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Nixonland
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America | Rick Perlstein
An exciting e-format containing 27 video clips taken directly from the CBS news archive of a brilliant, best-selling account of the Nixon era by one of Americas most talented young historians. Between 1965 and 1972 America experienced a second civil war. Out of its ashes, the political world we know today was born. Nixonland begins in the blood and fire of the Watts riots-one week after President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, and nine months after his historic landslide victory over Barry Goldwater seemed to have heralded a permanent liberal consensus. The next year scores of liberals were thrown out of Congress, America was more divided than ever-and a disgraced politician was on his way to a shocking comeback: Richard Nixon. Six years later, President Nixon, harvesting the bitterness and resentment borne of that blood and fire, was reelected in a landslide even bigger than Johnson's, and the outlines of today's politics of red-and-blue division became already distinct. Cataclysms tell the story of Nixonland: Angry blacks burning down their neighborhoods, while suburbanites defend home and hearth with shotguns. The civil war over Vietnam, the assassinations, the riot at the Democratic National Convention. Richard Nixon acceding to the presidency pledging a new dawn of national unity--and governing more divisively than any before him. The rise of twin cultures of left- and right-wing vigilantes, Americans literally bombing and cutting each other down in the streets over political differences. And, finally, Watergate, the fruit of a president who rose by matching his own anxieties and dreads with those of an increasingly frightened electorate--but whose anxieties and dreads produced a criminal conspiracy in the Oval Office.
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fredthemoose
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really interesting look at the politics and sociology of the Nixon era. In previous biographies and Watergate books I‘ve read there‘s some sympathy for him as an awkward outsider. Not here. Perlstein goes all in on the vicious tactics he used to get and keep political power (like prolonging the Vietnam war to help his election 🙃). Looking forward to more Perlstein, but this was a #chunkster at 881 pgs, so maybe after a break…

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literateBee

Frighteningly brilliant!

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KimHM
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If you want to understand our current political and cultural situation, this is an excellent place to begin. If you are a person (as I am) who came of age in the 1970s and don‘t entirely understand your alienation, this is likewise an excellent place to begin. 💡💡💡💡💡

KimHM Note: If you click on the title it links to some enhanced e-version of Nixonland which is not what I read, but it was Litsy‘s only option for the title. 6y
12 likes1 comment
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KimHM
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Alas, we still live in Nixonland.

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Rachael_S
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Pickpick

You guys! I'm so excited to live through Nixon redux! This. is going. to be. AWESOME! #MAGA

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BookishMarginalia
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A reminder of the horrifying national reaction to the death of 4 Kent State students shot by the National Guard during a Vietnam War protest...

Suzze That was my senior year of high school. I was the co-head of a group called Students for Political Action. My parents were scared I was going to get killed. I did get raw eggs thrown at me once. 8y
lynneamch I was at Western Michigan University. Not long after this happened, the National Guard was called to campus. I remember seeing them coming up over a hill and being afraid. Thankfully, things remained calm. Proud of you @Suzze 8y
Suzze @lynneamch Thanks, we were on opposite sides of the state. I was in Livonia. 8y
kspenmoll I was a freshman in hs, with a politically active brother & his friends two years ahead of me- it was an extraordinary, terrifying, & exhilarating time. Maybe its the passage of time, but what is happening now with Trump & his minions feels much worse. 8y
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Brando
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I liked it though at times he seemed overly critical of Nixon, seeing his actions more as underhanded where there may have been a loftier goal. But he also got into Nixon's psychology and in fairness did not give JFK or LBJ a free pass. I also liked how he blended pop culture and lesser known tidbits into the sort so you felt like you were living it. One downside is I felt he could have listed dates more to help keep track.

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cewilf
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#augustofpages day 11: books and politics. I find Nixon's presidency and the '60s-'70s in general super interesting. The former history major in me can never get enough! #augustphotochallenge

samwinchester90 Actually just started All The President's Men today. Fascinating stuff. 8y
SusanInTiburon I'm too old to think of Nixon as history. 👵🏽 8y
54 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Zcraighead
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LBJ, our son of a bitch

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Amiable
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Reading presidential biographies in an attempt to understand how we got to where we are today: with Donald Trump as a nominee. Failing.

shawnmooney Toward the same end, I plan to read a bio of Huey Long, 'Kingfish.' 8y
shawnmooney And re-read 'All The King's Men.' 8y
Amiable I've been eyeing "All the King's Men"--worth the read, you say? 8y
3 likes3 comments