Book recommendation for readers: Nixonland

Figured I'd share briefly with readers what I'm reading, and recommend that you read it too.

"Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America," is a first-rate, modern, fast-paced historical account that attempts to explain the conservative ascent in America in the post-LBJ era.

Rick Perlstein's book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand American politics and contemporary history.

Perlstein's chronicle begins in the cauldron of the Watts riot of August 1965, careening forward at a breakneck pace.

The bottom-line thesis is that Nixon, a lonely, tortured, insecure man with a knack for eliciting pity, drove an indelible wedge through a fractured nation in the 1960s that endures today. The "red" and "blue" states; the appeals to euphemistic "law and order;" the Republican monoply on "security;" it all gets laid right at the notorious political survivor's feet.

My recommendation: Read this book. It is insightful, fresh, and, ultimately, illuminating.