Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Ambrose, Stephen - Joan Hoff-Wilson (review date 21 June 1987)

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Joan Hoff-Wilson (review date 21 June 1987)

SOURCE: A review of Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913-1962, in Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 21, 1987, p. 12.

[In the following review of Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913-1962, Hoff-Wilson finds weaknesses in Ambrose's reliance on dubious primary sources and his lack of original analysis.]

On the face of it, Stephen E. Ambrose has written a balanced, descriptive account [in Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913-1962] of the life of Richard Milhous Nixon from birth in 1913 to premature retirement from politics in 1962. Yet, underneath the polished prose and paced narrative, Ambrose's first volume of a projected two-volume biography of the 37th President of the United States makes perplexing reading, for two reasons.

First, instead of analysis, we are offered description or, worse, tantalizing one-liners. In connection with the death of...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. John Keegan (review date 22 October 1984)
   2. Herbert S. Parmet (review date 29 October 1984)
   3. Spencer Warren (review date April 1985)
   4. Richard Harwood (review date 3 May 1987)
   5. Herbert Parmet (review date 4-18 May 1987)
   6. Joan Hoff-Wilson (review date 21 June 1987)
   7. John Charmley (review date 4 July 1987)
   8. Sidney Blumenthal (review date 6 July 1987)
   9. Alan Brinkley (review date 16 July 1987)
   10. Richard John Neuhaus (review date August 1987)
   11. Robert A. Strong (review date Summer 1988)
   12. Robert Dallek (review date 15 October 1989)
   13. John Edward Wilz (review date Summer 1990)
   14. Kevin P. Phillips (review date 24 November 1991)
   15. William L. O'Neill (review date 30 December 1991)
   16. Anthony Howard (review date 1 February 1992)
   17. Esmond Wright (review date July 1992)
   18. James N. Giglio (review date Winter 1993)
   19. John Kentleton (review date February 1994)
   20. Earl F. Ziemke (review date March 1994)
   21. Scott Jaschik (essay date 18 May 1994)
   22. William L. O'Neill (review date 6-20 June 1994)
   23. Carlo d'Este (review date 30 December 1994)
   24. Alan F. Wilt (review date June 1995)
   25. Blaine Harden (review date 11 February 1996)
   26. Alexander Theroux (review date 3 March 1996)
   27. Gordon S. Wood (review date 4 April 1996)
   28. Patricia Nelson Limerick (review date 7 April 1996)
   29. Peter G. Boyle (review date June 1996)
   30. Albert Furtwangler (review date December 1996)
   31. Lisa E. Emmerich (review date Fall 1997)
   32. Howard Lamar (review date October 1997)
   33. Josiah Bunting III (review date 21 December 1998)
   34. Eric T. Dean Jr. (review date June 1999)
   35. Steve Weinberg (review date 3 September 2000)
   36. Patricia Nelson Limerick (review date 18 September 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright