President Nixon: Alone in the White House
by Richard Reeves
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard ReevesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-10-01
ISBN: 0743227190
Number of pages: 704
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of President Nixon: Alone in the White House
Book Review: Just as I Thought...
Summary: 2 Stars
I wrote a review not long ago on this book (you can see it down below), and I suppose I damaged my credibility as a "critic" by claiming in the review that I was only about halfway through the book. Well, I have finished the book, and I believe that a new review is in order.
As indicated by the FIRST half of the book, ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE just never caught me. Though this is his only work I have read (and plan to leave it at that), Richard Reeves has become a bit of an enigma to me: how does a man so devoid of literary zest become so acclaimed for same? It's a mystery, but don't misread my intentions; I'm not here to hack the man to death. I really put alot of effort into reading this book, and I recognize that he put tons of effort into WRITING it. It's brilliantly researched, and of this there is no doubt. Yet, I had to concentrate hard and dedicate myself just to finish it. I was tempted to walk away several times. Why, you ask?
Well, for pretty much the same reasons I listed in my first review. ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE is dry, cold and basically completely uninteresting. Myriad facts which comprise one of the most shocking and pivitol events in political history are presented like the directions in a stereo manual. It's literally like reading a technical diagram, and when you think Reeves is going to go off on an interesting tangent (say, for instance, some curious note of Nixon's personal life, which is why we're reading in the first place, right?), after one or two meager sentences he regretfully gets back to business as usual. If you're into exhaustively researched dates, times, government acronyms, and media and political insider jargon, then this book is for you. If you read not only for the pursuit of knowledge but ALSO the pleasure of the *act* of reading, then I can only condemn this work. Stay away from it.
There is nothing wrong with the material. That's simply not the issue. Any other reputable biographer/author could have taken the exact same research and drafted a fine and enjoyable volume. It's simply Reeves' impersonal and uninspired writing style. I'd be really surprised if Reeves didn't have as bad a time writing PRESIDENT NIXON as I did reading it.
Even lacking works in literature, film and music, I believe, should be experienced just for perspective (to quote the great philosipher Butthead -- of Beavis and Butthead fame -- "if nothing ever sucked, you wouldn't know when something was cool"), but I will not say the same for this book. Technically, it IS well-written (there are no typos or grammatical errors) and is also a fine representation of expert documentation, but there is no redeeming value here as far as historical worth goes, and there certainly isn't anything to be hoped for in the department of literary enjoyment, either. If you are interested in Nixon the man, Nixon the politician, or even Nixon the President, I cannot stress strongly enough avoiding this book and looking elsewhere. It just isn't worth your time (or money).
In short, ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE almost made me forget why I love reading in the first place.
Unbelievable.
Summary of President Nixon: Alone in the White House
Who was Richard Nixon? The most amazing thing about the man was not what he did as president, but that he became president at all. Using thousands of new interviews and recently discovered or declassified documents and tapes, Richard Reeves's President Nixon offers a surprising portrait of a brilliant and contradictory man.Even as he dreamed of presidential greatness, Nixon could trust no one. His closest aides spied on him as he spied on them, while cabinet members, generals, and admirals spied on all of them -- rifling briefcases and desks, tapping each other's phones in a house where no one knew what was true anymore. Reeves shows a presidency doomed from the start by paranoia and corruption, beginning with Nixon and Kissinger using the CIA to cover up a murder by American soldiers in Vietnam that led to the theft and publication of the Pentagon Papers, then to secret counterintelligence units within the White House itself, and finally to the burglaries and cover-up that came to be known as Watergate. President Nixon is the astonishing story of a complex political animal who was as praised as he was reviled and who remains a subject of controversy to this day.
Drawing on thousands of pages of archival material and on interviews with surviving associates, presidential biographer Reeves paints a complex, sometimes disturbing portrait of the man forever enshrined as Tricky Dick.
"I have decided my major role is moral leadership," Nixon wrote in 1972 in one of his myriad memos to himself. (As Reeves writes, "Whatever else he accomplished, Richard Nixon produced more paper and tape than any president before or since.") That resolution quickly collapsed; instead, as the Vietnam War shaded into defeat and protests at home mounted, Nixon sank into a siege mentality, seeing himself as a lone crusader at war with the rest of the world. Reeves examines the cat-and-mouse quality of Nixon's relations with his inner circle and family, as well as the excruciating collapse of national leadership in the wake of missteps, miscalculations, and sheer crimes. Rigorous and thoughtful, Reeves's book adds much to our understanding of Nixon's troubled presidency--and of his troubled soul. --Gregory McNamee
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