Short Synopsis
From the author of Trudy Hopedale comes a groundbreaking narrative of the relationship between Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon—from the politics that divided them to the marriage that united their families.

Full Synopsis

Richard Nixon was a young Navy officer when he first saw Dwight D. Eisenhower through a storm of tickertape as Manhattan celebrated the end of the war in Europe. Seven years later, Nixon was Eisenhower's running mate on the Republican presidential ticket—the beginning of a political and personal relationship that lasted for nearly twenty years. Despite a gulf that separated them by age and temperament, their association evolved into a collaboration that helped to shape the nation's political ideology, foreign policy, and domestic goals, from civil rights to the civilian space program.

Ike and Dick relates much that occurred out of public view, such as the sensitive discussions among senior staffers concerned about Nixon's proper role when Eisenhower suffered illnesses that might have incapacitated him. Based on deep archival research and interviews with dozens of men and women who knew and worked with both men, including family members, it offers fresh views of Nixon, the striving tactician, and the legendary general, a distant man with a warm smile who could, and did, make Nixon's life miserable.

In rediscovering the circle that surrounded them and a cast that includes Billy Graham, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Martin Luther King Jr., powerful newspaper columnists, early television personalities, and even the chilly young adman H.R. Haldeman, Ike and Dick provides an intimate view of America during the Cold War and of two men whose influence has never waned.

"Narrator Arthur Morey’s voice is pleasant and well-modulated, but the depth of his talent is revealed when he reads in the voice of Ike, Dick, JFK, or any of the other historical figures that people this work, because he ingeniously imbues his voice with subtle changes that only hint, without mimicking, those well-known voices." ---SoundCommentary

"Pithily describing their relationship as having a filial aspect, though one without much filial affection, Frank chronicles it through Ike's presidency and Nixon's presidential campaigns with the rich, inside-politics mix of rumor and maneuver in which connoisseurs of political history love to marinate." ---Booklist

"A well-researched and -written history that will satisfy both Eisenhower and Nixon aficionados." ---Kirkus

"Enthralling, innovative, and judicious." ---Michael Kammen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"Ike and Dick will surprise and greatly entertain as well as enlighten you." ---Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy

"Narrator Arthur Morey . . . approaches the book with the seriousness and import that it deserves." ---AudioFile

SoundCommentary Best Book