Nixon; Volume Three Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990
Dafydd Jones (Jacket photograph) New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. 667, [5] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has minor wear and edge and other soiling. Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many bestselling volumes of American history. Ambrose was a history professor from 1960 until his retirement in 1995. From 1971 onward, he was on the faculty of the University of New Orleans, where he was named the Boyd Professor of History in 1989, an honor given only to faculty who attain "national or international distinction for outstanding teaching, research, or other creative achievement". Ambrose also wrote a three-volume biography of Richard Nixon. Although Ambrose was a strong critic of Nixon, the biography was considered fair and just regarding Nixon's presidency. In 1998, he received the National Humanities Medal.[5] In 1998, he was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for lifetime achievement given by the Society for Military History. In 2000, Ambrose received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest honorary award the Department of Defense offers to civilians. In 2001, he was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt Medal for Distinguished Service from the Theodore Roosevelt Association. Ambrose also received the George Marshall Award, the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award, the Bob Hope Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and the Will Rogers Memorial Award. Watergate is a story of high drama and low skulduggery, of lies and bribes, of greed and lust for power. With access to the central characters, the public papers, and the trials transcripts, Ambrose explains how Nixon destroyed himself through a combination of arrogance and indecision, allowing a "third-rate burglary" to escalate into a scandal that overwhelmed his presidency. Within a decade and a half however, Nixon had become one of America's elder statesmen, respected internationally and at home even by those who had earlier clamored loudest for his head. This is the story of Nixon's final fall from grace and astonishing recovery. Derived from a Kirkus review: Foreign policy master, political brawler, family man, loner, tragic hero, elder statesman, eternal conniver—Richard Nixon plays all of these roles in the final installment of Ambrose's fascinating three-volume biography of the ex-President. Ambrose meticulously traces how Nixon—flush with triumph from his landslide reelection victory over George McGovern—spoiled, through his mishandling of Watergate, his best-laid plans for reorganizing the executive branch of the government and for achieving a durable peace in Vietnam and with the Soviet Union. Ambrose provides an excellent assessment of his subject's character and record. The author underscores what America lost, as a result of Nixon's fall, in such areas as arms control, energy policy, the Mideast, and national health insurance. Admiring Nixon's perseverance, Ambrose draws a sympathetic portrait of the beleaguered politician's attempts to handle a vain Henry Kissinger, military top brass contemptuous of detente, even politicians and lawyers unnerved by Nixon's blatant disregard for the Constitution. In the end, despite appreciating Nixon's intelligence and ability, Ambrose scores the President for a lack of domestic achievements and an even more demonstrable lack of virtue. An adroit telling of how Nixon plunged into his political black hole and despite his carefully orchestrated comeback, his role in the Watergate cover-up can never be obliterated. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Richard M. Nixon, Presidents, Politics, Watergate, Republican Party, Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, Impeachment, Spiro Agnew, John Dean, John Erlichman, Alexander Haig, Bob Haldeman, Howard Hunt, Vietnam War, Watergate Affair
ISBN: 0671691880
[Book #88083]
Price: $105.00