Preview
  • Nixon Agonistes

  • The Crisis of the Self-Made Man
  • By: Garry Wills
  • Narrated by: Adam Barr
  • Length: 24 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

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Nixon Agonistes

By: Garry Wills
Narrated by: Adam Barr
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Publisher's summary

In this acclaimed biography that earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous "enemies list," Garry Wills takes a thoughtful, in-depth, and often "very amusing" look at the thirty-seventh US president, and draws some surprising conclusions about a man whose name has become synonymous with scandal and the abuse of power (Kirkus Reviews).

Arguing that Nixon was a reflection of the country that elected him, Wills examines not only the psychology of the man himself and his relationships with others—from his wife, Pat, to his vice-president, Spiro Agnew—but also the state of the nation at the time, mired in the Vietnam War and experiencing a cultural rift that pitted the young against the old. Putting his findings into moral, economic, intellectual, and political contexts, he ultimately "paints a broad and provocative landscape of the nation's—and Nixon's—travails" (The New York Times).

Simultaneously compassionate and critical, and raising interesting perspectives on the shifting definitions of terms like "conservative" and "liberal" over recent decades, Nixon Agonistes is a brilliant and indispensable book from one of America's most acclaimed historians.

©1969, 1970, 2002 Garry Wills (P)2023 Tantor
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What listeners say about Nixon Agonistes

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    5 out of 5 stars

Writing as Smooth as drinking milk on a sunny afternoon

After listening the the cheeky named podcast of Know Your Enemy, I wondered over and gave this book a chance and thrilled that I did. Wonderfully written and performed. Well worth it as the book is still relevant to understanding contemporary conservatives and liberalism as a political philosophy.

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No one like Wills writing on political discourse today, and we are poorer for it.

One of the most erudite and prescient books on politics I have ever (heard) read. And more relevant than ever.

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    4 out of 5 stars

I learned a lot, but…

I wasn’t really ready for the style of this book, which reflects quite a bit about the author, as well as about Nixon. I also did not enjoy this narrator, though, perhaps that was simply a style thing.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

too much theory!

He could’ve eliminated 40% of this book. It was a mind numbingly brutal excruciating dissection of political theory, Let me make it real simple for you, Gary - people vote with the pocketbooks. People need to eat.Spare me all your ostentatious display. oh wow I am so impressed you know all these fellow ephemeral souls.

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