Reviews for President Nixon: Alone in the White House

The average rating for President Nixon: Alone in the White House based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-04-09 00:00:00 Captain Kayos President Nixon: Alone in the White House" by Richard Reeves was published in 2001. Reeves is a former journalist and the author of sixteen books, including biographies of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. He has served as Chief Political Correspondent for The New York Times, as National Editor and Columnist for New York Magazine and Esquire and was Chief Correspondent for PBS's "Frontline." Reeves's book is neither a comprehensive survey of Nixon's life nor a thorough study of his presidency. But anyone who has read the author's 1993 biography of JFK will recognize this 609-page book's rapid pace and its birds-eye view of events which took place in and around the Oval Office during most (but not quite all) of Nixon's presidency. The book begins with a first-person introduction to its subject - Reeves's perspective on his presidency, his character and his idiosyncrasies. It quickly launches into a day-to-day (and often moment-to-moment) account of Nixon's presidency beginning with his first full day in office. About three-dozen chapters later, the book concludes its coverage as Nixon watched his political world begin to collapse in April 1973 - about sixteen months before his resignation but after it became clear his presidency would not have a happy ending. Reeves provides the reader with unique access to Nixon's presidency; he seems to capture every significant moment as though he was in the room at the time - and was capable of recording everything for posterity. Along the way Reeves occasionally injects his own assessment of Nixon's character into the narrative but he generally allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions from the historical record. Readers familiar with Nixon will value the insight provided into this brooding president's character as well the debates concerning various foreign and domestic policy matters. Reeves's discussion of Nixon's decision to end convertibility of the US dollar into gold and implement wage and price controls was surprisingly interesting as was his review of Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972. What is missing from this fascinating survey of Nixon's life between 1969 and 1973 is any meaningful coverage of his pre-presidency, a serious analysis of his last months in office and anything about his nearly twenty-year post-presidency. And because Reeves fails to follow Nixon closely to the end of his presidency (though there is an Epilogue which captures highlights) he is unable to step back and consider Nixon's place in history. But even while it focuses on his first four years in the White House, Reeves's book often flies so close to the ground that it can be hard for readers unfamiliar with Nixon (or his era) to understand the "big picture." And because Nixon's daily routine was often chaotic, the narrative tends to bounce quickly from topic to topic with little time to explore the intricacies of any one issue. Overall, Richard Reeves's "President Nixon: Alone in the White House" is a uniquely instructive - and thoroughly fascinating - review of Nixon as president. But because it is not comprehensive (and fails to exhaust even his presidency) it is neither an ideal introduction to Nixon "the man" nor a complete study of his White House tenure. Nevertheless, for readers familiar with this obsessively paranoid man and his illuminating background, Reeves's book is uncommonly valuable. Overall rating: 4 stars

Review # 2 was written on 2014-07-24 00:00:00 Richard Masson This is a very thorough overview of Nixon's first term in office. The author glosses over most of Nixon's second term, describing it as being swallowed up by the Watergate affair. I first heard about this book when listening to the author talk about it on NPR. He described how he was able to get access to a huge amount of Nixon's personal notes. Apparently, Nixon would sit around through much of his presidency writing notes to himself on yellow note pads. By gaining access to Nixon's personal notes, Reeves says that he was able to get inside of Nixon's head more than previous biographers. And his conclusion? Nixon had a basic weakness: he believed that other people's natures were as flawed as his own. So before his various enemies got him, he had to hit them first. The subtitle of the book also indicates another basis thesis of the author. Nixon, according to Reeves, only interacted directly on a regular basis with a small circle of people; Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Kissinger, and Buchanan. Secretary of State Rogers, in fact, would find out about major foreign policy decisions when the general public found out. This climate of secrecy permeated everything he did, and Nixon could not stand it when information leaked out to the public. This paranoia, of course, led to the infamous "plumbers" and ultimately his downfall. In addition to probing Nixon's mind, this book covers all of the major policy decisions of Nixon's first term. And by the end, the reader gets a thorough sense of the important long-term impact of the Nixon presidency. Foreign policy, according to Reeves, was Nixon's primary interest. Domestic policy, in Nixon's view, was important primarily for one reason: the election of 1972. This is why Nixon cared more about opinion polls than any other data about life in the United States. His general disengagement with domestic affairs, along with his obsession with his reelection, helps to explain why it is so difficult to see any coherent Nixon agenda when it came to domestic affairs. He largely let Congress run the show, and in my view, we have not had an administration as liberal as Nixon since.