America-the book

Not Jon Stewart but Nixonland by Rick Perlstein.
It's a huge biography of Richard Nixon, but this masterwork also highlights the period between the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964, (shortly after the Republicans actually came very close to running out of operating capital!) and the equally impressive Nixon landslide of 1972.
He set the standard for campaign and electoral strategy, dirty tricks and coalition building the Repubs still use (and win with) to this day.
There's a reason why more political biographies are written about Nixon than any other modern President, and Perstein's book will set a new standard.
Richard Nixon's political cunning and instincts were better than even Clinton's and combined with his "almost serial collection of resentments" it makes for fascinating reading for political nerds.
At a time when elections are taking place in the U.S and Canada, this is timely and very absorbing stuff.

Posted by David