Nixonland

The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America

By: Rick Perlstein

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Length: 36 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of America's most talented historians and winner of a LA Times Book Prize comes a brilliant new account of Richard Nixon that reveals the riveting backstory to the red state/blue state resentments that divide our nation today.

Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency.

©2008 Rick Perlstein. All rights reserved. (P)2009 BBC Audio

Critic reviews

"A richly detailed descent into the inferno - that is, the years when Richard Milhous Nixon, 'a serial collector of resentments,' ruled the land." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Excellent work, dynamic narration

While the writer has a liberal slant, he does a fine job skewering the left and right when appropriate. As someone born after the 1960's, it is amazing the country survived the cycle of violence, assassination, and political bedlam of the decade, and its spillover into the 1970's.

Of particular note is the excellent performance by the narrator. While other reviewers have harped on his few mispronunciations, few have commented on the excellent manner he drives the action along. So many historical works are delivered at a funereal pace. Thorne has excellent pacing and the book flies by. I hope he gets a crack at other historical titles.

What a bad production of a good book

A decent history that illuminates the recent origins of the factionalism we see now in our tea party/red states/blue states world. I'd forgotten the demagoguery of Agnew, and the vileness of Reagan and Nixon.

That said, the production values were TERRIBLE. It would be easy to blame the narrator, but its the producer's job to tell him when he is mispronouncing words. And the editing, with weird silences and bad other bad editing is amateurish.

But it is history everyone should be reminded of these days.

Problematic Narrator

If you could sum up Nixonland in three words, what would they be?
I wrote a review earlier, but now that I'm finishing the audiobook I feel compelled to write again to say that audiobooks need to come of age. When a narrator egregiously mispronounces over 30 (I've counted) proper names and common words, the listener can start to disengage from the narrative. The narrator conveys the spirit and energy of the book, but the mispronunciations are terribly distracting, particularly in a historical narrative. Can someone PLEASThis is a major cognitive disconnection, and it's disturbing in a historical narrative.

What didn’t you like about Stephen R. Thorne’s performance?
See above.

I learned a lot

If you could sum up Nixonland in three words, what would they be?

It's very thorough

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Riots were a lot more serious in the 60s.

Any additional comments?

As a history of the time period and the man Nixon, it's about as thorough as you could hope for. I realize the author has more books in the pipeline (I already bought one of them) but he doesn't really offer a take on what he learned from all this. OK, so maybe that's not a historian's role. But I was expecting more when it ended. Lessons learned. Something more substantial.

essential

another essential book by pearlstein that is even more important today than when it was published 13 years ago

Brilliant and Perceptive Work

Perlstein's second in his series of books on the rise of modern Republican conservatism (published in 2008), presents an in-depth and fascinating study of Richard Nixon checkered career through his landslide defeat of McGovern in 1972. As with his first book on Goldwater, this is more than just a work about a politician or a movement, but a well-developed study of a culture that reflected and deepened political divisions which have continued to the present day. Harry Truman once said, "The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." It will be difficult for any but the most well-informed reader not to both learn something new about the Nixon Era from this work, or to recognize remarkable parallels between the politics of this Era and the divisions of today. While a self-described "man of the left," Perelstein's provides tempered criticism of both post-LBJ liberalism and Nixon Era conservatism that is pointed but fair to both sides. A remarkable listen, that ultimately led me both to intensely dislike and sincerely pity Richard Nixon, if not all those who supported him.

Great Book!

Excellent book, thoroughly researched. The reader could have been a little better with his vocal inflections, but still did a good job. Highly recommended!

an exciting historical analysis of a president?

You look at the end state of the Nixon presidency and you see the framework of political discourse that has never gone away. "The fracturing of america" is something that is said so often, but this book properly illustrates the "new politics" of the 60s and how the drastic realignment of political views into two rabidly angry movements which cannot compromise with the other has completely defined our politics for decades. Present-day listeners to this book will hear these two movements echoing in Bush, Obama, Trump, etc. and the apocalyptic rhetoric that characterizes every 4 years in America. To put it simply, the basis for which political campaigns were to be run started here: with the 1972 race between Nixon and McGovern.

But more than just electoral politics, this book is FANTASTIC and exciting as Perlstein lays down the groundwork for the tectonic social disruption that faced society under JFK and LBJ which created the social desire for a character like Nixon. The main catalysts being desegregation and integration, and the Vietnam war. Both of which heightened drastically and in a short period of time the antagonisms in basic American social relations. Perlstein follows the fires lit by the MANY extremists of the era and the battered and confused news media forced to interpret it. He draws direct lines from these extremist actions to societal reaction with such specific focus that readers can very easily comprehend the complex emotions Americans felt in response to the heightening anger and resentment.

For a history book, it's incredibly readable and informative. High reccommendation for all readers. Amazong book

Nixon: There was more to it than Watergate

Going into this book, I knew 3 things about Richard Nixon. He was a Republican. He was a liar. He resigned in the middle of the mother of all political scandals. These 3 facts I gleaned from reading All The President's Men in high school.

This book gave depth and character to not only Nixon, but all the various agitators of the 60s and 70s. It explained quite a lot about why my uncle, a veteran, is still angry about Vietnam. It gave context to that swift-boat nonsense from the Kerry presidential campaign that I didn't understand when it happened. It revealed the origins of the current bugaboos of the Republican party: Pat Buchanan, Karl Rove, Chuck Grassley, to name a few. Like the Iliad, it was epic in scope and stopped just shy of where you thought it was going.

I also really enjoyed the narrator. His tone may have been slightly less than neutral and he may have mispronounced things, but this material had the potential to be mind-numbingly dry in audio format, and I enjoyed the injections of personality and drama.

Good Book, Terrible reader

Nixonland is a fine book. It gives background information on our history that is sometimes lacking in books of this time period.

That said, my main objection is that the reader cannot seem to pronounce names of people,places, and even ordinary words. One would think that an editor or someone would have checked this out.

As I said earlier, the book is good, but the mispronounced words really detract the listener.