Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man

Much of the prose reads like a journalist's field notes, sort of scattered, in medias res. The author's idiosyncracies guide his characterization of Nixon, e.g., Wills doesn't seem too sympathetic to quaker faith, and he insists on Nixon's minimal importance in the Eisenhower days. Knowledge of the political landscape of the time period (40's-70's) is assumed. Much of the book works to characterize the spirits of the decades (40's-70's) rather than Nixon. If you don't mind all this, you'll enjoy the read.

The English poet and Cromwellian revolutionary John Milton had his Samson struggling against forces that he did not understand and that in the end he was unable to overcome. Professor Wills in his seminal contemporaneous study of the career through his successful run in 1968, up close and personal, of one Richard Milhous Nixon, former President of the United, common criminal and currently resident of one of Dante's Circles of Hell tries to place the same spin on the vices and virtues of this modern "Everyman". Wills takes us through Nixon's hard scrabble childhood, the formative Quaker background in sunny California, the post World War II start of Nixon's rapidly advancing hard anti-communist political career, his defeats for president in 1960 by John Kennedy and for California governor in 1962 by Pat Brown and his resurrection in 1968 against Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey. And through his discourse, as is his habit, Professor Wills seemingly writes about every possible interpretation of his rise to power and what Nixon symbolized on the American political landscape. If one has a criticism of Wills it is exactly this sociological overkill to make a point but make your own judgment on this one as you read through this tract. However, as well written and well researched as this exposition is it will just not wash. Nixon knew what the score was at all times and in all places so that unlike old Samson there was no question of his not understanding. As Wills points out Nixon had an exceptional grasp of the `dark side' of the American spirit in the middle third of the 20th century and he pumped that knowledge for all it was worth. Moreover, rather than cry over his self-imposed fate one should understand that Nixon liked it that way. There is no victim here of overwhelming and arbitrary circumstances clouding his fate. It is perhaps hard for those who were not around then, or older folks who have forgotten, just what Nixon meant as a villainous political target to those of us of the Generation of 68 for all that was wrong with American political life (although one Lyndon Johnson gave him a run for his money as demon-in-chief). Robert Kennedy had it very eloquently right, as he did on many occasions, when he said that Richard Nixon represented the `dark side of the American spirit'. For those who believe that all political evil started with the current President George W. Bush, think again. Nixon was the `godfather' of the current ilk. Some have argued that in retrospect compared to today's ravenous beasts that Nixon's reign was benign. Believe that at your peril. Just to be on the safe side let's put another stake through his heart. And read this book to get an idea of what a representative of a previous generation of political evil looked like. Although the Nixon saga is the central story that drives this book Professor Wills, as is his wont, has a lot more to say about the nature of those times. He takes some interesting side trips into ea

A colleague just asked me if this is an apologia of Nixon - it is not. I read this and most of the other burst of books that came out in the 1970s right after Watergate, and they were all great reads, especially with the fire of those times still burning -- and Nixon Agonistes was one of the enduring best, engrossing and well rounded. Nixon was a peculiar character but Wills does a good job of being the good historian, with balance and insight. And as I say, it was engrossing -- I read it all the way through. College poly-sci majors in particular should add this to their must-read list.

It's too bad that this book is out of print. Probably it stopped selling because of its title -- people must have assumed that it was only relevant for the Nixon era. Not so! The book is valuable today for the evocation of the early part of that time (especially the summer of 1968), but more than that, it is a masterful analysis of that collection of shared intellectual assumptions that make up a great deal of American political (and other) impulses -- specifically, that set of post-Lockean interpretations of social, moral, economic and political life which fall under the rubric of "liberalism". Wills details the connection between Nixon and this background, and the results are far-ranging. Many of the great American assumptions about life are implicated and their mythical foundations revealed: equality of economic opportunity, electoral "mandates", democracy via fair elections in countries that do not have them, fair competition of ideas in academia, and others. Wills leaves no stone unturned. The book deserves to be reprinted again.Original review above was July 1998; Below added Jan 2003:Hurrah! It's back in print! Get your copy before it disappears again!I should have mentioned that, in addition to the fun of watching Wills dismantle the superstructure of liberalism, the book provides great pleasure through its style. Wills writes non-fiction better than most poets write sonnets.