Nixonland

Rick Perlstein's history contends that Richard Nixon steered the political and social upheavals of 1965 to 1972 and so laid the ground for today's political divide. The narrative begins with the Watts riots of 1965, months after Lyndon Johnson's landslide over Barry Goldwater seemed to promise a lasting liberal consensus, and follows Nixon's comeback and his use of riots, antiwar protests and the drug culture as a backdrop for his campaigns. Perlstein frames the divide through two clubs at Whittier College, Nixon's alma mater: the privileged Franklins and the striving Orthogonians, whose resentments Nixon played on. Ending with the 1972 reelection, it treats Watergate only in passing. The New York Times named it a notable book of 2008.

Patrick Collison includes it on his Bookshelf page.