President Nixon: Alone in the White House Hardcover – Deckle Edge, September 18, 2001

Reeves uses diaries and other personal documents to sketch out a picture of Nixon's presidency that is at once familiar and novel. This will not appeal to Nixon apologists nor to those who want a stereotypical "psychological" portrait (Garry Wills' "Nixon Agonists" is the best psychological description of Nixon's development, although Wills' original take on personality development will stymie those looking for Freud-lite). Instead, we see Nixon's presidency unfold and Nixon's reaction to the events around him. Even though I've read most of the "standard" Nixon biographies, Reeves' approach was fresh to me and an interesting complement to Haldeman's diaries, which I had read a couple years ago. Nixon's isolation and inability to trust are well-documented, but to see them here is to see them anew. It was a thought provoking book, both in terms of Nixon's presidency and with respect to the political tactics and skills that are needed to win elections, which unfortunately, are not the same tactics and skills needed to provide strong leadership. As was the case with LBJ, Nixon the office seeker undid Nixon, the president, and this book makes this point more clearly than previous biographies.

This is an excellent book that brings this president to life with all his contradictory traits. It also allows the reader to understand the entire administration -- Kissinger, the diplomacy with Russia and China, and the positive aspects of the administration. It does not spare Nixon in his character flaws and abuse of power, but it points out how far his underlings had gone in their illegal wiretapping, etc. before the burglary at the Watergate Building. In my estimation, this was a very fair and detailed book. I give it a 5 star rating.

This is a solid work of Presidential scholarship. I appreciated its "worm's eye" view because it allows for the presentation of a great many primary source materials and documents that are invaluable for summing up the bizarre man who was President Richard Nixon. Reeves reveals a fair amount of personal bias and dislike for his subject here, but, fortunately, the intrusions of his point-of-view are not ubiquitous. Reeves seems to unquestionably believe that busing was good for blacks and it appears that he has an affinity for most government programs; a stance that is totally unwarranted. That being said, the work remains well-organized, clear and valuable. Reeves is a biographer and journalist so, unlike some of the other reviewers, I was glad that he did not share with us his psychological observations of the President. In all likelihood, they would have been ungrounded. Alone in the White House is a good, but not great, book.

Book was long but kept my interest every minute. I was in my early teens and only vaguely remember this period in history. By reading this book, I was able to not miss a minute of it.If you love history read this book. Through the book I was trying to figure out who Nixon was, since he didn't know. I guess in the end he still didn't know and I am not sure who he was either. I was totally shocked how his only interest was foreign policy. The heck with the ecomony. He wanted to be in control but left much up to two others to make decisions in matters that didn't intrest him. My opinion of Kessinger was a dignified man. I think he was but also had a childish side to him. It seemed Nixion did not like him but needed his intelligence. You won't be disappointed in this book.

To those of us old enough to remember the Nixon administration, it is not surprising that a chronicle of his presidency is a series of ancecdotes that leaves us shaking our head and completely baffled. This history deftly describes the "Nixon years" in a series of events painted for us as a series of tableaux. That it does quite admirably. We see him as a moody, paranoid, and impulsive man literally with his finger on the button. As public opinion of him, never very strong, wanes and his accomplishments pale under public approbation, we see him becoming more relentlessly isolated and desperate. One might then read this as the diary of a man descending into the very deepest despair.As a chronicle, then, this book succeeds. However, the most compelling aspect of the Nixon presidency is missing; its central question. How is is possible that this man who mistrusted so deeply the workings of a free society, who resented so many of its people, become its leader, and its spokesman to the world? We see here a Nixon that resents intellectuals, the media, racial groups, religious minorities, his predecessors, his successors, all Democrates, and on and on. This is a president who had his reelection wrapped up who still felt the need to bug his electoral opponents and undermine their campaign. Here is a man who can't run a shower and forever bans soup at state dinners because he mussed his shirt. Here is a man who regards any criticism whatsoever as forever condemning its author. We want to know how this all came to pass. The fascinating part is the understanding of what forces shaped him and led this adminstration to it ignominious end. Why did he want to be president at all? Why did we elect him? Why did he self-destruct? Certainly it is more than an acciddent of the times - filling the void left by the equally tragic Johnson's abdication. No, there must be a deeper story here that is not manifest in the day-to-day business. By depriving us of any image of Nixon's childhood, his dance with the Kennedy's and his ultimate election (admittedly not the focus of this book), and dropping us into his life on day one of the administration, we miss who Nixon was and get no perspective on the actions that are so meticulously described.Maybe it was all just an accident. Maybe it was an unresolved oedipal thing, as the movie Nixon suggests. I really think nthat neither are true. It is my belief that Nixon the man is a reflection of our society, that it is somehow born of the American independant spirit. We inherit our paranoia as a side-effect of our individualism. If Nixon is alone, we all are alone. There is something in what happened to Richard Nixon that calls to us all. His tragedy should pluck at some string in our soul. The inevitable, and relentless question, "Why?" is missing herein. President Nixon: Alone in the White House is a fascinating chronicle, but the Lear in this story, the workings of the tragedy that propelled him to an inevitable end, is sadly missing.