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Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician
This mesmerizing chronicle of Nixon's rise to power and the events he shaped that changed forever America's political history took seven years to prepare and is the work of an award-winning historian, scholar, and journalist.
1005 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Roger Morris
32 books9 followersThere is more than one author with this name. For the novelist, see R.N. Morris. Further disambiguation:
[1 space] American historian
[2 spaces] Food & wine (page: Roger Morris)
[3 spaces] Northumberland (page: Roger Morris)
[4 spaces] Artist & maritime historian (page: Roger Morris)
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Roger Morris is an American public servant, historian, and political writer.
Roger Morris earned his doctorate in government from Harvard University. He entered government service in 1966 as an aide to former United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson. He first joined the National Security Council staff under the administration of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. When Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968, he appointed Henry Kissinger as his National Security Advisor, and Kissinger asked Morris to remain on the NSC staff as a senior staff member. However, Morris resigned in April 1970, when Nixon ordered the Cambodian Campaign.
Morris has served as a university lecturer, but is best known as a writer. He serves as a senior fellow of the Green Institute.
[1 space] American historian
[2 spaces] Food & wine (page: Roger Morris)
[3 spaces] Northumberland (page: Roger Morris)
[4 spaces] Artist & maritime historian (page: Roger Morris)
----------
Roger Morris is an American public servant, historian, and political writer.
Roger Morris earned his doctorate in government from Harvard University. He entered government service in 1966 as an aide to former United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson. He first joined the National Security Council staff under the administration of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. When Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968, he appointed Henry Kissinger as his National Security Advisor, and Kissinger asked Morris to remain on the NSC staff as a senior staff member. However, Morris resigned in April 1970, when Nixon ordered the Cambodian Campaign.
Morris has served as a university lecturer, but is best known as a writer. He serves as a senior fellow of the Green Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 27, 2018
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2018...
Published in 1990, Roger Morris’s “Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of An American Politician” is the most detailed biography available focusing on Nixon’s childhood and early political career. Morris is an author, journalist and former staff member of the National Security Council (during the LBJ and Nixon administrations). He is also the author of “Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America.”
Reminiscent of the first volume in Robert Caro’s ongoing series on LBJ, this weighty 866-page biography seems to miss nothing of consequence during its subject’s formative years. Like Caro’s “The Path to Power,” this biography is serious, penetrating, meticulously observant and incredibly thorough. It is doubtful there will ever be more exhaustive coverage of Nixon’s first forty years.
Morris begins with an extensive exploration of the region in California where Nixon was born and raised followed by a lengthy review of his ancestry. It is two-dozen pages before Nixon’s name is mentioned and forty pages before he is born. And this level of detail is the rule rather than the exception; nearly every important topic receives careful focus and significant attention. Even readers who are familiar with Nixon will find there is much to be learned.
The chapter focusing on his future wife is by far the most detailed introduction to Pat Ryan I have ever read, the description of his job at the Office of Price Administration far exceeds what I’ve seen before and the discussion relating to his participation in the Alger Hiss spy case is so extensive (at nearly 250 pages) that it is essentially a book-within-a-book. And Morris conveys the “fund scandal” and Checkers speech in a surprisingly captivating manner.
The chapter dedicated to the 1952 Republican Convention in Chicago (where Eisenhower and Nixon became the party nominees) is even more descriptive – and enthralling – than similar sections of the eleven Eisenhower biographies I recently read. My favorite Eisenhower biography allocated just one-sixth the space which Morris provides here.
But readers expecting to be effortlessly swept from chapter to chapter with a fluid narrative or elegant prose will be disappointed. For all its clarity and sophistication, Morris’s writing style lacks the expressive brilliance and vibrant scene-setting which the best biographers offer. His narrative is detailed and penetrating, but often matter-of-fact and a bit colorless.
And although its length is not inherently troublesome, this book could have been at least 200 pages shorter without losing real substance or omitting important observations. Morris can be so verbose at times that the full measure of what is being discussed gets lost – or at least diluted. To fully absorb this book’s lessons requires greater-than-average care and concentration.
Overall, however, “Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of An American Politician” provides extraordinary access to Nixon’s life through his 1952 election as Vice President. It is regrettable Morris never completed this series, and Nixon’s personal life and inner-self are somewhat under-covered. But for readers already somewhat familiar with Nixon who are interested in better understanding his rapid rise in politics, there is no more compelling choice of biography.
Overall rating: 4 stars
Published in 1990, Roger Morris’s “Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of An American Politician” is the most detailed biography available focusing on Nixon’s childhood and early political career. Morris is an author, journalist and former staff member of the National Security Council (during the LBJ and Nixon administrations). He is also the author of “Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America.”
Reminiscent of the first volume in Robert Caro’s ongoing series on LBJ, this weighty 866-page biography seems to miss nothing of consequence during its subject’s formative years. Like Caro’s “The Path to Power,” this biography is serious, penetrating, meticulously observant and incredibly thorough. It is doubtful there will ever be more exhaustive coverage of Nixon’s first forty years.
Morris begins with an extensive exploration of the region in California where Nixon was born and raised followed by a lengthy review of his ancestry. It is two-dozen pages before Nixon’s name is mentioned and forty pages before he is born. And this level of detail is the rule rather than the exception; nearly every important topic receives careful focus and significant attention. Even readers who are familiar with Nixon will find there is much to be learned.
The chapter focusing on his future wife is by far the most detailed introduction to Pat Ryan I have ever read, the description of his job at the Office of Price Administration far exceeds what I’ve seen before and the discussion relating to his participation in the Alger Hiss spy case is so extensive (at nearly 250 pages) that it is essentially a book-within-a-book. And Morris conveys the “fund scandal” and Checkers speech in a surprisingly captivating manner.
The chapter dedicated to the 1952 Republican Convention in Chicago (where Eisenhower and Nixon became the party nominees) is even more descriptive – and enthralling – than similar sections of the eleven Eisenhower biographies I recently read. My favorite Eisenhower biography allocated just one-sixth the space which Morris provides here.
But readers expecting to be effortlessly swept from chapter to chapter with a fluid narrative or elegant prose will be disappointed. For all its clarity and sophistication, Morris’s writing style lacks the expressive brilliance and vibrant scene-setting which the best biographers offer. His narrative is detailed and penetrating, but often matter-of-fact and a bit colorless.
And although its length is not inherently troublesome, this book could have been at least 200 pages shorter without losing real substance or omitting important observations. Morris can be so verbose at times that the full measure of what is being discussed gets lost – or at least diluted. To fully absorb this book’s lessons requires greater-than-average care and concentration.
Overall, however, “Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of An American Politician” provides extraordinary access to Nixon’s life through his 1952 election as Vice President. It is regrettable Morris never completed this series, and Nixon’s personal life and inner-self are somewhat under-covered. But for readers already somewhat familiar with Nixon who are interested in better understanding his rapid rise in politics, there is no more compelling choice of biography.
Overall rating: 4 stars
February 21, 2016
This is a fairly exhaustive chronicle of Nixon's life from his pre-fetal days (his parents' coming-of-ages) to the victorious 1952 election, where he sat in the vice presidential spot on the ticket. There it ends, with intriguing hints of the sometime frostiness between Nixon and Eisenhower (both Dick and Pat were embittered by Ike not jumping more quickly to Nixon's defense after the "Fund" scandal emerged, which resulted in the Checkers speech), and the chill that entered the Nixon marriage. (By the early 50s, they sometimes sat across the aisle from each other on planes.)
There's not too much direct delving into Nixon's heart, soul, psyche. Whatever we conclude about these items comes secondhand, from his words and actions. The key to Nixon as a politician, Morris finds, was his pursual of "a politics not of wing or doctrine so much as ceaseless self-advancement." Certainly that's mostly true; if there's one area where doctrine may have held sway in him just as much as self-promotion, it would be his anti-Communism, which he flogged relentlessly from his run against Jerry Voorhis for Congress, through his time on the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Alger Hiss hearings, his Senate run against Helen Gahagan Douglas, and his slot on the national ticket.
Our anti-Communism of today is, of course, our anti-radical Muslim terrorism. We travel not in a line, but in circles.
January 9, 2012
Thoroughly-researched biography of young Richard Nixon - focusing specifically on his vindictive, win-at-all costs campaigns of 1946, 1950, and 1952. Morris is balanced in attributing brilliance to Nixon where it is due, and ominously foreshadowing events that would occur later on in his political life. The chapters on the Alger Hiss case and the Checkers speech/fund controversy are especially good. Even if you did like Nixon prior to reading this book, it would be difficult to still like him - as a human being - once you have finished it.
July 19, 2017
Roger Morris's Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician is an impressive, immersive work of narrative biography. It's a massive tome on Nixon's early career through his election to the Vice Presidency, probing Nixon's background and personality in the context of the wild, ever-changeable climate of California politics. Morris (an NSC staffer under Nixon who resigned over Cambodia) manages to be more thorough than Stephen Ambrose and less accusatory than Fawn Brodie, providing a sweeping look at America in the Depression and early Cold War through the prism of this most ambitious of politicians. His blow-by-blow accounts of the Alger Hiss affair and the Checkers Speech are as good as anything I've read about Nixon, who emerges as a man with drive, skill and the mixture of hardline ideological posturing (his constant Red-baiting) and surprising pragmatism (supporting the Marshall Plan and denouncing more extreme Republicans) that marked his entire career. A must-read for any Nixon aficionado.
September 24, 2012
The seeds of Nixon's downfall were sown early on. His difficult relationship with the truth and his willingness to do whatever is necessary to win are demonstrated early in his life. As was his willingness to work hard and devote all his energy to a cause - normally himself. Nixon has always been a despised character in US politics - mostly, I suppose, because of Presidency and Watergate. This biography makes allusions to his later troubles but stops at his election as Vice President to Eisenhower. It provides an in-depth explanation of where Nixon came from, his upbringing, and, maybe, provides an idea of what made him tick. The telling of his early days is fascinating and done in great detail. Some aspects could have been given shorter coverage to shorten the length of the book but the details are also what make the book so good.
May 3, 2025
Unfortunately, this isn’t the most gripping biography of Nixon I’ve ever read, but at least it’s a clear-eyed look at the rise of the man to power and the seeds he sewed early that brought him down.
The first 20 percent of the book focuses on the early years in southern California. That family looked like a mess. The dad was verbally abusive to his much calmer wife, Hannah, and the boys. Tuberculosis claimed the lives of one brother, and another one died after a short illness.
You’ll read with mild amusement about his rise to student body president of his college. He got there primarily because he worked to ensure that students could dance on campus. Yeah, it was one of those kinds of colleges.
You read about his marriage to the extremely reluctant Patricia, and a congressional race in which he so flagrantly lied about his opponent that it was scandalous. He got away with it and won the election. It would be a pattern he would shamelessly repeat.
You see the details of his years in the House of Representatives and his work on the House Un-American Activities Committee.
You get a fascinating glimpse of the association between Nixon and John Kennedy. The men were too different to ever form a close friendship, but they had discussions about foreign affairs, a topic that interested both.
You can’t have a biography of this guy without spending significant amounts of time with the Alger Hiss case. It’s elongated and far more detailed than I cared about.
The author spends time on Nixon’s campaign against Helen Douglas, and you see what an ethics-free brute this guy was even back then. I realize today’s sleazes on both sides of the aisle are even more sophisticated in their ethic-free behavior, but surely the greasiest of them still pay homage to Nixon.
Other chapters deal with his election to the senate, and the worming and squirming he did to get on the vice-presidential ticket for the 1952 election. Much of it is way in the weeds, and I mostly regret I read this, but I revel in the challenge of a 41-hour book, and I conquered it with good feelings all around. Unfortunately, reading this seems to enhance my cynicism of all things political.
Was this a gripping read from cover to cover? No! It was a decent read in large swaths. It was fascinating in smaller ones, and frankly, it was as boring as a test pattern at 3 a.m. on a sleepless Saturday on that old, faithful tube-based TV you had—yeah, the one without the remote and with the three channels and that funky bent pair of rabbit ears on top. Or maybe you grew up in a sophisticated house where the antenna was on the roof? Either way, this was test-pattern boring in significantly large places.
The first 20 percent of the book focuses on the early years in southern California. That family looked like a mess. The dad was verbally abusive to his much calmer wife, Hannah, and the boys. Tuberculosis claimed the lives of one brother, and another one died after a short illness.
You’ll read with mild amusement about his rise to student body president of his college. He got there primarily because he worked to ensure that students could dance on campus. Yeah, it was one of those kinds of colleges.
You read about his marriage to the extremely reluctant Patricia, and a congressional race in which he so flagrantly lied about his opponent that it was scandalous. He got away with it and won the election. It would be a pattern he would shamelessly repeat.
You see the details of his years in the House of Representatives and his work on the House Un-American Activities Committee.
You get a fascinating glimpse of the association between Nixon and John Kennedy. The men were too different to ever form a close friendship, but they had discussions about foreign affairs, a topic that interested both.
You can’t have a biography of this guy without spending significant amounts of time with the Alger Hiss case. It’s elongated and far more detailed than I cared about.
The author spends time on Nixon’s campaign against Helen Douglas, and you see what an ethics-free brute this guy was even back then. I realize today’s sleazes on both sides of the aisle are even more sophisticated in their ethic-free behavior, but surely the greasiest of them still pay homage to Nixon.
Other chapters deal with his election to the senate, and the worming and squirming he did to get on the vice-presidential ticket for the 1952 election. Much of it is way in the weeds, and I mostly regret I read this, but I revel in the challenge of a 41-hour book, and I conquered it with good feelings all around. Unfortunately, reading this seems to enhance my cynicism of all things political.
Was this a gripping read from cover to cover? No! It was a decent read in large swaths. It was fascinating in smaller ones, and frankly, it was as boring as a test pattern at 3 a.m. on a sleepless Saturday on that old, faithful tube-based TV you had—yeah, the one without the remote and with the three channels and that funky bent pair of rabbit ears on top. Or maybe you grew up in a sophisticated house where the antenna was on the roof? Either way, this was test-pattern boring in significantly large places.
March 14, 2020
Nixon has no remorse. He's the loser that won.
March 11, 2015
This is one of the best political biographies of the last 30 years, and it's a shame he didn't follow through with the rest of what was supposed to be a multi-volume Nixon biography. He told me in 1994 it was because he got so much resistance from Nixon loyalists that it wasn't worth the time and effort.
July 2, 2014
(pre-Goodreads)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews