Mr. Reeves look at the Nixon presidency from the vantage point of the President himself provides the reader with a fascinating look at one of the most compelling political figures of our time. To paraphrase Bob Dole, it was a miracle that Nixon ever made it to the pinnacle of political power. From the very first day in office, we are given the picture of a man who is both elated that he has reached his destiny, but at the...
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Reeves' book is a monumental work of presential history that depicts Nixon as a complicated, brilliant, but ultimately all-too-human president whose downfall comes as the result of several tragic flaws, such as Nixon's deep feelings of insecurity and paranoia, and his infatuation with secrecy and cloak-and-dagger operations. The author is to be commended for his amazingly adept use of a wide range of resources, including...
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Richard Reeves takes a different tact (from his previous Presidential biography of JFK) in this comprehensive and, at the same time, haunting portrayal of Richard Nixon. Granted, there is more material available (compared to Kennedy's presidency) to make an in-depth judgement of the Nixon administration, but Reeves' appears to have also re-fit his writing style and reporting to this specific story and the results (in my opinion)...
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No editor would publish a novel if the author were to invent a character as contradictory, powerful, and susceptible as Nixon's. I couldn't put the book down, finding the subject as fascinating and as horrifying as ever. Is there any other president that could have an opera written about him? G.Gordon Liddy always referred to him as Machiavelli's prince, and relying on Nixon's own record of his days in the White House, Reeves...
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"President Nixon: Alone in the White House" is one of those rare biographies that manages to capture the very essence of its subject. Mr. Reeves, who had access not only to President Nixon himself but to most of Nixon's key advisors and confidantes, has written a book that reveals Richard Nixon's motivations and thus goes a long way toward explaining some of the strange things Nixon did as President. What we see in the book...
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