First published 2010
Richard Nixon watches America tear itself apart and sees opportunity. The Watts riots erupt just days after Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, shattering dreams of liberal unity. Nixon, a politician left for dead after losing to Kennedy, begins his calculated return. He feeds on the nation's fear as cities burn, students protest Vietnam, and assassinations shock the country. At the 1968 Democratic Convention, violence spills into the streets while Nixon promises to heal America's wounds. But once in office, he governs through division, pitting Americans against each other. Left-wing and right-wing extremists take up arms. Bombings rock cities. Nixon wins reelection by an enormous margin, cementing the red-blue political map we know today. His paranoia and need for control ultimately spawn the Watergate conspiracy, bringing down the president who rose by exploiting America's deepest fears and resentments.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, politics, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: America, Watts
Period: 1960s, 1970s
897 pages · Kindle Edition · Scribner