• One Man Against the World

  • The Tragedy of Richard Nixon
  • By: Tim Weiner
  • Narrated by: Holter Graham
  • Length: 13 hrs
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (280 ratings)

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One Man Against the World  By  cover art

One Man Against the World

By: Tim Weiner
Narrated by: Holter Graham
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Publisher's summary

A shocking and riveting look at one of the most dramatic and disastrous presidencies in US history, from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Tim Weiner

Based largely on documents declassified in only the last few years, One Man Against the World paints a devastating portrait of a tortured yet brilliant man who led the country largely according to a deep-seated insecurity and distrust of not only his cabinet and Congress but the American population at large. In riveting, tick-tock prose, Weiner illuminates how the Vietnam War and the Watergate controversy that brought about Nixon's demise were inextricably linked. From the hail of garbage and curses that awaited Nixon upon his arrival at the White House, when he became the president of a nation as deeply divided as it had been since the end of the Civil War, to the unprecedented action Nixon took against American citizens, whom he considered as traitorous as the army of North Vietnam, to the infamous break-in and the tapes that bear remarkable record of the most intimate and damning conversations between the president and his confidantes, Weiner narrates the history of Nixon's anguished presidency in fascinating and fresh detail. A crucial new look at the greatest political suicide in history, One Man Against the World leaves us with new insight not only into this tumultuous period but also into the motivations and demons of an American president who saw enemies everywhere and, thinking the world was against him, undermined the foundations of the country he had hoped to lead.

©2015 Tim Weiner (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

What listeners say about One Man Against the World

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A worthy listen, if a bit sensationalized.

Very interesting material, only recently declassified, is presented about the Nixon presidency; although almost exclusively focused on Watergate than anything else.

Narration is good, minus the cheesy Nixon impression, and rather poor accents. Not sure why increasing number of narrators feel the need to be so, "hammy" when a straight reading would do.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lots of behind the scenes information

I enjoyed this book and found it most frightening thinking about how paranoid Nixon was along with depression and high alcohol intake, while he had control of so much power.

With the release of the White House Tapes and other Documents since Richard Nixon’s death in 1994 has brought out more books about Nixon. Two new books have just been released this month, this book by Tim Weiner and the one by Evan Thomas’s “Being Nixon: A Man Divided.” Both authors are highly accomplished journalist.

Weiner is a former New York Times national security reporter, is decidedly hostile to Nixon. The author structured his account of the presidency around a litany of transgressions related to Watergate and the Vietnam War.

The book is well written and meticulously researched. Weiner states emphatically that Nixon “cared little about domestic affairs: least of all housing, health, education, welfare and civil rights.” He states the heart of Nixon’s domestic policy was “tearing down the structures of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.” Weiner’s book adds documented details and evidence to confirm Nixon’s desperate Vietnam gambits and his central role in directing the Watergate cover-up. He cites incriminating evidence he has uncovered throughout the book. The author goes into detail about the mental health of Nixon. The story Weiner stress is “The tragedy of a man destroying himself.” Holter Graham narrated the book.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely gripping narrative but...

Maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety, but this was narrated HORRIBLY. Every time this reader mispronounced a name (hint: consistently) it took me out of the story, and toward the end I was screaming at the narrator, "it's RuckELShaus, you moron!" Even worse was his botched Kissinger "accent." His delivery was overly dramatic, as though the story wasn't horrifying enough; his Nixon voice was like a cartoon villain.

Seriously, who gave the job to this reader? It can't have been the author. His story was beyond riveting, but the narrator nearly ruined it for me.

Most of the many books I've listened to had adequate to brilliant narration. But some I've had to stop listening to because of a bad narrator.

Okay, rant over!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good Book. Bad Audio Book.

Book was good for the most part. Helpful to read newly unclassified materials set in a historical context. It serves as a good summary of all the tapes and diaries that I would not have time or inclination to seek out. Author does editorialize at times which I rarely, if ever, appreciate. Narration of the audio book is miserable. I eventually stopped listening and only read. Narrator attempts the voices of Nixon, Kissinger and others. It is laughable at first and annoying to the point of frustration by the half-way point of the book. Narrator should stop acting and just read. Since I followed along with the text for most of the work, I realized he misread parts and left out full paragraphs. His mispronunciation of names is appalling.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enthusiastic reading--marred by mispronunciations

Would you listen to One Man Against the World again? Why?

Yes. It covers the range of Nixon's actions--scandals and accomplishments--in sequence and in one volume. It helped me understand the full range of Nixon's attitudes, poor choices, and crimes.

What did you like best about this story?

The pace and clarity of the story. The author had to have read many thousands of pages, but gives us a clear narrative, without the "a claimed this" and "b claimed that" of so many other narratives.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Holter Graham?

Yes, if he is coached about the correct pronunciation of proper names. I like his style, but winced at his stumbles. It was clear to me that the first priority of the publisher was "speed to market" not "product quality." (Any person born in the 40's or 50's could have provided the proper pronunciations without hesitation. Was everyone involved in this book under 30?)

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nixon's interference in the Johnson White House peace talks. Nixon convinced the Vietnamese not to make a peace agreement, then prolonged the war--eventually agreeing to the same peace terms as Johnson offered. I wasn't aware of this crime before. I was also moved by Graham's reading of Nixon's complaint about how he (Nixon) suffered terribly (while allowing more soldiers and civilians to truly suffer in Viet Nam.)

Any additional comments?

The listener should look elsewhere for correct pronunciation of the following: Zhou Enlai (Chinese Foreign Minister), Andrei Kosygin (Soviet Premier), Nguyen Cao Ky (Vietnamese General and Prime Minister), Nikolai Podgorny (Soviet leader), William Ruckelshaus (US cabinet member), Gordon Strachan (White House official), Stuart Symington (US Senator), and Tony Ulasewicz (Watergate figure); and Vietnamese airbase Tan Son Nhut.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The rant of a Nixon hater

I was never an admirer of Richard Nixon, but this book is a pure hatchet job, tendentious, argumentative, and spiteful. Could not finish the first chapter. Nixon still needs a rounded, fully nuanced biography.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and frighteningly familiar

For a long time I’ve been fascinated by Richard Nixon and unsure why. I find his politics abhorrent, his personality repellent, and his effects on the american body politic repulsive, so why is he so interesting? I think part of it is a lifelong fascination I've had with villains and Nixon is undeniably villainous. Richard Nixon was cruel, racist, selfish, bitter, paranoid, and unabashedly dishonest. He was also undeniably shrewd, cunning, intelligent, and capable. His accomplishments are indisputably great. Opening up China, coming to the table with Russia, creating the EPA all speak to his abilities as a politician and diplomat. There’s also an undeniable tragedy to the story of Richard Nixon. His presidency could’ve been the gold standard for diplomacy and set the mark for statesmanship for ages to come. Instead, he sabotaged peace-talks for political gain, established the nakedly bigoted “southern strategy”, spied on Americans, and committed numerous crimes to hold and maintain political power. It’s like a Greek tragedy to see a great man use his not inconsiderable gifts to basically personify everything ugly about American politics and American society at large.
Through newly released and declassified documents and tapes the author shows the contradictions of Richard Nixon. We see both his greatness and abilities as well as his cruelty and paranoia. There’s a lot of interesting insight into his personality that is fascinating as well. This book articulates just who he was, why he did what he did, and gives a play by play of his fall and disgrace. At times it feels like a slow-motion historical train-wreck that is nearly impossible to stop listening to.
The scariest thing I found in this book is how frighteningly topical and familiar Nixon’s worst impulses feel while looking at the current administration. Trump wasn’t the first president to call the free press the “enemy of the people” as it turns out. Nor was he the first to lose himself to paranoia about college campuses and “outside forces” trying to bring him down. Richard Nixon was the Coke Classic of the racism, sexism, religious intolerance, anti-science, anti-education, anti-woman, and anti-immigrant impulses we see and read about on a daily basis during the Trump Administration. Some of the worst excerpts of Nixon sounded so familiar I almost couldn’t believe it. If you’re looking to understand Richard Nixon and his fall from power then I think One Man Against The World is an ideal place to start. The book is a well researched, well written, and utterly American tragedy.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Reviewer Too Young To Have Understood The Nixon Era

I enjoyed this book in contrast to previous accounts of the Nixon presidency. the author is able to add President Nixon's narrative to the historical landscape of the time. This access to real transcribed conversation made the sinister nature of Nixon that much darker yet created a palpable empathy for the struggles of the man.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Meet Richard Nixon ... again

Not sure we will ever know RN ... This explosive and enlightening story is nearly written by RN himself given what is reflected from more in depth excerpts from his Oval Office tapes. Harry Shearer's 'Nixon's The One', a YouTube video series brings elements of this to life via video as it might appeared in the '70's. Tragic, Comedic, Scary, Sad. It's all here.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Solid but narrated so badly ...

Buy the book. The narrator has a halting, William Shatner cadence, insists on (and fails at) doing accents – including Nixon's, Kissinger's, and maybe most amusingly, Ted Kennedy's – and reads too slowly. My bad for thinking I could put up with it after listening to the sample.

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