One Man Against the World

The Tragedy of Richard Nixon

By: Tim Weiner

Narrated by: Holter Graham

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 only in 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, who 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 not only with new insight 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.

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!

Narration style is distracting, riveting book regardless

The story feels rushed, as though the author received access to the tape transcripts and wanted to be the first to publish a book with the tapes as a key device for story telling. So the outline jumps all over the place and it's hard to keep track of the story line.

The narrator "acts out" the voices of Nixon, Kissinger, all the presidents men, and it's such a distraction.

The facts of story as voiced by Nixon himself in the transcripts are as shocking as you might expect. Even if you lived through, or already are well informed on the story of Vietnam and Watergate, it's a worthwhile read.

I do appreciate learning more detail about how Nixon's trip to China changed the balance of power to reflect the world we live in now.

Nixon's legacy is all around us. He was brilliant, crazy, paranoid, dark, sick, and troubled. He groomed staffers who became leaders in our 20th and 21st century including Rumsfeld, George HW Bush, and Dick Cheney.

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.

Brought down by narrator

Appalling and unnecessary imitations of Nixon and Kissinger.
Biggest pet peeve though, when reading about real, historical people it takes very little effort to learn correct pronunciation of their names: SIGH-mington not SIMington. Strah-kin not Stray-chen., etc.

Interesting and Entertaining

Pronunciations of some names is annoying. The correct pronunciations are easily accessible from interviews online, etc.