Description

Easton Press leather edition of Stephen Ambrose's "Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990," Volume Three, a SIGNED FIRST EDITION, Personally SIGNED by STEPHEN AMBROSE, published in 1991. Bound in burgundy leather, the book has pale yellow moire silk end leaves, satin book marker, hubbed spine, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition---- except for 'very minor' imperfection to bottom gilt---mentioned for accuracy. Richard Milhous Nixon, who lived from 1913--1994, was the 37th president of the U.S., serving from 1969 to 1974. A politician, lawyer, and member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was the 36th vice president from 1953-1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His years in the White House saw reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, detente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo II Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal. President GERALD FORD issued a pardon for his successor. Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in Southern California. He graduated from Duke Law School in 1937, where he researched in the law library for .35 cents an hour and lived in a farm house without electricity or water. He later practiced law in California and moved with his wife, Pat, to Washington, D.C. in 1942 to work for the federal government. He gained fame for his work on the ALGER HISS case. Nixon rehabilitated his image as an elder statesman, writing his memoirs and nine other books. In Volume three, Ambrose begins in 1973 with the "New American Revolution" and troubles in Vietnam. Chapter 5 discusses Nixon's firing of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean---the three White House advisors urging him to cover up the WATERGATE break-in and scandal. Chapter 11 is titled: "I Am Not a Crook," Chapter 21 discusses his trip to China and the Chapter 28 is the "Epilogue, Nixon in Retrospect." On November 7, 1972, Richard Nixon won a landslide victory in the presidential contest by a staggering 60 to 40 percent, the climax of twenty-six years of campaigning. However, the Democrats held on to both houses of Congress. Nixon was determined to take on the Democrats and also the basic structure of American government; and because of Nixon's deep-rooted, long-standing anger at his opponents, real and imagined, this led him to ill-considered and ill-tempered outbursts, which in turn goaded his opponents into extremism, thus raising the stress on the already badly battered body politic. Nixon called his second term the "New American Revolution." Nixon intended to drastically reduce the size and scope of the federal government and to "trim down" the Great Society programs of the 1960s. Nixon, with a mandate from the people, was ready to take them all on---the Joint Chiefs, the right wing, the left wing, the entrenched interests. He was in good shape---fifty-nine years old and in excellent health. Ambrose wrote in the Foreword: "Most of what happens in the following narrative happened because Nixon so willed it. . .between January 1973 and August 1974 he could have brought down the curtain---by confessing, by resigning, by burning the tapes, by defying the Special Prosecutor, the courts, and the Congress, or through a number of other possible actions. Instead, he chose to try to save all by risking all. . .he was heroic, admirable, and inspiring while simultaneously being dishonorable, despicable, and a horrible example. It was a role only Richard Nixon could have invented or played. . .Yet there is a hero. Justice does prevail, virtue does triumph, despite the shortcomings, human failings, selfishness, and mendacity that all but overwhelm. That hero, much battered and abused throughout the play, rises in the end to achieve vindication. . .I have loved writing this book." 667 pages, including an index---a RARE title! I offer combined shipping.