Richard Nixon - A Life Of Contradiction

In a life of towering achievement and unprecedented disgrace, Richard Nixon remains one of the most compelling and confounding figures in American history. He was the visionary statesman who opened relations with China and negotiated landmark arms treaties with the Soviet Union, fundamentally reordering the landscape of the Cold War. Yet he was also the architect of his own downfall, the only president to resign from office in the face of certain impeachment and criminal prosecution.

This biography traces Nixon’s journey from the citrus groves of Southern California, where a pious Quaker mother and a combative father waged a quiet war for his soul. Jackson Hobbs follows his relentless ascent as a tenacious congressman who exposed Alger Hiss, a bare-knuckle campaigner who earned the moniker "Tricky Dick," and a global envoy who sparred with Khrushchev on the world stage. The narrative explores how the crucible of his youth—marked by hardship, ambition, and tragic loss—forged the warring identities that would define his career.

The book provides a detailed look at a presidency of monumental accomplishment, from the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency to the most sweeping school desegregation in the nation’s history. At the same time, it meticulously chronicles the descent into darkness, detailing how a culture of paranoia and resentment gave birth to a secret intelligence unit and a campaign of political sabotage. Witness how Nixon’s greatest triumphs occurred even as the seeds of his own ruin were being sown within the White House itself.

From the bungled burglary at the Watergate complex to the dramatic constitutional crisis over the White House tapes, this book provides a gripping account of the scandal that consumed a presidency. The story continues beyond his resignation, into the wilderness of his exile, the controversial pardon that saved him from prosecution, and his improbable reinvention as a respected elder statesman. Richard Nixon: A Life of Contradiction is a sweeping, comprehensive portrait of a man of immense talent and tragic flaws, a leader whose story holds up a mirror to the best and worst of the American political tradition.