Books News
Nixonland
By M&C News
May 11, 2008, 10:47 GMT

The title says it all: Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.

The NYT is noting Rick Perlstein’s latest book, “Nixon is a bit like God — not, Lord knows, because of Nixon’s perfect goodness and infinite mercy, but because Nixon is the explanation for everything. Or at least for the rise of the right and the decline of almost everything else. This is a subject Perlstein, a talented man of the left, has addressed before.”

The reviewer also adds, “Well, this retrospective wallow does increase the public stock of harmless pleasure.”

The NYT not only has a lengthy review, but also a first chapter excerpt.

Set for a publication date of May 13, the book has received raving blurbs, such as: “Rick Perlstein's Nixonland digs deep into a decisive period of our history and brings back a past that is all the scarier for its intense humanity. With a firm grasp on the larger meaning of countless events and personalities, many of them long
forgotten, Perlstein superbly shows how paranoia and innuendo flowed into the mainstream of American politics after 1968, creating divisive passions that have survived for decades." -- Sean Wilentz Princeton University, author of The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008

Published by Scribner, the book finishes close to 900 pages. Visit the NYT article to find out more.