BEING NIXON - a Man Divided

New York: Random House. Near Fine in Very Good+ dust jacket. 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Autograph; xvi, 619 pages; New York: Near Fine in Very Good+ dust jacket. 2015. First Edition; First Printing. Autograph; xv, (1) , 619 pages; SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the title page. Contents clean and secure in original binding in very nice dustjacket with one tiny closed tear at top fold (now in protective mylar cover) . In this revelatory biography, Evan Thomas delivers a radical, unique portrait of America's thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon, a contradictory figure who was both determinedly optimistic and tragically flawed. One of the principal architects of the modern Republican Party and its "silent majority" 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. 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, Nixon was constantly leading crusades and fighting off enemies real and imagined. He possessed the plainspoken eloquence to reduce American television audiences to tears with his career-saving "Checkers" speech; meanwhile, Nixon's darker half hatched schemes designed to take down his political foes, earning him the notorious nickname "Tricky Dick. " Drawing on a wide range of historical accounts, Thomas's biography reveals the contradictions of a leader whose vision and foresight led him to achieve détente with the Soviet Union and reestablish relations with communist China, but whose underhanded political tactics tainted his reputation long before the Watergate scandal. 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 deviousness-a balanced portrait of a president too often reduced to caricature. ; Signed by Author .; Americana and American History, Signed and Association Copies, Most Recent Listing .