Pat and Dick: The Nixons, an Intimate Portrait of a Marriage

Author(s): Will Swift

Political

Written by a leading presidential biographer who "narrates with grace and style" ("Kirkus Reviews") this is a probing, insightful, and nuanced study of the partnership between Pat and Dick Nixon throughout their turbulent fifty-three-year marriage. A sweeping portrait of the long-misunderstood marriage of America's thirty-seventh president, "Pat and Dick" chronicles a partnership that endured decades of political and personal turbulence, from the Cold War to Watergate. Representing both the fulfillment and the shortcomings of the American Dream, their marriage was rife with hopes and disappointments both intimate and global. "Pat and Dick" offers a wrenchingly cautionary tale of how unremitting adversity can fray the fabric of a marriage.Yet it also tells a more heartening story about how two people devoted to each other can survive disgrace and defeat. Nixon the man was enormously complicated: brilliant, insecure, and sometimes coldly calculating, but capable of surprising affection for his wife. Much less is known about Pat. Using research from newly available archives of Pat Nixon's letters and keepsakes, and interviews with close ties to the family, Will Swift reveals a woman who was both a playful partner and a shrewd and ambitious spouse. Based partly on Nixon's recently released courtship and wartime letters to his wife, "Pat and Dick" dispels the standard notion from many critics of the Nixons: that their partnership was a doleful compromise patched together by two lonely people and offers a new, compassionate, and psychologically astute portrayal of a union that humanizes the couple's flaws and strengths--a tale riveting in both its romance and its insights into that union's impact on Nixon's career.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9781451676945
  • : Simon & Schuster
  • : Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
  • : December 2013
  • : United States
  • : January 2014
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Will Swift
  • : Hardback
  • : 973.9240922
  • : 496