Maestro of Resentment

In The Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal
by Richard Nixon
Simon and Schuster, 1990, $21.95

Richard Nixon and His America
by Herbert S. Parmet
Little, Brown, 1990, $24.95

We live, apparently, in a time of the composure of grievance, the forgiveness of transgressions, the putting-behind us of the past. Ancient wrongs are righted, traditional conflicts resolved or dissolved. In the lees of this soothing tonic of lenience and euphemism, what is left for the bitter integrity of the radical personality? Well, there’s always Nixon-hating. But, as I read this, the latest of his awful R...