlin," his "self-pity," his fear of confrontation, and his often poisonous rivalry with Henry Kissinger. Thomas is generous to his subject, contextualizing Nixon and often teasing out his well-concealed desire to do the right thing. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (June)
From the Publisher
A biography of eloquence and breadth . . . No single volume about Nixon’s long and interesting life could be so comprehensive.”—Chicago Tribune
“Terrifically engaging . . . a fair, insightful and highly entertaining portrait of the thirty-seventh president . . . Being Nixon should be read by anyone with a more open mind about the oddest man ever to occupy the Oval Office.”—Max Boot, The Wall Street Journal
“[A] fully rounded portrait, carefully pairing each indictment of Nixon with a mitigating perspective . . . Thomas has a fine eye for the telling quote and the funny vignette, and his style is eminently readable.”—The New York Times Book Review
“From Nixon’s hardscrabble California childhood to his post-presidential exile, Thomas proves an amiable and fair-minded tour guide. . . . The result, in Thomas’s rendering, is a man of intertwined threads, in some ways the personification of the contending passions of American life of the period.”—The Boston Globe
“How self-aware are the great men of history? That’s the fascinating question at the heart of Evan Thomas’s new book on Richard Nixon. . . . Here in one sharp and briskly written volume is what you really want to know about the great and horrible thirty-seventh President: How could someone so wise about the world be so utterly clueless about himself? . . . [Nixon] is revealed in Thomas’s hands as awkward, striving, victimized and alone—strange habits for a man who opted for such a public life, and traits that carried the seeds of his destruction.”—Time
“Ambitious . . . Thomas’s book is filled with anecdotes that humanize Nixon. There are pages suggesting real insight and, especially, how the president was seen by those around him. . . . There are well-crafted word-pictures of Nixon throughout the narrative, from his legendary awkwardness to his catastrophic frustration and vindictive rage.”—Carl Bernstein, The Washington Post
“A well-written and balanced account . . . gracefully written and highly readable . . . [Thomas’s] interest goes to the man himself, like most of us a man of contradictions, a man with a dark and light side, with the dark side often leading to disastrous decisions, encouraged by his increasingly tight circle of self-serving advisers.”—The Washington Times
“[Nixon’s] oddity, more than any policy choices or impeachable crimes, is the subject of this book, which is marked by unexpected and startling empathy. . . . One feels for Nixon.”—The New Yorker
“[A] glossy, armchair-ready biography . . . [a] book in tune with our time. It’s a trick of fate that Nixon, a sitting president who experienced a version of supersize public shaming, might have appreciated for its futuristic appeal. Instead of being passively read, Being Nixon invites argument.”—The New York Times
Library Journal
★ 08/01/2015
For better or worse, argues Thomas (Ike's Bluff) in this fascinating and impressively researched biography, President Richard Nixon (1913–94) was motivated by fears and insecurities that created a drive to succeed, which resulted in monumental political achievements and also sowed the seeds for his downfall. The author draws heavily on recently available White House tapes as well as interviews conducted with former Nixon staffers. Driven by childhood poverty to mistrust the wealthy, who slighted him in college and his early career, Nixon was sensitive to the needs of the poor and supported legislation that promoted desegregation, voting rights, and welfare reform, while opposing integration when currying votes from Southerners. Thomas presents Nixon as neither conservative nor liberal but rather as an optimist, much like most mid-20th-century politicians, regardless of party, who believed government's mission was to offer creative solutions to economic and social problems. Although Nixon was ruthless to his enemies, Thomas reminds us of the president's generosity as a loving husband and father who was wellliked by White House staff. VERDICT This compulsively readable account will find a wide audience among general readers, historians, and Watergate buffs who seek a fuller understanding of this controversial man. It is finely complemented by Tim Weiner's One Man Against the World (see review below), which focuses on Nixon's foreign policies. [See Prepub Alert, 3/30/15.]—Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
NOVEMBER 2015 - AudioFile
Narrator Bob Walter’s baritone pitch and thoughtful inflections and pacing create a perfect match for this masterful biography, which asks the listener to take a long second look at the notorious Nixon.The author, a journalist for TIME and NEWSWEEK, provides a thorough, fascinating examination of Nixon’s complicated life and persona. Great pains are taken to ensure more objectivity than is usually afforded this skillful, intellectually gifted, and flawed former president. Walter’s performance is absolutely engrossing. History enthusiasts and any reasonably open listener will learn much, and will most likely be surprised—when the entire picture is considered—that they just might be willing to give Nixon some admiring respect. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2015-06-24
A sympathetic—unusually so—portrait of the disgraced president by accomplished biographer and historian Thomas (Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World, 2012, etc.). Richard Nixon is so often the villain that it's sometimes surprising to be reminded of his real accomplishments, no matter how politically calculating or unwilling, from détente with the Soviet Union to the establishment of the environmental regulations current Republicans are trying to demolish. By the author's account, Nixon "wanted to be upbeat, to be an optimist," and some of his struggle can be seen in the Manichaean construct of that optimism versus the brooding darkness and essential solitariness that he embodied. Indeed, as Thomas' biographical—and sometimes psychobiographical—study builds, it becomes ever more unlikely that Nixon, a loner in the constituency-pleasing game of politics, could ever have succeeded. Score one for Nixon, as Thomas awards him full points for dogged determination. And score sympathy points for Nixon's ability to rise above constant rejection and native moroseness to get as much done as he did, from amassing a small fortune at playing cards to opening the gates of the Forbidden City. Even so, like H.W. Brands' recent Reagan, Thomas' account is by no means uncritical. Though even paranoiacs have enemies, Nixon specialized in being "ever alert to put-downs," whether from the media or from those born into wealth and power. Though evenhanded throughout, Thomas sometimes risks being taken for one of the Pat Buchanan school of apologists: "The facts of Watergate, as they dribbled out, were bad enough, but an inflamed press corps did not stop at the facts"; "He was not paranoid; the press and the ‘Georgetown set' really were out to get him." Even allowing for a little politicking, this is one of the better books on Nixon in the recent crop, worth reading alongside Rick Perlstein's decidedly less sympathetic Nixonland (2008) and Tim Weiner's One Man Against the World (2015).
