So I’m kind of into Nixon right now. No, I don’t think he was a great president or anything and I definitely don’t agree with his politics, but he was definitely a fascinating man. He’s kind of a barrel of laughs, too, if you find really awkward elected officials-turned-crooks amusing.
Here’s a list of books I’ve read or am planning to read in my quest to learn all there is to know about Richard Milhouse Nixon (okay mostly Watergate):
- Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein: READ. The gateway book that has led to the above mentioned learning-about-Nixon-okay-mostly-Watergate quest.
- All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward: READ. Only it stops before Nixon resigns!
- Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture by Mark Feldstein: So this one is a little out of chronological order but I own it already…so it’s up next.
- The Final Days by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward: This is the book where they discuss Nixon resigning. Or so I assume, from the title.
- Reinventing Richard Nixon: A Cultural History of an American Obsession by Daniel Frick: See! The title proves I am not the only one who is kind of into Nixon.
- 31 Days: Gerald Ford, the Nixon Pardon and A Government in Crisis by Barry Werth: Obviously a book that discusses what happens AFTER the resignation is also important.
I think this is a pretty comprehensive list, don’t you? Is there anything you would add? And don’t you kind of want to draw a little curly mustache on all of the pictures of Nixon? Or is that just me?
Note: Someone recently found this blog by googling “Richard Nixon homosexual.” I like this a lot. So, to the person who googled “Richard Nixon homosexual” and found their way to my blog (and to all the future people who will find my blog by googling “Richard Nixon homosexual), I have this to say: no, Richard Nixon was not a homosexual. I am really glad this blog has such power regarding Nixon being a homosexual, though.
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LOL
1. You are obsessed
2. I’m glad your blog has that power as well
3. snoooore
hehehehe
1. It’s true
2. it’s really awesome
3. Hush, Canadian!
I am eagerly awaiting Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon already. For such a history buff, I seem to prefer to learn it through fiction!
Ahhhh this is what happened after I read your comment: !@# ZOMG! *races off to find out about book* *realizes book isn’t released until 2012* *frowny face*. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! It sounds awesome!
Nixon, huh? Well, I’ll just leave you to those books. I hope they bring you much happiness but no desire to walk around making the vistory sign while saying “I am not a crook.”
Nah, I just constantly recite the Checkers Speech while wearing a cloth coat. It’s what I do.
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Have you seen the opera, Nixon in China? You should check it out. I think you might be able to watch it on YouTube.
I actually HAVE seen it, and it’s incredibly creepy and incredibly awesome. Thanks for the tip though
Most people searching Nixon and homosexual are no doubt looking for that audio clip available on YouTube of Nixon and his aides Haldeman and Ehrlichman scathingly denouncing homosexuality. Of course Nixon wasn’t homosexual, but facts don’t get in the way of “facts” here in the Internet. Just one of the benefits of living in the disinformation age. Greetings to a fellow Nixon devotee! Three years of obsessive information gathering re: everything Nixon and counting! No end in sight. I’ve read many of the books on your list as well as a good many others, written by friend and foe alike as well as those written by the man himself as well as those by his daughter. Might I suggest to you the books by Monica Crowley, Nixon in Winter and Nixon off the record, (Which apparently he wasn’t as Ms. Crowley seems to have transcribed most of her private conversations with the man) Though in some ways it seems like another invasion of Nixons privacy by an aide whom he seemed to have trusted, I cannot help but find Crowleys portrait of Richard Nixon in his twilight years poignant, moving and entirely human.
I just like the search phrase, not so much that Nixon liked to spout his anti-gay sentiments. Thanks for clearing that up, though. I’ll definitely have to investigate the Crowley books, thanks for the suggestion!
I started Nixonland earlier this year and made it to the end of book one before setting it aside for a little break. I need to get back to it. My strategy is to read up until the 1968 conventions, then read Norman Mailer’s Miami and the Siege of Chicago, before continuing.
I read President’s Men way back in high school in the late 70s. Never got around to the sequel.
Oooh, thanks for bringing up the Mailer novel, I’ll have to check it out!
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