On Nixon's Madness: An Emotional History

by Zachary Jacobson

Overview

Was Richard Nixon actually a madman, or did he just play one?

When Richard Nixon battled for the presidency in 1968, he did so with the knowledge that, should he win, he would face the looming question of how to extract the United States from its disastrous war in Vietnam. It was on a beach that summer that Nixon disclosed to his chief aide, H. R. Haldeman, one of his most notorious, risky gambits: the madman theory.

In On Nixon's Madness, Zachary Jonathan Jacobson examines the enigmatic president through this theory of Nixon's own invention. With strategic force and nuclear bluffing, Nixon attempted to coerce his foreign adversaries through sheer unpredictability. As his national security advisor Henry Kissinger noted, Nixon's strategy resembled a poker game in which he "push[ed] so many chips into the pot" that the United States' foes would think the president had gone "crazy."

From Vietnam, Pakistan, and India to the greater Middle East, Nixon applied this madman theory. Foreign relations were not a steady march toward peaceful coexistence but rather an ongoing test of mettle. Nixon saw the Cold War as he saw his life, as a series of ordeals that demanded great risk and grand gestures. For decades, journalists, critics, and scholars have searched for the real Nixon behind these acts. Was he a Red-baiter, a worldly statesman, a war criminal or, in the end, a punchline?

Jacobson combines biography and intellectual and cultural history to understand the emotional life of Richard Nixon, exploring how the former president struggled between great effusions of feeling and great inhibition, how he winced at the notion of his reputation for rage, and how he used that ill repute to his advantage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421445533
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Zachary Jonathan Jacobson (CAMBRIDGE, MA) received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in U.S. History with a focus on the Cold War. He is a Community Scholar with the Society of U.S. Intellectual History and the American Institute of Thought at Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Table of Contents

Introduction
PART ONE: ON ACTING
1. The Acting Life of Richard Nixon
2. The Sentimental Life of Richard Nixon
Interlude
3. The Working Life of Richard Nixon
PART TWO: ON MADNESS
4. The Madness in the Act: The First Campaign
Interlude
5. The Madness in the Mind: Rage and Conspiracism in the President
Interlude
6. The Madness in Play: The Use of the "Madman Theory" in Foreign Policy
The Madness in Control: To China and the "Indefinite Shore"
Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Melvin Small

Jacobson has done a superb job of using archival, journalistic, and primary and secondary sources that make up the amazing universe of Nixonology to craft an original theory on Nixon's madness.

Richard Immerman

Layering the history of emotions and psychological theory on top of impressive research and engaging prose, Zachary Jacobson views Richard Nixon through the lens of his 'madman theory.' He reveals that Nixon's self-perception was the same as allies' and enemies': at war with himself. The result is a superb portrait that illuminates nuclear policy, the Vietnam War, and more.

From the Publisher

Jacobson has done a superb job of using archival, journalistic, and primary and secondary sources that make up the amazing universe of Nixonology to craft an original theory on Nixon's madness.
—Melvin Small, Wayne State University, author of The Presidency of Richard Nixon

Layering the history of emotions and psychological theory on top of impressive research and engaging prose, Zachary Jacobson views Richard Nixon through the lens of his 'madman theory.' He reveals that Nixon's self-perception was the same as allies' and enemies': at war with himself. The result is a superb portrait that illuminates nuclear policy, the Vietnam War, and more.
—Richard Immerman, Temple University

Editorial Reviews

Brilliant, insightful, beautifully written . . . the audacious originality of On Nixon's Madness is a truly impressive feat.
—Times Literary Supplement

Jacobson is an astute observer and a graceful writer. This brings one of America's most enigmatic presidents into sharper focus.
—Publishers Weekly

[Jacobson] writes beautifully. . . . a methodologically audacious reinvention.
—Society for US Intellectual History

On Nixon's Madness is an appealingly creative hybrid of biography, political history, and cultural history, looking at Nixon's life and presidency in toto while also focusing specifically on how he conducted foreign policy.
—H-Diplo

One of the work's great strengths is Jacobson's excellent writing. The chapters dealing primarily with Nixon's childhood are moving and generate sympathy for the stiff and lonely little boy who couldn't connect with others. But the analytical strength of the work is that by taking emotions seriously, Jacobson can martial a wide variety of evidence, including contemporary journalism, oral histories and Nixon's own frequent appraisals of his emotional state, much of which has been dismissed by earlier Nixon scholars.
—Emotions: History, Culture, Society

From the Publisher