The controversial New York Timesâbestselling biography of Americaâs most infamous president written by a master of investigative political reporting.
Anthony Summersâs towering biography of Richard Nixon reveals a tormented figure whose criminal behavior did not begin with Watergate. Drawing on more than a thousand interviews and five years of research, Summers traces Nixonâs entire career, revealing a man driven by addiction to power and intrigue. His subversion of democracy during Watergate was the culmination of years of cynical political manipulation. Evidence suggests the former president had problems with alcohol and prescription drugs, was mentally unstable, and was abusive to his wife, Pat. Summers discloses previously unrevealed facts about Nixonâs role in the plots against Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende, his sabotage of the Vietnam peace talks in 1968, and his acceptance of funds from dubious sources. The Arrogance of Power shows how the actions of one tormented man influenced 50 years of American history, in ways still reverberating today.
âSummers has done an enormous service. . . . The inescapable conclusion, well body-guarded by meticulous research and footnotes, is that in the Nixon era the United States was in essence a ârogue state.â It had a ruthless, paranoid and unstable leader who did not hesitate to break the laws of his own country.ââChristopher Hitchens, The New York Times Book Review
âA superbly researched and documented accountâthe last word on this dark and devious man.ââPaul Theroux