America's Contrarian Sage: Richard Nixon and the Invention of the Modern Post-Presidency

FAIN: FZ-280152-21

Daniel Frick
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, PA 17603-2827)

A history of President Richard Nixon’s post-presidency years (1974 to 1994).

Most observers view the period from Richard Nixon’s August 1974 resignation to his death in April 1994 as a mere postscript, of interest only for the question of whether the former president rehabilitated his legacy. America’s Contrarian Sage corrects this misperception. In fact, in the final two decades of his life, Richard Nixon invented the modern post-presidency. Having been forced to abandon his presidential designs for what he liked to call a “structure of [world] peace” solid enough to last for generations, Nixon dedicated himself to this unfinished work post-resignation. In the process, he fashioned a new, active public role for ex-presidents, a roadmap adapted with great success by those who followed him. Written not just for scholars, but for a general audience as well, America’s Contrarian Sage moves beyond the entrenched positions of Nixon critics and defenders to be the definitive history of Richard Nixon’s post-presidency.