The Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series feat. Evan Thomas
*This event is by invitation only.
The Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series will feature Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author, discussing his new book “Being Nixon: A Man Divided.” (Penguin Random House).
About “Being Nixon”: In “Being Nixon,” Evan Thomas peels away the layers of the complex, confounding figure who became America’s 37th president. The son of devout Quakers, Richard Nixon (not unlike his rival John F. Kennedy) grew up in the shadow of an older, favored brother and thrived on conflict and opposition. Through high school and college, in the navy and in politics, he was constantly leading crusades and fighting off enemies real and imagined. As maudlin as he was Machiavellian, Nixon possessed the plainspoken eloquence to reduce American television audiences to tears with his career-saving “Checkers” speech; meanwhile, his darker half hatched schemes designed to take down his political foes, earning him the notorious nickname “Tricky Dick.”
Drawing on a wide range of historical accounts, Thomas reveals the contradictions of a leader whose vision and foresight led him to achieve detente with the Soviet Union and reestablish relations with communist China, but whose underhanded political tactics tainted his reputation long before the Watergate scandal. One of the principal architects of the modern Republican Party and its “silent majority” of disaffected whites and conservative ex-Dixiecrats, Nixon was also deemed a liberal in some quarters for his efforts to desegregate Southern schools, create the Environmental Protection Agency, and end the draft.
A deeply insightful character study as well as a brilliant political biography, “Being Nixon” offers a surprising look at a man capable of great bravery and extraordinary deviousness–a balanced portrait of a president too often reduced to caricature.
About the Author: Evan Thomas is the author of nine books: “The Wise Men” (with Walter Isaacson), “The Man to See,” “The Very Best Men,” “Robert Kennedy,” “John Paul Jones,” “Sea of Thunder,” “The War Lovers,” “Ike’s Bluff,” and “Being Nixon.” “John Paul Jones” and “Sea of Thunder” were New York Times bestsellers. Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for 33 years at Time and Newsweek, including 10 years (1986–96) as Washington bureau chief at Newsweek, where, at the time of his retirement in 2010, he was editor at large. He wrote more than 100 cover stories and in 1999 won a National Magazine Award. The author of dozens of book reviews for The New York Times and The Washington Post, Thomas has taught writing and journalism at Harvard and Princeton, where, from 2007 to 2014, he was Ferris Professor of Journalism.
The Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series will feature Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author, discussing his new book “Being Nixon: A Man Divided.” (Penguin Random House).