If there’s going to be a Balloon Juice Book Club, commentor Catclub suggests, then Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland might be a good place to start.
I’ll admit that I’ve been avoiding this worthy tome (I did read various excerpts when it first appeared) because it’s 900 pages of stuff I didn’t enjoy living through, and which will no doubt piss me off all over again to read about. It’s available electronically, there’s plenty of cheap used copies out there, and the waiting list at public libraries should’ve worn down by attrition. If enough BJ readers are interested, I’d be willing to read / blog about it, maybe at the rate of a chapter or two every week. What say you?
Hunter Gathers
Good idea. I’ve read it, and it convinced me of 2 things:
1 – Nixon has a special place in Hell
2 – This country is utterly fucked until Whitey becomes the minority.
YellowJournalism
BJ book club? I don’t have a lot of time personally anymore, but I would gladly give it a shot. I’m also interesting in learning more about Nixon, because he seems to be far more complicated a political figure (and human being) than most will admit. Too often he’s just presented as the Snidely Whiplash of presidential politics.
ETA: Okay, after reading the first comment, maybe this book would convince me that he IS Snidely Whiplash. Or a demon straight from hell.
BGinCHI
Compared to Rand, this is like asking me whether I want pizza or dogshit for dinner.
I’d still prefer Dos Passos’ 42nd Parallel, but this is still the obvious choice over Doug’s AR torture.
Mnemosyne
I got about halfway through before my carpal tunnels refused to support the book anymore — and that was the paperback. I did manage to grab the Kindle version for $9.99, so hopefully that will not cause my wrists cramp up.
Neil Hudelson
I just finished this book yesterday. I have to say it was completely worth it. The most interesting thing about the book is that Nixon is in it maybe 50% of the time. Its really a snapshot of what Pearlstein terms “Nixonland” (and its the title! coincidence!) That is, the entire time period that created NIxon–and that Nixon created.
As someone who wasn’t alive during that time period, I feel I understand the late 60s and early 70s in completely new ways.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
Vastly better than Rand. Count me in.
Micah Schamis
A truly great book. It actually made me somewhat hopeful. That was a country tearing itself apart. What we have now is a pretty tame echo.
Milmont Glapper (formerly Brisbane Belff (formerly G. Nelson Buttnergle (formerly Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))))))
Since this is an open thread, I want to say how let down I am that Mark Levin hasn’t dragged my ass into federal court yet, and I wrote that he shot up Tucson while wearing a Jared Loughner mask. I really thought that would do it. What do I have to accuse him of to get this thing underway?
I also happened to wonder, if there are any lawyers hanging about here, can somebody, even somebody as stupendous and brilliant as Mark Levin just bring a civil suit in a federal court? Aren’t civil suits the kind of thing that plaintiffs have to bring in local or state court? It seemed kind of weird to me, but then Levin is a lawyer, or at least he says he is. After listening to him, I’d have guessed he got his law degree from a cereal box. Ooh, maybe that will be enough to get him to drag my ass into federal court… Anyway, if any lawyers want to straigten me out on this, I’d be much obliged.
kdaug
Not going to do anything for my blood pressure, cortisone levels, or anger-management issues.
How about Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies”?
That way we’d at least have something cheerful to talk about.
PopeRatzy
I agree, vastly better than Rand, but in the words of Tom Chapin “it still sucks”
morzer
@Milmont Glapper (formerly Brisbane Belff (formerly G. Nelson Buttnergle (formerly Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey))))))):
Just say that he was married to David Brooks ten years ago in Mississippi by Haley Barbour, as the choir sang “Kumbaya” and a dozen virgins were sacrificed to the Black Goat of the Woods.
That normally gets Markie Mark’s dander up. It is admittedly about the only part of him now capable of rising without Dick Cheney sized doses of the magical blue pill ground small and administered a tergo by firehose.. but still….
Did I mention the word “allegedly”?
Xenos
@Milmont Glapper (formerly Brisbane Belff (formerly G. Nelson Buttnergle (formerly Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey))))))): If damages claimed are high enough, and the parties are in different states, Levin can go through federal court to pursue a state-law based claim for defamation. The other way to get a federal court involved, ‘subject matter jurisdiction’, would not apply in this case.
Linnaeus
I’d be up for it, although it might be a little while before I could get it from my public library.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
I suggest that we read the Patriot Act, and, if we find anything too objectionable in it, send a petition to President Obama asking him to veto the upcoming extension of it. Who’s with me?!
.
.
morzer
@Uncle Clarence Thomas:
I assume you need the audio-book version, Clarrie?
RossInDetroit
@kdaug:
Are we all insomniacs? I LOVE books like that and really looked forward to getting into it. Very disappointing. Reading two pages was equivalent to a shot-filled sap to the back of the head. Jared Diamond gave me some of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had.
Ija
@RossInDetroit:
I’ve heard good things about that book. Is the writing bad? Or too academic?
RossInDetroit
@Ija:
Dull and boring. Lifeless and plodding. Dry and uninteresting. Fascinating concepts bled of any possible interest or mental involvement.
I’m reading Jacquetta Hawkes’ Atlas of Early Man and that’s pretty interesting.
Yutsano
@morzer: I sense boredom. Why else bother with second-rate trolls?
merrinc
My copy of Nixonland, ordered a over a year ago, is still unopened. I also too figured it would piss me off no end. But I’d suffer through it with good company.
Mnemosyne
@morzer:
@Yutsano:
All I know is that Clarence suddenly seems inordinately fond of pie.
KG
@YellowJournalism: growing up in Yorba Linda, you kind of learn about him by osmosis. I’ve read some stuff on him, and visited the library and all that… I think you’re right, he is much more complicated than people realize, and the 1960 election had a major impact on him. From what I’ve read, he considered JFK a friend before the election and thought that all of the Kennedy’s screwed him.
That’s one of those elections, like 2000, I think, that if it had gone the other way, history would be drastically different.
Samnell
@Ija: I greatly enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel when I was nineteen. But I’m an enormous history dork.
morzer
@Yutsano:
Well, David Brooks normally breaks down in tears at this point, so I need a little frightened Clarrie mouse to practice my paw-swipe on.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: Mmm…pie. I should make a sweet potato-bourbon pie here soon.
@morzer: Oh I’m not denying you your fun. I’m just mildly interested is all. You were having more fun with blogreeder earlier.
GregB
If you wanted to start easy, you could try Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia. it’s pretty quick and illuminating.
Nixonland is fantastic but it is in the epic tome category.
kdaug
OK, how about “Arthur the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying”?
The expurgated version, natch.
RossInDetroit
@Samnell:
I probably read more history than most people, but not in any purposeful way. I just what interests me.
I can hang in there through 480 pages on particle physics, branes and hidden dimensions but Guns, Germs and Steel was a snoozer. I’m still fascinated with the subject matter so I’ll probably give it another try at some point. Reading Jacquetta Hawkes’ descriptions of widely varying rates of technological development of different societies has made me want to find out why.
patrick
I’m game… I’ve heard that the writing isn’t all that good, but I’ve been interested in reading this for some time.
Sly
@kdaug:
GG&S is impressive work for a non-historian. Personally, I still prefer Alfred Crosby when it comes to more “popular” forays into environmental history. Because, even after forty years, The Columbian Exchange is still probably the most important book produced on the subject.
If good history books is to be the topic, however, I’d recommend Matthew Frye Jacobson’s Whiteness of a Different Color.
Calouste
So… leaving a backpack with a shrapnel bomb in it along a parade route = domestic terrorism. Emptying 30 rounds of ammo into a crowd = loner with a gun. Methinks that somehow if Loughner had strapped some explosives around his waist and blown himself up (rather than off himself with the last bullet as he probably planned), it would also be called domestic terrorism, even if the casualties were exactly the same.
RossInDetroit
Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages
Is more my kind of history. I like to read about progress. Where it happens and why.
hamletta
This sounds more interesting than Rand. Unless you’re talking about the movie. The Fountainhead is a laff riot!
I like big, long, history tomes, too. I snarfed up The Reformation (MacCullouch), but I’m Lutheran, and I’ve been fascinated by Ann Boleyn since I saw Anne Of the Thousand Days when I was 7.
suzanne
I’m down for Nixonland. My husband has a copy, so I’m good to go.
Unless y’all want to read Chuck Close’s biography with me.
Yutsano
@suzanne: I’d have to purchase, but that shan’t be too difficult. As long as y’all don’t make me regret this.
suzanne
The baby has been eating for over two hours. I don’t have any nipples left.
Mark
I am always mystified by Nixon hatred. Maybe it’s my 1977 birthdate, but Reagan always seemed more evil, and GWB’s guaranteed a much more special place in hell.
I think our famous journalists all grew up in the ’60s, and they’ve overstated the relevance and evilness of the figures of their era. It still mystifies me that people hated Johnson. McNamara is not one of history’s greatest war criminals.
Kissinger, on the other hand, should be hated but is largely ignored.
Steeplejack
@suzanne:
Baby grow up strong like bull!
Whammer
Guns Germs and Steel is very interesting, but pretty academic. I bogged down pretty badly about 150 pages or so into it, and didn’t pick it up again for quite a while. But I finally did finish it.
I think the basic “fault” with it is that it is essentially an academic book, not written for general audiences. Yet the title makes it sound pretty “sexy”.
andy
Damn good book- and a fast read too. And Nixon should be hated- not only did he give Kissinger a venue to do his thing, but he also spun out the Vietnam war for his own political needs,and also chose to create his Southern Strategy. Killing Americans abroad and setting fire to his own country at home- what’s not to hate?
Jager
@GregB:
Epic is right, Nixonland pisses you off so much it glows in the dark. And I lived through that bullshit. As my grandpa (the last honest republican) told me “Dick Nixon is a lying son of a bitch”! The book is worthwhile and really has some insights on the riots of the 60’s that are astounding
Nylund
As someone born in the late-70’s, this book was a real eye opener. It has so much information about an era I was not alive for and it got me a bit mad at the world for letting me live this long without making it clear what exactly shaped our modern political world. As someone else said, its not so much about Nixon, but about the world during Nixon’s time (from his VP days in the late 50’s through his presidency). He comes off pretty scummy, but I think its Reagan that comes out the bigger monster in the book. I already didn’t like Reagan from my memories of the 80’s, but reading about his life in the 60’s and 70’s was new to me and much more horrific, especially his mainstreaming of racism as a political tool.
Perlstein is also pretty good about sharing the less admirable aspects of the left from that period so it doesn’t read like a left-wing hit-piece at all. It reads like an incredibly well-documented piece of objective historical research. It absolutely blows my mind how much research must’ve gone into this book.
He includes so many primary sources; letters, newspapers, etc. that its more like he’s simply letting the past speak again rather than lecturing you about what happened from his partisan point of view.
It really should be required reading in every US high school.
But, its long as hell, can get a bit repetitive, and honestly, at times, isn’t very well written. There are a lot of long and awkward sentences. It would have benefited greatly from a better editor.
JenJen
Without reading any of the comments, and just reading the OP, had to say that “Nixonland” is the best political book I’ve yet read. It’s like a textbook, in the way it is comprehensive, but still manages to capsulize an era. I’m a little too young to have experienced those years, but I think they changed the American political landscape forever, and Perstein’s book shows exactly how, and why.
Think I first heard about the book from Digby’s site, I recall going to the bookstore and being intimidated by its length at first. Once I opened it, didn’t put it down for days. I felt like I’d taken a course after I finished it, and it made me feel smarter.
I’m down with any group reading club involving “Nixonland”, is what I really wanted to say.
Yutsano
@JenJen: Since I was hatched in the latter part of the Nixon presidency I agree. I’d be more than interested in reading the book and seeing what the hell the big deal is since Nixon was more complicated than we probably realize. But the first president I can recall was Carter.
kdaug
C’mon people – no takers on “Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying”? (Misquoted originally as Arthur – apologies Ethel.)
How about “Olsen’s Standard Book of British Birds”? The one without the gannet, of course.
Suzan
I’m in. I tried it before and liked it but never finished (there are many shiny objects when the alternative is 900 pages of Nixon). After that let’s do Reclaiming History by Bugliosi about Oswald. Great read.
My only problem with nonfiction and book clubs is sometimes there isn’t that much to talk about. But I’m up for anything that gets me through it.
catdevotee
I hated Nixon from the first time I saw him on TV when I was about 13. I never could understand why anyone would vote for him for dog-catcher, although both of my parents voted to elect him President. After his re-election, my husband and I left the country for a year with the objective of emigration to a more enlightened place. The impending death of my FIL brought us home in 1974.
I haven’t read Nixonland because I have felt reluctant to revisit those horrible years of his political power. But I would be willing to read along with this group, because we can perhaps keep each other sane while reading.
Joseph Nobles
Nixonland sounds great, and if we can line up other books (that I might have already purchased), how about Sorkin’s Too Big to Fail or maybe DG could work us through Battle Cry of Freedom?
I’ve already got the Bugliosi book as well.
John - A Motley Moose
I voted against Nixon twice. All you really need to know about him can be found in these quotes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mark:
You never experienced “I am not a crook” live on your TV.
I was in high school during Watergate…it was quite the experience, believe me.
catdevotee
@Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, I remember “I am not a crook” … everyone in the room with me burst out laughing. Made cynics out of a lot of us.
Ailuridae
@BGinCHI:
I second the Dos Passos recommendation but will likely participate in a Nixonland reading as well
Wile E. Quixote
After reading Nixonland I have a new respect for the man. Yeah, he was a dishonest, red-bating son of a bitch, but he worked his ass off and was willing to eat shit in order to get what he wanted, and he ate plenty of shit after losing to Pat Brown in 1962. I also have a new contempt for Bobby Kennedy. What an asshole he was. Kennedy was for the Vietnam war right up until Eugene McCarthy showed that being against it could be a winning issue and then Bam!, he was against it.
It’s also interesting to read how disorganized and fucked up the Democrats were in 1972. Nixon didn’t need to go through with Watergate, the Democrats were doing such a great job ratfucking themselves that most of what Nixon did was unnecessary. I think that if Nixon had refrained from Watergate, which is a huge counterfactual given his paranoia he’d be regarded by Republicans as another Ronald Reagan. Sure, they’d hate every single one of his policies, wage and price controls, massive deficits, creating the EPA, taking the US off of the gold standard, but they’d ignore them, just like they ignore Reagan’s tax increases as governor of California and President, deficit spending, liberalization of abortion as governor of California, amnesty for illegal aliens and his willingness to talk to the Soviets.
Villago Delenda Est
@Wile E. Quixote:
That was the thing about Watergate. Even at the time, it was like “wtf were these guys thinking? They had the election in the bag!”. The Dems were busy perfecting the circular firing squad…huge chunks of the Dems were actively at war with each other, residual hatreds from ’68.
Nixon’s paranoia did him in…he had very little confidence in himself, and it showed with all his actions that were revealed in 73 and 74.
Then, in the summer of 74, the “Smoking Gun” tape came out as the House Judiciary Committee was voting on articles of impeachment, and it just blew all the doors off. The truth was even worse than Nixon’s worst critics imagined…he was actively involved in the coverup of the burglary from the getgo.
losingtehplot
@RossInDetroit: if you’re liking Jacquetta Hawkes, try Steven Mithen’s ‘After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5,000 BC’. I read the Hawkes when it first came out in the ’70s; Mithen was published in 2003, and it is amazing what has been discovered in the past 35 years about our ancestors.
stuckinred
I read it last year and it is a slog. When my family moved to Whittier in 1957 there was a Nixon’s Big Boy on Whittier Blvd.There were a number of things that I experienced in the book from Watts to the Minutemen sending threats in the mail into anti-war folks in Champaign-Urbana and on to Operation Dewey Canyon III. Nixon landed by chopper where I was in Vietnam and when we were marching past the White House during the VVAW action he flew over us prompting many a Rockefeller salute from the troops!
stuckinred
Also, I am reading the “Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson. This is a wrenching book about the African-American migration from the South and the reasons for it.
Sputnik
I started to read this for another book club, but never was able to finish it (reading 900 pages in just a month was rather difficult) and since it has been sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust. I would love a reason to pick it up again!
celiadexter
Do it! I read it about two years ago and have been recommending it to anyone with a brain and a little time. I’m old enough, and was politically involved enough since the ’60s, to have remembered a great deal of this, and Perlstein does a great job of pulling together what mattered. What younger readers may find most interesting is that 40-50 years ago the Republicans were not simply the party of the know-nothing, racist right — it wasn’t that long ago that the idea of a liberal Republican wasn’t an oxymoron.
Alex S.
@Wile E. Quixote:
Nixon gets my respect for hating everyone alike. He was only in it for himself. I am not sure if that’s better than the one-sided pro-big business stance of today, but at least it was fair.
When I read Nixonland, I looked for the connections between then and today, especially the people who have played a role for decades. The first person to be mentioned in the book who is still active today is David Broder.
Chris
@Mark:
Goldwater brought the ideology. Nixon brought the electoral strategy. Only Reagan combined the two. So in that sense, it’s possible Reagan was indeed worse. At least Nixon was Keynesian.
Chris
@Jager:
Bringing up your granpa’s opinion reminded me of mine. The man was, like many of his fellow Army officers, was scrupulously non-political (oh, how times have changed), but he and his troops in Vietnam did once have a visit from Nixon. I don’t know exactly what his reaction was, but according to my dad, he was not impressed by the man’s performance and actually offended by his entire way of relating to other human beings.
Tattoosydney
@kdaug:
Dreadful things. They wet their nests.
Chris
@celiadexter:
I know at least two liberal Republicans who didn’t jump ship until the 2008 election, having been turned off in their case by the anti-intellectualism. Heck, my dad’s voted for Republican presidential candidates before, but I doubt he ever will again.
The problem is they’ve done such a good job of whipping up their own trash, plus stockpiling what used to be ours until we took it out (the Dixiecrats), that there’s no room left for anyone else at this point.
WereBear (itouch)
I’m In. Glad to read it again.
Nixon had a rough childhood, poor and wretched. Some people would say “I don’t want anyone to go through that” and become a liberal. Some people say ” it’s okay with me if others suffer so I won’t” and that’s a modern Republican. Some people say “There will be suffering and I’m the one dishing it out!” and that’s Nixon.
stuckinred
@Chris: Those kinds of visits, grip and grin, were pure bullshit. A few troops would be trotted out for the photo-op while everyone else was beating the bush making sure there were no charlies close enough to lob a mortar or a 122 at his sorry ass.
4jkb4ia
Federer in 5th set. “Gilles Simon” was trending topic on Twitter in middle of fourth.
4jkb4ia
“Nixonland” was a good idea, but I don’t need to read it twice. When I got up today I was wondering how far the Horde was from “Reconstruction” that I specifically voted for.
(My husband wanted nothing to do with that book because he lived through it, too. He remembers staying up late to watch George McGovern’s convention speech)
stuckinred
@4jkb4ia: Ditto
TR
My favorite characterization of Nixon actually comes from Roger Ailes, who said:
And remember, this was from a guy who was working for the Nixon campaign.
Anyway, “Nixonland” is overrated. His Goldwater book is much better, but in general the guy needs an editor. Maybe he gets paid by the word, I don’t know.
TR
Oh, if people want a really good book on the Nixon era, I highly recommend a new one from Jefferson Cowie, a historian at Cornell, called Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class.
A great mix of political, social, and cultural history. (You’ll never see “Norma Rae” or “Saturday Night Fever” in the same way, much less Nixon, the AFL-CIO, and busing.)
4jkb4ia
Match point Federer. I endorse 71 without having read it. I was thinking of “Winner-Take-All Politics” but that might be too wonky.
Maude
@stuckinred:
I heard him in person talk about his secret plan to end the war during his 1968 campaign. He was warped from the beginning of his life. I would’t read Nixonland for a million dollars. It was bad enough when he was president.
stuckinred
@Maude: I was at Ft Lewis training to ship out that summer.
stuckinred
@TR: From and Amazon review of this book
“Merle Haggard’s comment after playing at the Nixon White House, “I didn’t expect the crowd to be as receptive as a Texas honky-tonk’s, but I didn’t expect them to be embalmed either.”
4jkb4ia
And Federer closes it out. Crowd engages in standing ovation.
jayackroyd
It’s a really excellent piece of history. And if you lived through it, you still may find some elements not part of your memory. I,for example, did not remember the battle for Newark.
(My conversation with Rick about the book.)
Cataphract
@TR:
Thanks for suggestion. Going on my wishlist now.
stuckinred
@jayackroyd: I wish I could find out how he knew about the minutemen in Champaign!
TR
@stuckinred:
The Haggard material is terrific. Especially the backstory on how “Okie from Muskogee” was inspired by one of Haggard’s band — high as a kite at the time — yelling out, “I bet they don’t smoke no marijuana in Muskogee!” as they drove past its exit sign on the highway. So as they drove along, they wrote an inside-joke song mocking the heartland, and once they recorded it, it turned into a mega-hit embraced by the heartland.
Seriously, I’ve read both books. Do yourself a favor and go with Cowie.
TR
Oh, and one more great detail — after “Norma Rae” came out, Sally Field started doing blue jean ads in character.
For a non-union clothing company.
Chris
@stuckinred:
I believe it. Sounds like Granpa was perfectly aware of it and didn’t like it one bit.
They did similar things in the Iraq war, except that the soldiers who were allowed to be there for the Bush/Cheney/Rummy visit were specifically coached on how to react and what questions to ask; heavily, heavily scripted for the cameras. I wonder if that was true then as well.
(I also wonder what would happen to a soldier who had the balls to ask a question of his own).
stuckinred
@Chris: I wouldn’t want to limit it to republicans, it’s bullshit whoever these fuckers are that “drop in” to take the temperature “on the ground”. God I hate that term.
Southern Beale
Sign me up! I actually already own that book and it’s already on my reading list. Just need a kick in the ass to put it to the top of the list.
Paul in KY
Great book. Although it is pretty depressing (to a liberal).
someofparts
I’m slogging my way through Nixonland already. I lived through those times and the book is not making me angry, because I’m too busy getting angry about current events.
To BGinCHI – This is hilarious – “Compared to Rand, this is like asking me whether I want pizza or dogshit for dinner.” Too true. But thankyou thankyou for the Dos Passos reference. I’ve never read that book or the other two in the trilogy.
If this group does Nixonland I’ll follow and maybe join the chat. But either way I will be getting those Dos Passos books and jumping right into them.
Actually, from the blurb I read at Amazon, 42nd Parallel would be a good choice for a book group. Also sounds more readable than Nixonland, but then so is War and Peace. (Jeez, I almost wrote War and Piece.)
Stephen1947
I haven’t read all comments, but I would be much more willing to participate in this group project.
redoubt
@RossInDetroit: Get anything by James Burke, especially Connections.
Book is a faster read than most think.
@Mark: Kissinger is OK because he’s the Beltway dream–anti-Communist academic turned author turned political “kingmaker” who got to be powerful without ever once running for office.
someofparts
Actually for me Nixonland has been a revelation, not an occasion for anger.
I was a kid in my 20s in Nixon’s day, a teenager when Jack Kennedy was killed. My childhood took place in the Jim Crow South.
I was ecstatic when blacks began to fight Jim Crow. Thrilled and surprised by widespread resistance to Vietnam.
I just assumed everyone around me was as pleased by those changes as I was.
Since then I’ve been thrown off-balance, and remained that way, by the obvious right-wing preferences of my fellow Americans. I’ve never understood why anyone would want to return to that awful apartied world of my childhood.
Nixonland is showing me how that happened. So, I guess for me you could say the book is finally answering questions I’ve had for decades.
Jim Pharo
The thing about Nixonland (and RP’s Goldwater book) is that is provides a persuasive answer to the question of how so many otherwise decent folks could embrace an ideology of hatred and division.
When I look at Tea Partiers, I wonder why these otherwise decent folks are so confused and so angry. NIxonland provides the answer.
Phoebe
I’m in. I already wanted to read that book but don’t have it because I still haven’t finished Garbageland [Methland is also on my list].
I’ve never been in a book club before, can somebody post instructions? Is there a schedule or do we all just start reading it and talking about it more or less at once?
Thank you.
nitpicker
I’m in.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Fifteen bucks on Kindle– I’d like to read it, but I need a good excuse to insert it into my reading queue.
Jim Pharo
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: The good excuse is that it is a brilliant work of scholarship that illuminates the origins and dynamics of the basic rifts in our society today.
And for those who think it isn’t well written, I have to disagree. I’m a fan of the writing as well as the research and analysis.
Jim Pharo
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: The good excuse is that it is a brilliant work of scholarship that illuminates the origins and dynamics of the basic rifts in our society today.
And for those who think it isn’t well written, I have to disagree. I’m a fan of the writing as well as the research and analysis.
catclub
I guess since I suggested it, I better join.
I also have not read it yet.
Gus
I agree with whoever said that Perlstein could have used a better editor, but it’s still a really good book. If you’re interested in reading more afterward, Gary Wills Nixon Agonistes is worth reading, though it covers much of the same territory. I would also recommend working your way through Dos Passos’ trilogy. It really throws you into th first part of the last century effectively
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@losingtehplot:
Agreed.
On the suggestion of Nixonland I also agree strongly.
I’ve read it once and would love to go through it again in a more systematic fashion. My first impression is that Nixon emerges as a far more complex and at times sympathetic character than the cartoon villian I remember growing up with. But the book really is about the times and it is shocking to read about an America that in many ways was so different from the way we are today that it is hard to recognize the same country.
It would be difficult to pick a work of political history more central to the axes we so love to grind on this blog re: the GOP, the Right, etc., yet written such that the author tried to be fair in his approach to the principles and produce a work of historical scholarship rather than merely a polemic.
Hawes
I’ve read it (thank you summer vacations), and it would be interesting to discuss it. I’m in.
Oh, wait, I hate book clubs on principle.
Kirbster
Nixonland was a long slog, but totally worth it. I grew up in that era, but as a white, upper-middle class kid in a pleasant, leafy, practically all-white Northeastern suburb, that time period for me was more like “The Wonder Years” than a fight for America’s soul. Perlstein’s book was a real eye-opener.
Alice
I’m game! I’ve been meaning to read that one for a while and this will be just the kick I need to get started.
Turgidson
I may follow along if there’s a group read of Nixonland. Thought it was excellent.
Don
I just finished a book I’d put down years ago. I’m embarrassed it took me this long. Pete Earley’s CRAZY, which examines the way we’ve shoved the mentally ill out of institutional hospitals and dumped them on the criminal justice system.
It intersperses Earley’s experience dealing with the mental illness in his family with his investigation into the Miami-Dade system (where there’s a larger % of the mentally ill in the system than anywhere else). I initially put it down before he got out of the personal aspects. Once I made it to the beginning of his investigative journalism I couldn’t put it down – finished it in 2 days.
It feels like the book becomes relevant again every year. Virginia Tech, Arizona… I can’t recommend it enough.
sfbevster
Nixonland is a helluva ride. You’re right, it will piss you off/bring back some awful memories, as well as some glorious ones. It reinforced my sense of how dangerous those days actually were for anyone with DFH tendencies, however mild. I’ve often doubted my own recall when talking with younguns about how easy it was to git yerself kilt for voicing the wrong opinion and/or fashion sense in the late 60s, but Nixonland documents that I’m not wrong (at least about that) at all.
StacyMN
I would be down for a Nixonland book club. I’m about 2/3s of the way through it now. It is a pretty dense book, I’ve often taken some breaks from it because there was something else out I wanted to read and it got to the point that my impatience to read them was distracting.
I echo what a commenter said above, I think for people my age (born well after the 60s/70s) it’s a pretty useful book to help us understand that time period, and how it led up to politics as we know them today. I mean, you know the basics if you have a basic interest. But Perlstein goes into an almost obsessive detail about them, and that’s probably as close as someone like me is going to get to actually being there, watching it unfold in real time. I’d be curious as to how his descriptions match up to others’ actual memories.
kdaug
@Tattoosydney: Yes! Precisely!
Jess
I’m in! I’ve been meaning to read it, and this is the perfect kick in the butt.
BTW, I just finished reading “Game Change” by Heilemann and Halperin, and it was a great read. Couldn’t put it down, and it also cheered me up again (needed it in the wake of the midterms…).
Jules
I’m in whenever we decide for sure which book we will be reading (poll maybe?) AND whichever book is picked I have a couple of credits with Audible if there is a way to either pass them on to someone who needs them or pass on the downloaded audio.
Rick Perlstein
Balloon Juicers, I’d be glad to participate in the book group on my NIXONLAND in some way.
RP
Gus
Okay, if Rick Perlstein’s in, I’m gonna have to check this out.
Ben
I read Nixonland last year and I don’t have my copy on me at the moment, but I’d love to participate in the book club.
Felonious Wench
I’m in, just downloaded a copy to Kindle. I was born in ’72, so I’m really interested in the history I missed and the memories of those of you that lived through it.
Rick, thanks for joining in!
FW
Batocchio
Sure, I’m up for it!