One man against the world

Richard Nixon was a legitimately terrifying human being. Triply so because he was president. I never figured him for a super great guy, but the Nixon depicted in this book is clinically paranoid, petty and far more vindictive than he has any right to be. You need a little background for this book, which is the only reason I left off a star - it's an accounting of the secrets that have come out of Nixon's presidency only in this millennium as the secret tapes and documents have been made public.

In a weird way, Nixon was right: It's far better for the United States that the things he did, said and thought were kept from people. However, the ultimate tragedy (for Nixon, sure, but for the rest of us as well) is that it's only true because Nixon was given power - if he weren't so awful, we wouldn't have needed the secrecy.

I thought Legacy of Ashes was a great book. It had a great narrative and was fact filled. For being a non-fiction book it read like a spy thriller. The writer obviously had a great deal of passion for the subject and that energy showed in the prose. Enemies was a really good book. The narrative was also solid, as following Hoover's life provided a solid basis to tell the story of the FBI. I was looking forward to One Man Against the World. I thought Weiner would tackle Nixon' life in the way he went through Hoover's. It doesn't. The exhaustive, thoughtful analysis found in Weiner's two previous books is missing here. The progression through Nixon's life is relatively routine. Supporting characters in Nixon's life come and go without much rhyme or reason. Pat Nixon barely appears. Watergate is discussed for several chapters, but a lot of information has been covered in other places in better detail. The whole book seems rushed.

Making matters worse is that Nixonland was released before this book. Even though that book doesn't get into Watergate, it tells the story of the rise and fall of Richard Nixon in the context of history in a highly superior way. The first two-thirds of this book goes over the same ground as Nixonland, but the latter book does it in a superior manner. I walked away from Nixonland and felt I understood why Nixon did what he did. I didn't get the same feeling with this book.