Product Description

From acclaimed biographer Stephen E. Ambrose comes the life of one of the most elusive and intriguing American political figures, Richard M. Nixon. From his difficult boyhood and earnest youth to bis ruthless political campaigns for Congress and Senate to his defeats in '60 and '62, Nixon emerges life-size in all his complexity. Ambrose charts the peaks and valleys of Nixon's first fifty years -- his critical support as a freshman congressman of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan; his involvement in the House Committee on Un-American Activities; his aggressive pursuit of Alger Hiss; his ambivalent relationship with Eisenhower; and more. It is the consummate biography; it is a stunning political odyssey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #629123 in Books
• Published on: 1988-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 768 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This auspicious opener in a projected two-volume life of Richard Nixon carries the California grocer's son from his school days to the vice-presidency and his subsequent failure to win the governorship of his home state. Ambrose, a professor of history at the University of New Orleans and biographer (Eisenhower, etc.) has written a readable, balanced biography of an unusually complex figure. From early on, he shows, the man who became "the most successful vice-president" of this century was an ambitious go-getter, also a cynical and nearly humorless loner whose inability to trust others (and heed their advice) cost him the 1960 presidential election. With emphasis, Ambrose attributes Nixon's unusual private reserve and public confidence to his Quaker heritage. The author is especially interesting whenhe charts how, as a young lawyer, Nixon created a national political base out of the Hiss case and the Korean War, then became for nearly three decades the most distrusted, even hated, politician in the U.S. because he "seemed utterly insincere." Photos not seen by PW. BOMC and QPBC alternates.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Ambrose, noted for his books on Eisenhower, reconsiders Nixon's career objectively in light of the passage of time and puts him into a useful historical context. Primarily, Ambrose examines Nixon's performance as a politician. No prior work has been based upon the amount of primary documentation cited here, and with the exception of Nixon's own writing ( Six Crises and The Memoirs of Richard Nixon ), there is no more thorough treatment of his pre-presidential years. There is altogether new material on Nixon's vice presidency and his relationship with Eisenhower. Until all relevant documents are available, this and a projected second volume should stand as the definitive political biography. BOMC and Quality Paperback Book Club alternates.. Susan E. Parker, Harvard Law Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle Cool and balanced....Nixon's fair trial in the court of history. -- Review

Customer Reviews

A Balanced Assessment of a Complex Man
In the dedication page of this book, Ambrose lets the reader know that his two brothers ensured that there was always a two-to-one Nixon vote among the Ambrose boys. A clever way of letting the reader know that he favored Kennedy over Nixon. However, Ambrose is scrupulously objective in this biography of the oft-maligned Richard Nixon. In fact Ambrose's objectivity in this biography apporaches sublime detachment, in striking contrast to the author's later work on Meriwether Lewis,Undaunted Courage. Nixon's legendary persistence is revealed in every stage of his life- Whittier College, law school at Duke University,a young congressman, then Senator, and Vice-President. Ambrose neither demonizes nor sanctifies Nixon. He merely recounts each stage of his life thoroughly, methodically. Ambrose does not insult the reader with new age psycho babble when he probes the possible impact on Nixon of the death of his two brother's from youthful, tragic illnesses. As for Nixon's aloof personality, perhaps Nixon's own mother characterized his personality best when she remarked that he always seemed to be a child whom you would call Richard. Some interesting things about Nixon are revealed, or better said, are reminded to us by Ambrose. Ambrose dismisses the popular notion that Nixon was evil politics incarnate when he made Helen Douglas out to be weak on communism during Nixon's successful run for the Senate in 1950. Ambrose concludes that Nixon was simply playing to win and that Helen Douglas was hardly the paragon of virtue hailed by the press. Ambrose reveals the delicious irony that one Senator Jack Kennedy held Helen Douglas in very low regard and gave Nixon $1,000 from old man Joseph Kennedy for his campaign against her. Nixon was a staunch, but unheralded supporter of civil rights. Ambrose points out that Martin Luther King voted Republican in the 1956 presidential campaign and was circumspect of Kennedy's commitment to civil rights legislation. Politically astute and ambitious he certainly was, but Nixon did not play racial politics in order to gain votes in the South during the 1960 presidential campaign. And looking back on the closest presidential election in this century, one can argue persuasively that Nixon's unwillingness to exploit the racial issue in the South easily denied him this heavily protestant region that was very uneasy with the catholic Kennedy. Allowing that election fraud was highly probable in both Texas and Illinois, Ambrose does not dodge the matter of the 1960 election being stolen from Nixon and praises Nixon for his wisdom in not contesting the results. The reader is never tempted to love Richard Nixon, but one develops an earnest respect for this very complex character who refuses to give in. I gave this book four stars because Ambrose seems unable to strike a resonant chord with his subject. That probably is not be fair because it just might be that Nixon the man makes it impossible for even an historian as gifted as Ambrose, or anyone else for that matter, to crack open his soul for inspection.

Nixon Finally Gets A Fair Hearing from History...
Like other controversial American politicians such as Bill Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt, there was little middle ground concerning how the public felt about Richard M. Nixon. To some Americans, Nixon was the most sleazy and two-faced man in American politics, and they despised him. As Adlai Stevenson, the two-time Democratic presidential candidate said in the fifties, Nixon was the kind of man who "would cut down a redwood tree, then climb on the stump and make a speech for tree conservation". But to other Americans, Nixon was a gutsy fighter from a poor family who had, through sheer hard work and intelligence, climbed up the ladder of success, only to be reviled by the wealthy "limousine liberals" whose success had come because of their family connections, not because they deserved to succeed, as Nixon had done. Not surprisingly, perhaps, books written about Nixon also tend to fall into one of these two categories - the "hatchet jobs" written by historians who obviously dislike Nixon and print every negative thing they can find about him; and the mostly admiring books written by his former aides and supporters who defend his actions and attack his enemies as "hypocrites" who did the same things as Nixon, but just never got caught (partly because they were protected by a liberal news media). Stephen Ambrose, one of America's most prominent historians and a former Nixon critic, nonetheless provides what is probably still the most balanced and fair-minded account of Nixon's dramatic life and career with this book. Published in 1987, "Nixon: The Education of a Politician" follows Nixon from his bleak and rather sad childhood to his two bitter defeats for political office - first to John Kennedy in the 1960 presidential race (a campaign which was so close that Nixon believed until the day he died that Kennedy had "stolen" the election from him) and his devastating loss to Democrat Pat Brown in the 1962 California governor's race - a defeat which led many experts to write off Nixon as a political "dead duck" and has-been. Unlike many of Nixon's previous biographers, Ambrose manages to keep his feelings about Nixon to himself and instead he concentrates on telling a well-written, well-researched account of Nixon's life. As Ambrose writes, Nixon had good reason to be somewhat bitter about his life - his father was one of life's "losers" who seemed to fail at almost everything he did, despite years of backbreaking work. The Nixons were a hard-luck family - oil was discovered on land the Nixons had once owned but sold just before drilling began; two of Nixon's beloved brothers died from tuberculosis while young, causing his mother to put enormous pressure on Richard to be successful in life and make up for the family's loss. By the time Nixon entered college he was a very bright and energetic, but also cold and aloof, young man who had a hard time making friends and having fun - he was always so "serious" and grim-looking, his mother remembered. At Duke University Law School he graduated third in his class, but made almost no friends and was called "gloomy gus" by his classmates for his overly serious and stuffy manner. Nixon would repeat this pattern into his political career - working longer and harder than everyone else, maintaining an intense, serious, and rather cold personality, but also lashing out at his political opponents, even when he didn't have to, thus making many powerful enemies in the press and Democratic Party. After this excellent biography, Ambrose went on to write two more volumes to conclude his study of Nixon's career. However, in my opinion neither of the two succeeding volumes can match this one for writing style, interest, and drama. If you want to read an engrossing account of one of this century's major political leaders, then "Nixon: The Education of a Politician" is still your best choice nearly fifteen years after it was published.

Not a Demon After All?
Although I remember the Watergate scandal and Nixon's impeachment, I was too young to appreciate what was happening. In subsequent years I just assumed that Nixon was a dirty underhanded SOB who clawed his way to power by whatever means necessary. Stephen Ambrose, in a Booknotes session on CSpan, indicated that he was reluctant to embark on a biography of Nixon because of his visceral dislike of the man. After doing his homework and uncovering the facts about Nixon, a much different picture emerged than that which most of us associate with him. He was out in front in the 1950s, as Vice President, lobbying for Civil Rights when it was seen as a guaranteed political loser. Stephen Ambrose concluded Nixon was extraordinarily complex, and I can see why. He's capable of such principled integrity, yet cursed with a competetive nature that drives him to the depths of the gutter in pursuit of political victory. On the whole I came away from this book with a lot of admiration for Nixon. I doubt he would have been much fun to drink with, a feeling Eisenhower seemed to share. Eisenhower's ambivalent feelings about Nixon the man seemed to make him reluctant to give his whole-hearted support to Nixon's presidential campaign. Given the slim margin by which he lost to JFK, one can understand that Nixon might be embittered as a result. As usual, Mr. Ambrose has written a hugely informative and entertaining book.