After losing the California governor’s race in 1962, Nixon announced the end of his political career, and he accepted a partnership in a prestigious New York City law firm. He became a valuable rainmaker for the firm, and he used his position to reconstitute his political base with wealthy contributors, a deep and talented campaign staff, and enhanced international experience. This culminated in his victory in the 1968 presidential campaign. The assistant managing editor of the American Bar Association’s trade journal, Li provides an excellent, straightforward narrative of how this transpired. The author places these transformational years within a quick survey of Nixon’s prior political career and a brief overview of his two administrations. The consistency of Nixon’s talents and flaws is evident in each phase of his career. The final chapter treats former colleagues and legal issues of the firm during Nixon’s presidency. The epilogue touches on recent presidential players’ engagements with prestigious law firms. Although this focused and manageable account relies more on interviews and printed sources than on extensive archival research, it deserves consideration in competition with John Farrell’s or Evan Thomas’s recent, massive Nixon biographies.



Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Victor Li’s “Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House” illuminates Richard Nixon’s crucially important “wilderness years” as a Wall Street lawyer. Li provides new insight and understanding OF this period, from Nixon’s crushing 1962 defeat in the campaign to become governor of California – “You won’t have me to kick around anymore” – to his successful bid for the presidency in 1968. Well-researched and illuminating.

Thomas Byrne Edsall, NY Times columnist and professor at Columbia University School of Journalism