This is a long, meandering, but ultimately gratifying exegesis of a major paradigm shift in the American political landscape. It hop-scotches its way through the 1960s (mainly) to reveal how Richard Nixon and others lassoed pockets of aggrieved conservatives into a durable political coalition. It is both biased and honest: an emerging hallmark of the latest style of journalistic political writing. It's also written with complex and confusing quirks of syntax that, while creative, tend to slow the pace of the narrative.

Fundamentally, its an old story told in a fresh way. As someone who was born during the Nixon administration, I've always found the justifications for why people voted for Nixon (or even Reagan) to be wanting. I understood conservatism, but I was still deeply naïve about the trends in American culture that metastasized into such overwhelming support for Nixon in 1972. Nixonland certainly helped disabuse me of some of that naïveté.

Nixonland feels modern and relevant today largely because it positions the broader American body politic as its true protagonist. Over the last few decades I've been utterly perplexed by the willingness of conservatives and liberals alike to use the ideological political battles of the 60s (and early 90s) as synecdoches for seemingly unrelated events (i.e., Iraq as Vietnam, Bush as Nixon, Progressives as Hippies, etc.). Rick Perlstein has written a noble and enlightening explanation for this unhappy phenomenon. ( )

This is a fascinating and utterly absorbing book, which made me relive those tumultuous years when Nixon was a prominent feature of the political landscape. The author shows how his self-centered manias caused the deep divisions among the American people to be heightened. So much that was so familiar to me while I lived through those times seemed utterly new--somehow I did not realize, any more, how the 1960's and 1970's were. Maybe it was because I was younger and I could tolerate some of the things which went on and now seem so bizarre as to be almost intolerable. Any student of those times will be caught up by this vivid account. ( )

This is probably going to be too much political biography and detail for me to make it to th end. Perlstein's writing is casual in the best way.

The Decade of Disillusionment

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from "Nixonland", I did not read Perlstein's highly acclaimed book on Goldwater but I certainly had high expectations going in and certainly was not disappointed. "Nixonland" is much more than a biography, it is a complete social and cultural history of one of the defining decades in American and indeed world history.

On "Tricky Dicky" Nixon himself, Perlstein keeps his interpretations pretty close to the standard biographical history. In fact, most of his research comes from standard secondary sources and newspapers. What we read of Nixon is a man or anger, resentment, and constant paranoia of the inevitable. All stuff that has pretty much been validated before.

Perlstein is rather light on many of Nixon's major political achievements such as the Shanghai Communique and of course Watergate, but that much is intentional, as plenty of other books have covered those subjects. Instead, where Perlstein focuses on and really excels at is in his treatment of the social and cultural undercurrents of the 50s, 60s, and early 70s. The liberal consensus, the New Left, the silent majority, the civil rights movement, the vietnam war, student movement, the violence of 1968, counter-culture, credibility gap. Perlstein pieces all these seemingly contradictory themes together through intricate portraits of the people that shaped them and attempts to make sense out of the madness of what has been referred to as America's "second civil war".

Fundamentally, the term "Nixonland" is one that Perlstein uses to describe "what happens when these two groups try to occupy a country together. By the end of the 1960s, Nixonland came to encompass the entire political culture of the United States. It would define it, in fact, for the next fifty years" (p.47).

At a mammoth 750 pages, "Nixonland" is a tough slough. I do believe it is a rather casual read as Perlstein avoids big words and chooses to write in a readable colloquial style. If you enjoy reading about 1960s culture and politics, you'll thoroughly enjoy Perlstein's latest book. ( )

Insightful analysis of the origins of the culture wars, but a bit redundant. The author does a masterful job explaining Nixon's ability to capitalize on the divisions in American society to rise to power. ( )