Nixon Agonistes, Garry Wills
Nixon Agonistes, Garry Wills
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Nixon Agonistes
The Crisis of the Self-Made Man

Author: Garry Wills

Narrator: Adam Barr

Unabridged: 24 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/17/2023


Synopsis

In this acclaimed biography that earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous "enemies list," Garry Wills takes a thoughtful, in-depth, and often "very amusing" look at the thirty-seventh US president, and draws some surprising conclusions about a man whose name has become synonymous with scandal and the abuse of power (Kirkus Reviews).

Arguing that Nixon was a reflection of the country that elected him, Wills examines not only the psychology of the man himself and his relationships with others—from his wife, Pat, to his vice-president, Spiro Agnew—but also the state of the nation at the time, mired in the Vietnam War and experiencing a cultural rift that pitted the young against the old. Putting his findings into moral, economic, intellectual, and political contexts, he ultimately "paints a broad and provocative landscape of the nation's—and Nixon's—travails" (The New York Times).

Simultaneously compassionate and critical, and raising interesting perspectives on the shifting definitions of terms like "conservative" and "liberal" over recent decades, Nixon Agonistes is a brilliant and indispensable book from one of America's most acclaimed historians.

About Garry Wills

Garry Wills is an adjunct professor and cultural historian in the Department of History at Northwestern University. He has written many acclaimed works on religion and on American history, including Lincoln at Gettysburg, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize; Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment; and the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant and Why I Am a Catholic. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and other publications, he studied for the priesthood and took his doctorate in the classics.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeffrey on November 06, 2017

”The disjointedness of the talk seemed expressed in his face as he scowled (his only expression of thoughtfulness) or grinned (his only expression of pleasure). The features do not quite work together. The famous nose looks detachable…, but the aspect that awes one when he meets Nixon is its distres......more

Goodreads review by alex on April 04, 2024

A masterful, panromantic presentation of the world America built for itself in 1968. Paired with his book on Lincoln's Gettysburg address, Garry Wills writes about the American psyche with the depth of a Greek drama. Absolutely must read......more

Goodreads review by Steve on April 19, 2018

[URL not allowed] “Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man” by Garry Wills was published in 1970, about a year after Nixon’s inauguration as president. Wills is a journalist, former professor of history and classics and a prolific author. His book “Lincoln at Gettysbur......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on November 03, 2023

A classic work of political science, Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes remains an insightful look at the rise of the 37th President and the environment which enabled his rise to power. Wills alternates coverage of the 1968 presidential campaign with a broader analysis of the United States, riven by Vietn......more

Goodreads review by Erik on November 25, 2012

This is a rather remarkable book. I've read several, more recent books by Wills, but nothing quite like this. One presumes from the style of his writing--dense, sometimes almost lyrical--that he spent a great deal of time stitching together and revising the original National Review, Esquire, New Pol......more