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Loading... RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixonby Richard Nixon
   No current Talk conversations about this book.  TraSea | Apr 29, 2024 |   laplantelibrary | Feb 12, 2023 | Still, I was one of the few in my senior year of high school class to support his pardon. I did not feel then that "piling on" was in the American tradition. (  ) JBGUSA | Jan 2, 2023 |
 Richard Nixon’s Memoirs have been issued in a format that would do credit to any undertaker. It is a shiny coffin of a book, and it should be sold with some small Meccano-ish form of hearse, fitted with an attachment which plays a recording of the Dead March in “Saul.” This is entirely misleading, for the great value of the work, extracts from which appeared in The Sunday Telegraph, is its demonstration of resilience. It gives the readers hope that should they fall from the top of the Eiffel Tower a short stay in hospital will set matters right... It was also all to the bad that Mr. Nixon had allowed his aides to choose a White House staff which were bizarre beyond belief. They resembled Bret Harte goldminers, O. Henry’s Broadway types, and, indeed, characters out of science fiction. Sitting among these grotesques, which makes anything Downing Street has suffered from of late years seem normality itself, Mr. Nixon offended all standards, not only in Washington, but anywhere else in the world where one could possibly be. Nixon knew American society and politics from the ground up. Kennedy had the shallowness of the man who starts at the top. Nixon has his gaucheries, but they have always been part of the whole man. The Kennedy clan thought that Nixon lacked class. It was never strictly true, but even if it had been, there are worse things to lack. In the long view corn looks better than chic. Kennedy pretended to admire Casals. Nixon honestly thought that Richard Rodgers's score for Victory at Sea was great music. Nixon was the one who could actually play the piano... Nixon's book is one long act of self-justification. To a remarkable degree the attempt succeeds. At the end his enemies are plausibly made to sound hysterical victims of what he calls 'liberal chic'... The book is well enough done to establish Nixon as a tragic figure and turn the tide of sympathy. It might even put him on the come-back trail. But we ought to keep our heads. The real tragic figures are all in Chile, Vietnam and Cambodia. It is ridiculous to class Nixon with the great villains of modern history, but not so ridiculous to be more angry with him than with them. He should have known better. Distinctions
The autobiography of the thirtyseventh President of the United States. No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)973.924History and Geography North America United States 1901- Eisenhower Through Clinton Administrations Richard NixonLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.51)
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BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
-PRINT: COPYRIGHT: January 1, 1978: ISBN 978-0333230213; PUBLISHER: Grosset & Dunlap; First Edition; LENGTH: 1120 pages [Hardbound Info from Amazon]
-*DIGITAL: COPYRIGHT: (1978) January 8, 2013; PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster; LENGTH: 1713 pages [Kindle Info from Libby version, LAPL & Amazon]
FILM: No.
SERIES: No
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTION: President Nixon had a few book signings after publishing this book and I was fortunate enough to be invited to one, via the fact that my Dad and President Nixon shared the same Barber. President Nixon spoke to everyone present. He shook my hand and asked about my studies. At the time, I’d known of his fall from grace, of course, but, aside from knowing he had a home in San Clemente where I too lived during his presidency, I knew very little about him. I was fresh out of high school and had had very little exposure to politics. Not even yet understanding the value of a signed copy of anyone’s autobiography, let alone a former president, I gave this copy away as a gift to someone special who was more politically savvy…and have since regretted it, not even so much because of the potential value, but because it was a memento of the moment, and after FINALLY reading it, I regret it all the more, because it turns out I feel so terribly sad for him. I wish I’d known then how much he’d gone through; how much he’d done for the country; how dear his family was to him; and more. I like to think that I’d have been so much more compassionate, engaged, and thrilled to be in his presence.
A person writing about themselves might, of course, paint themselves in the best light possible, but I have learned that one must at least know what it is to be a good person to do that. President Nixon knew, and I believe he was in fact, a good person. I even find myself wondering if he may have been harder on himself than circumstances warranted. Vague statements about having made mistakes leaves too much to the imagination of those who’d like to think the worst.
-ABOUT: Well, obviously, it’s about the life of President Nixon; (