Richard Nixon: The Life — John A. Farrell
“He wanted to be a great man.” — Pat Buchanan
There may be no other statement that so succinctly describes Richard Nixon. John A. Farrell eludes to as much when he utilizes this quote in Richard Nixon: A Life. Nixon has innumerable complexities that would undoubtedly surface when attempting to write a good biography, but Farrell not only handles them with dexterity but also accomplishes the feat with wit and strokes of genius. Biographies have never been my favorite brand of history book, but this one is now my favorite biography and has earned a place near the top of my favorite books of 2017.
I became interested in the life of Richard Nixon after several instances of encountering him through reading, teaching, watching movies, etc. Any president is at least a little interesting to me, but Nixon seemed to be involved in almost everything I was interested in. Whether it was the Vietnam War, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, mass media’s effect on politics, U.S.-China diplomatic relations… he had his hands in all of it. I didn’t even realize before the beginning of this book how quickly his star rose (then fell to the depths of the sea, then rose again to the Presidency). He was a World War II veteran with virtually no political experience in 1946, then within the next six years was elected to the House of Representatives, the Senate, then the Vice Presidency. He followed 8 years in that position by running for president, governor of California, then president twice more (successful both times, including 1972, one of the greatest Electoral College landslides in history) before resigning in disgrace. I am truly sorry for what seems like a string of run-on sentences, but if anything deserves such treatment it is Richard Nixon’s political career. To the best of my knowledge and search engine skills, Nixon and FDR are the only politicians in history to be on a major political party’s presidential ticket five times (VP in 1952, 1956; President 1960, 1968, 1972). I attempted to fact-check the veracity of that statement with my brother, Jeffrey (a much longer-term US history nerd than me), and we came up with nothing, so please correct me if I’m wrong. The point, of all of this, is that a political biography of Richard Nixon has the potential to be absolutely terrific. John Dickerson mentioned John A. Farrell’s book on his Whistlestop podcast, and I knew I had to read it. And it was just that. Terrific.
My favorite way that Farrell handled Nixon’s story was his employment of your knowledge of history to foreshadow or otherwise shade your reading of an event or a passage. Everyone knows Watergate is coming, so that theme runs throughout, but it is more than that. Gerald Ford is lurking far in the background. John F. Kennedy factors into the story long before the 1960 election, and their initial friendship lends even more emotion to the no-holds-barred nature of the famous presidential campaign.
Related to Farrell’s use of reader knowledge, I also noticed that this biography was in the center of my background knowledge wheelhouse. Any book assumes a certain level of knowledge on behalf of the reader. If the author aims too high, the reader will not understand many of the words, references, or concepts and thus will not get “lost”. Aim too low, and you alienate your readers by explaining many things that need no explanation. I hardly ever found myself in either of these situations in Richard Nixon: The Life, which is a very encouraging place for a reader. What does this mean for you? If you read history books often and already know the broad strokes of Nixon’s life, you will definitely enjoy this book. If you don’t have a working knowledge of, for example, the broad strokes of the Vietnam War, the Cold War, or some similar frame of reference for the 1960s and 70s, you may want to come back to this one later. However, I didn’t know basically anything about pre-1960 Nixon and Farrell had no problems getting me up to speed.
As a matter of fact, the pre-presidential days might be my favorite part of the book because of the way it sets the stage for what happens later. The primary content of the book is 558 pages, and I was surprised to find myself well past page 300 before Nixon becomes POTUS. Even at that, the book felt like it was moving at a breakneck pace. This feat becomes all the more impressive when you consider the wealth of sources available for Nixon’s presidency and the aftermath. Yet Farrell still does not overload the book with those years. Instead he takes direct and complete care to trace every thread leading to Watergate and also every thread to more positive contributions for which Nixon might have been remembered if not for that fateful third-rate burglary.
“Balanced” is a buzzword with too much baggage for what is going on here, so maybe nuanced is the word I am looking for when describing Farrell’s treatment of his subject’s life, personality, and political contributions. Richard Nixon tiptoes back and forth between sympathetic figure and easy target of ire. One example: after his fall from grace in the early 1960s, I found myself upset at how badly Nixon was treated. However, every time I found myself in such a position, he would do something malicious or instantly regrettable and I would turn on him again. That is a great Nixon biography.
Probably more than anything, I found Nixon’s relationship with his family the most confounding and the most endearing at the same time. His children always admired him through everything, which is testament enough to… something. But Pat. Pat deserves a whole book. I was both cheering and cringing every time she would pop back into the story, because boy does Farrell point out how badly Richard treated her. Not only dragging her through election after election that she obviously had no interest in, but the way that Nixon put his wife in second place to his job or his political ambitions literally at every turn… it was just remarkable. And perplexing. Why would Pat put herself through that unless she really loved in him, believed in him, or wanted the spotlight that came with it? The only answer is that there is more to the story. And I would read that story. I don’t need it, because I feel more than satisfied with what I got in Richard Nixon: The Life. But if John A. Farrell wrote a Pat Nixon follow-up, that would be a welcome bonus.
This and 9 other books will be part of my top 10 books of 2017 later this week. Stay tuned.
