The Contender: Richard Nixon, the Congress Years, 1946-1952

by Irwin F. Gellman

Overview

The definitive account of Richard Nixon's congressional career, back in print with a new preface

Unsurpassed in the fifteen years since its original publication, Irwin F. Gellman’s exhaustively researched work is the definitive account of Richard Nixon’s rise from political unknown to the verge of achieving the vice-presidency. To document Nixon’s congressional career, Gellman combed the files of Nixon’s 1946, 1948, and 1950 campaigns, papers from the executive sessions of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and every document dated through 1952 at the Richard Nixon Library.
 
This singular volume corrects many earlier written accounts. For example, there was no secret funding of Nixon’s senate campaign in 1950, and Nixon won universal praise for his evenhandedness as a member of HUAC. The first book of a projected five-volume examination of this complex man’s entire career, this work stands as the definitive political portrait of Nixon as a fast-rising young political star.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300228137
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	624
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Irwin F. Gellman is an independent scholar and the author of five books on American presidents. He lives in Parkesburg, PA.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Acknowledgments xv

Preface 1

1 The Prerequisites for a Congressional Candidate 5

2 Nixon's First Primary 25

3 Nixon Versus Voorhis 61

4 Learning the Congressional Routine 89

5 Nixon and HUAC 107

6 The Herter Committee 120

7 Sharpening Foreign and Domestic Priorities 144

8 Running for Reelection 167

9 Moving Onto the National Stage 181

10 Nixon: Chambers Versus Hiss 196

11 The Pumpkin, Father Cronin, the FBI, and Duggan 225

12 Nixon, Communism, and the Truman Triumph 253

13 Stepping Sideways to Move Up 264

14 The 1950 Primary 289

15 Douglas Versus Nixon: The Issues 306

16 Fifty-one Days in the Fall: Nixon Versus Douglas-Reality and Legend 319

17 Communism and Korea 344

18 Corruption in the Highest Places 372

19 "Electability, and Other Issues 391

20 The 1952 Convention 422

Epilogue: Nixon and His Detractors-Whom Should We Believe? 451

Notes 461

Bibliography 541

Glossary of Characters 553

Index 559