Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a Sunday Independent Book of the Year

A deeply researched, superbly crafted biography of America’s most complex president.

Award-winning biographer John A. Farrell examines the life and legacy of one of America’s most controversial political figures, from Nixon’s early days in the Navy to his political career as senator, vice president, and finally president, and his downfall in 1974 following the Watergate scandal.

Richard Nixon is a magisterial portrait of the man who embodied post-war American political cynicism — and was destroyed by it.

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‘Prodigiously sourced and insightful … [an] important and revealing biography.’

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‘[A] wonderful biography of America’s most controversial 20th-century president … a sharply observed but refreshingly uncensorious assessment.’

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‘A stack of good books about Nixon could reach the ceiling, but Farrell has written the best one-volume, cradle-to-grave biography that we could expect about such a famously elusive subject. By employing recently released government documents and oral histories, he adds layers of understanding to a complex man and his dastardly decisions … Richard Nixon illuminates a man of sharp mind and soaring ambition. Farrell sympathizes with a boy who thought he was hard to love and compensated with an iron will. He understands Nixon’s frustrations with the lack of respect for his accomplishments. But in the end, this portrait is more damning. His Nixon is doomed by his own insecurities, destroyed by his own treachery, damned by his own words … [Nixon] stained his reputation and that of the presidency. As Farrell’s outstanding biography reminds us, the consequences have endured.’

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‘An extremely valuable introduction to the life and times of one of our most consequential presidents. Farrell gives us a Nixon rich in both character flaws and great accomplishments, the latter fueled by his transformational vision. It’s a worthy look at a fascinating president.’

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‘Though there have been many previous books about Nixon, Mr. Farrell’s comprehensive, one-volume biography is welcome … In lively, vigorous prose, he takes readers through Nixon’s career, offering incisive judgments and revealing details along the way.’

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‘Superb … the most formidable attempt yet made to put Richard Nixon in perspective.’

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‘Farrell has written a definitive biography. There was a lot more to Nixon than lies and bombast, and this nuanced book shows that.’

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‘[Nixon is] an electrifying subject, a muttering Lear, of perennial interest to anyone with even an average curiosity about politics or psychology. The real test of a good Nixon biography, given how many there are, is far simpler: Is it elegantly written? And, even more important, can it tolerate paradoxes and complexity, the spikier stuff that distinguishes real-life sinners from comic-book villains? The answer, in the case of Richard Nixon, is yes, on both counts.’

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‘Beautifully written and deeply insightful … A bracing portrait of a man untethered from principle and ideology, driven throughout his life to win at any cost and thereby palliate his deep-seated insecurities … Nixon was not an easy man to understand. And even now, his failures and accomplishments are not easy to classify. In Farrell’s capable hands, however, we see Nixon in his entirety — and we can’t help but wonder what he means for our politics today.’

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‘John Farrell’s book now clearly stands as the best one-volume life of one of the century’s most complex and compelling figures. It is a story that goes from bright promise into dark places, time and again punctures the lie that there are no second acts in American lives, but still exits into tragedy. It is one of the saddest biographies you will ever read.’

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‘John A Farrell convincingly argues with great style and attention to detail.’

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‘A magisterial portrait of the man who embodied post-war American political cynicism — and was destroyed by it.’

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‘[Farrell] humanizes him with genuine empathy, but clearly demonstrates that Nixon’s ultimate demise was the result of the deceit and corruption that he recklessly cultivated over decades.’

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‘An excellent book, thoughtful in approach, original in research, crisp in prose and definitive in conclusions.’

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‘Farrell’s sense of narrative pacing is flawless.’

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Praise for Clarence Darrow:

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Praise for Clarence Darrow:

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Praise for Clarence Darrow: