ldquoWhat was it really like to be Richard Nixon Evan Thomas tackles this fascinating question by peeling back the layers of a man driven by a poignant mix of optimism and fear The result is both insightful history and an astonishingly compelling psychological portraitrdquomdashWalter Isaacson author ofSteve JobsEvan Thomas delivers the best single-volume biography of Richard Nixon to date a radical unique portrait of a complicated figure who was both determinedly optimistic and tragically flawed The New York Times bestselling author of Ikersquos Bluff and Sea of Thunder Thomas brings new life to one of American historyrsquos most infamous paradoxical and enigmatic politicians dispensing with myths to achieve an intimate and evenhanded look at the actual man What drove a painfully shy outcast in elite Washington societymdasha man so self-conscious he refused to make eye contact during meetingsmdashto pursue power and public office How did a president so attuned to the American political id that he won reelection in a historic landslide lack the self-awareness to recognize the gaping character flaws that would drive him from office and forever taint his legacy In Being Nixon Evan Thomas peels away the layers of the complex confounding figure who became Americarsquos thirty-seventh president The son of devout Quakers Richard Nixon not unlike his rival John F Kennedy grew up in the shadow of an older favored brother and thrived on conflict and opposition Through high school and college in the navy and in politics he was constantly leading crusades and fighting off enemies real and imagined As maudlin as he was Machiavellian Nixon possessed the plainspoken eloquence to reduce American television audiences to tears with his career-saving ldquoCheckersrdquo speech meanwhile his darker half hatched schemes designed to take down his political foes earning him the notorious nickname ldquoTricky Dickrdquo Drawing on a wide range of historical accounts Thomas reveals the contradictions of a leader whose vision and foresight led him to achieve deacutetente with the Soviet Union and reestablish relations with communist China but whose underhanded political tactics tainted his reputation long before the Watergate scandal One of the principal architects of the modern Republican Party and its ldquosilent majorityrdquo of disaffected whites and conservative ex-Dixiecrats Nixon was also deemed a liberal in some quarters for his efforts to desegregate Southern schools create the Environmental Protection Agency and end the draft A deeply insightful character study as well as a brilliant political biography Being Nixon offers a surprising look at a man capable of great bravery and extraordinary deviousnessmdasha balanced portrait of a president too often reduced to caricature Praise for Being Nixon ldquoHere in one sharp and briskly written volume is what you really want to know about the great and horrible thirty-seventh President How could someone so wise about the world be so utterly clueless about himselfrdquomdashTimeldquoA fully rounded portrait carefully pairing each indictment of Nixon with a mitigating perspective Thomas has a fine eye for the telling quote and the funny vignette and his style is eminently readablerdquomdashThe New York Times Book Review ldquoTerrifically engaging a fair insightful and highly entertaining portrait of the thirty-seventh president Being Nixon should be read by anyone with a more open mind about the oddest man ever to occupy the Oval OfficerdquomdashMax Boot The Wall Street JournalFrom the Hardcover edition.
