Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein

This is the second volume in Perlstein’s masterful quadrilogy on the rise of the right in twentieth century America. This long volume covers both the rise of Nixon from his earliest days his political collapse in the early 1960s when he consecutively lost both the Presidency (in 1960) and the Governorship of California in 1962. Then it traces how he worked a resurrection that would see him elected President in 1968, and re-elected in a landslide in 1972. It includes the rise of the anti-war movement in the 1960s, civil rights conflicts, and looks at both the politics of the Republican party and of the Democratic party. It ends with the 1972 election, but of course covers the Watergate break-in and the initial investigations of White House criminality. So it covers a lot, and that means it is not a quick read. It is, however, an indispensable guide to this important period in American history.

Reading it in 2025, as I did, is to see just how much of of the problems we face now originated with Nixon. He really initiated the Imperial Presidency that Trump is trying to complete. Nixon really stated once that if the President does it, it isn’t illegal. But Perlstein makes a more significant point, which is the kind of polarization we now see tearing the country apart really started with Nixon, who stoked it as a path to political power. The big difference between now and then is that in the 1970s there were Republican politicians who valued principles of Americanism. Sadly, we now have a bunch of spineless politicians. There are a few that stand on principles, but not nearly enough to restrain the most corrupt Presidency in American history.



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