Richard Nixon
From charlesreid1
Read
| Title | Author | Year | Started | Finished | Opinion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nixonland | Richard Perlstein | An excellent starting point for reading about Nixon. The primary focus of the book is Nixon, and while it isn't the most comprehensive portrait of Nixon's presidency (particularly Watergate and Nixon's resignation, as the book ends with the 1972 election), it provides a substantial amount of context for the parts of Nixon's presidency that are not covered.
It is a book filled with astounding insights into how the political landscape of the Nixon presidency was shaped, and it is obvious, upon reading, how much of that political landscape still exists today. The book's most significant virtue is that it covers so many different topics, and provides a truly outstanding portrait of late 1960's/early 1970's America. This really made a difference in how the events of the Nixon presidency were understood by the reader. | |||
| All The President's Men | Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein | An important account of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate reporting at the Washington Post.
Provides a good sense of how tangled the Watergate scandal was, how deep the scandal went, and how abusive of Presidential power Nixon was. Also provides a good sense of how precarious the Watergate investigation was - how, without a few key individuals acting according to their conscience, rather than their best interests, the entire affair would have gone unknown. | |||
| The Secret Man | Bob Woodward | Not recommended. Primarily a rehash of All The President's Men, with little additional detail included (all related to the identity of Deep Throat). No significant new material. |
Unread
| Title | Author | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon | Stanley Kutler | 1990 | Idea for book came from browsing top-rated Nixon-related books on Amazon.
In Marriott Library:
Review: Stanley I Kutler's ambitious synthesis details the complexities of political sabotage and conspiracies to obstruct justice in evocative contexts including Vietnam and the growth of the imperial presidency. . . . Overall this study is, and will remain, the standard book on the 'underside' of the Nixon presidency for the foreseeable future. 776 pages |
| Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes | Stanley Kutler | 1997 | Idea for book came from browsing top-rated Nixon-related books on Amazon.
In Marriott Library:
From Library Journal: Nixon: "I can't believe that they can tie [Watergate] to me. What's your feeling?" H.R. Haldeman: "It'll be messy." Right. Twenty-five years after the existence of Nixon's secret White House tape recordings became known, Kutler sued for and won their release. The excerpts provided in this excellent production are a fine example of oral history at its most dramatic (see also Michael Beschloss's Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, Audio Reviews LJ 2/1/98). Actor William Windom captures the vocal expressions listeners associate with Nixon. The voices of Haldeman, John Erlichman, Henry Kissinger, John Dean, Alexander Haig, and Rose Mary Woods are rendered realistically by an ensemble company. The effect is riveting and brings the listener into the Oval Office with Nixon and the White House staff as they try to distance themselves from the firestorm of allegation being leveled at them from outside. By the end, even Nixon is referring to himself in the third person to separate himself from the inevitability of the official investigation. All libraries will want at least one copy of this production, especially those with a focus on 20th-century political history. 704 pages. |
| The Final Days | Boob Woodward, Carl Bernstein | 1976 | Follow-up to All The President's Men
Review: The Final Days is the classic, behind-the-scenes account of Richard Nixon's dramatic last months as president. Moment by moment, Bernstein and Woodward portray the taut, post-Watergate White House as Nixon, his family, his staff, and many members of Congress strained desperately to prevent his inevitable resignation. This brilliant book reveals the ordeal of Nixon's fall from office -- one of the gravest crises in presidential history. 480 pages. |
Online Resources
- NixonTapes.org
- http://nixontapes.org/transcripts.html
- Provides audio and transcripts of many Nixon tapes, grouped by participants, themes, and chronology
- White House tapes archive @ Nixon Library
- http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/tapeexcerpts/index.php
- Most material is only organized chronologically
- Tapes related to the Watergate trial are grouped together
- Some thematically-organized recordings provided here: http://nixon.archives.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/collections.php
- White House tapes finding aids provides many useful indexes and information: http://nixon.archives.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/finding_aids/index.php