"Using Nixon's own words, private writings, and tape-recorded conversations, Ambrose captures the man and all his contradictions as he faces the greatest tests of his tumultuous career: the ordeal of Watergate and its aftermath, the long road back to public life as a respected, if forever tarnished, elder statesman. In this, the final volume of his Nixon saga, Ambrose shows us Nixon's tanacious and unyielding struggle to save himself from political oblivion. For the first time, we see the private Nixon - agonized but determined and relentless. From the previously unexplored vantage of the Oval Office, we see the little-known actions and reactions that animated the most incendiary political scandal in public memory - the high drama and the skulduggery, the loyalty, suffering, and betrayal. Ambrose shows how Nixon, the true architect of his own destruction, his own most zealous persecutor, prolonged his agony - and the nation's - through an unyielding, perhaps maniacal, obsession with silencing his enemies and maintaining the presidency. He simply would not give in - until the final moment of truth.
"Yet even after his self-exile from Washington and the Republican Party, even after the national outcry that sealed his shame, Nixon would not go gentle into oblivion. Ambrose provides an unforgettable portrait of the older Nixon in San Clemente, drawing on his seemingly endless reserves of determination, laying the groundwork for yet another comeback, a return to the arena that would defy all odds. Ambrose illuminates all the hidden years, the days and nights of personal struggle, writing, travel, and networking. We see Nixon's little-understood role in the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. We see his growing prominence as an international authority on foreign policy. We see his gradual transformation from pariah to valued adviser, a metamorphosis that announced itself most clearly in 1990, when three Republican presidents gathered at the dedication of the Nixon Library.
"Ambrose brings the odyssey of America's most brilliant, beleaguered, and multifaceted politican to stunning life in vivid dramatic scenes. Here is the real Nixon as he was - Machiavellian, suspicious, egomaniacal, and undeniably brilliant in his grasp of politics and the hopes and fears of the American public. Stephen E. Ambrose has captured a man whose chameleonic transformations have influenced our lives, our culture, and our government for over three generations."
