Editorial Reviews Review Praise for THE PEACEMAKER: Nixon: The Man, President, and My Friend by Ben Stein“This book is a moving, deeply personal chronicle of the friendship that grew between Ben, the sorcerer’s apprentice, and Richard Nixon, first as a brilliant statesman at the pinnacle of power and then as a brooding sorcerer-in-exile, still surveying the world with a masterful gaze. It is also a treasure trove of Nixon quotes, quips, and candid insights, all painstakingly assembled and shared by Ben over the course of years of intimate conversations. It’s no exaggeration to say that what James Boswell was to Dr. Samuel Johnson, Ben Stein was to Richard Nixon: a confidant whose eyes and ears have captured a great man, close up, unvarnished, and endlessly alive in a way no other writer has. There is more of the real Richard Nixon in the pages of this modest memoir than in all the scholarly tomes—and shoddy, mainstream journalism—that fill the shelves of most university libraries. For all their differences, Ben Stein and Richard Nixon emerge from these pages as kindred spirits: men to whom success did not come easily but through faith, determination, and the guts to try, try, and try again, no matter how bruising the ordeal. In the end, both succeeded. And this book offers a key to appreciating the incredible nature of that success: a monument to friendship, endurance, and ultimate vindication.”  —  from the Foreword by Aram Bakshian Jr., aide and speechwriter to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, editor-in-chief of The American Speaker, and author of The Candidates 1980: A Professional Handicaps the Presidential Derby“Writer, economist, pundit, entertainer, friend—Ben Stein is a man of many parts, all of them admirable. But perhaps most admirable is his undying loyalty to one of the most unjustly maligned presidents in American history—a president of great accomplishments who was betrayed, sold out, and railroaded into resigning his presidency. Ben Stein’s deeply felt and evocative THE PEACEMAKER, written with passion and conviction, represents a significant step in redeeming the reputation of one of our great presidents, Richard M. Nixon.” — from the Prologue by John R. Coyne Jr., speechwriter to President Nixon and author of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement Review Praise for THE CAPITALIST CODE: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich by Ben Stein"My friend, Ben Stein, has written a short book that tells you everything you need to know about investing (and in words you can understand). Follow Ben’s advice and you will do far better than almost all investors (and I include pension funds, universities and the super-rich) who pay high fees to advisors."― Warren Buffett"In THE CAPITALIST CODE, the latest in a series of books aimed at younger readers with whom he [Ben Stein] has established a unique rapport, his intention is to talk about basic investing in a down-to-earth and commonsensical way, the prose always direct and straightforward, never abstract or complex." ― The Washington TimesPraise for The Little Book of Bulletproof Investing: Do's and Don'ts to Protect Your Financial Life by Ben Stein & Phil DeMuth"There's a wealth of common sense contained in this new entry into Wiley's popular Little Book series. It gets the essentials of successful investing right, and the authors' 'Tangent' portfolios present an interesting appraisal of historic returns. While I'm not at all sure that they (or anything else) are 'bulletproof,' enjoy the interesting and zippy read, and draw your own conclusions." ― John C. Bogle, founder and former chief, The Vanguard Group"Ben and Phil have pulled off a seemingly impossible feat: a concise, comprehensive financial guide that goes down like chocolate mousse. Many readers will laugh, some will cry, few will be able to put it down, and all will be better off for the experience, both financially and personally." ― William Bernstein, investment advisor and author of The Investor's Manifesto and A Splendid Exchange"Most investing books tell you all the tricks to get rich. They lie. Ben and Phil tell you there aren't any tricks, just some common sense that somehow eludes most people. They tell you not to let your own behavioral biases kill you. To stay diversified. To make small tilts in the direction of assets that other people's biases make them shun. And many more. Mostly, and this one is my piece of common sense, don't waste your money on tons of investing books, but buy this one." ― Clifford Asness, Managing and Founding Principal, AQR Capital Management"Ben and Phil have written a bunch of investment books, and I've read them all, but this one is their shortest AND their best. Stein and DeMuth have indeed found the Holy Grail of Investing. The chart on page 79 proves it. I salute them." ― Mark Skousen, Editor of Forecasts & StrategiesPraise For The Little Book of Alternative Investments: Reaping Rewards by Daring to be Different by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth"They've reported, I've decided. There is an investment strategy beyond stocks. Leave it to Ben and Phil to lead us through it. Little book? Try, big insight." — Neil Cavuto, Fox News and Fox Business"Ben and Phil have done it again. Another lucid, insightful book, designed to enhance your wealth! In today's stock-addled cult of equities, there is a gaping hole in most investors' portfolios...the whole panoply of alternative investments that can simultaneously help us cut our risk, better hedge our inflation risk, and boost our return. This Little Book is filled with big ideas on how to make these markets and strategies a treasured part of our investing toolkit." — Robert Arnott, Chairman, Research Affiliates"I have been reading Ben Stein for thirty-five years and Phil DeMuth since he joined up with Ben ten years ago. They do solid work, and this latest is no exception." — Jim Rogers, author of A Gift to My Children"If anyone can make hedge funds sexy, Stein and DeMuth can, and they've done it with style in this engaging, instructive, and tasteful how-to guide for investing in alternatives. But you should read this Kama Sutra of investment manuals not just for the thrills, but also to learn how to avoid the hazards of promiscuous and unprotected investing." — Andrew Lo, Professor and Director, MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering"A great little book for investors who are trying to improve their asset allocation. Lots of meat and fun to read." — Brenda Jubin, Ph.D., Seeking Alpha"Chock full of easy to digest information, useful advice, specific fund recommendations and it is a hoot and a holler to read. Not a dull page in it. And it will tell you just about everything you need to know about these essential alternative investment portfolio diversifiers." — Consuelo Mack, WealthTrack About the Author Ben Stein is the most famous economics teacher in America. His comedic role as the droning economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is by far the most widely viewed scene of economics teaching in economics history and has been ranked as one of the fifty most famous scenes in movie history. But in real life, Ben Stein is a powerful thinkers on economics, politics, education and history and motivation – and like his father, Herbert Stein, considered one of the great humorists on political economy and how life works in this nation. Stein in real life has a bachelor's with honors in economics from Columbia, studied economics at the graduate level at Yale, is a graduate of Yale Law School ( valedictorian of his class by election of his classmates in 1970), and has as diverse a resume as any man in America. His background includes...poverty lawyer for poor people in New Haven, trade regulation lawyer for the FTC, speech writer for Presidents Nixon and Ford, columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal, columnist for The New York Times, teacher about law and economics at UC, Santa Cruz and Pepperdine. Stein was the 2009 winner of the Malcolm Forbes Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism. Stein was the co-host, along with Jimmy Kimmel, of the pathbreaking Comedy Central game show, Win Ben Stein's Money, which won seven Emmys, including ones for Ben and Jimmy for best game show host(s); surely making him the only well-known economist to win an Emmy. Presently, he writes a column for The American Spectator and NewsMax, and is a regular commentator on Fox News, CNN, Newsmax TV and on CBS Sunday Morning. Stein has written or co-written roughly 30 books, mostly about investing, many of them New York Times bestsellers, including: The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich and The World According to Ben Stein: Wit, Wisdom & Even More Wit. He lives and works in the Los Angeles metro area.https://www.mrbenstein.com/https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWorldAccordingToBenStein/featuredhttps://www.newsmax.com/insiders/benstein/bio-39/ Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER ONE of THE PEACEMAKER by Ben Stein I cannot remember a time when the name “Nixon” was not floating about in the atmosphere of our home and especially of our neighborhood. From 1948 to 1953, our little family lived on Caroline Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland. That neighborhood, of perfectly fine middle class homes but far from mansions, was largely Jewish. In those days, the “good” neighborhoods in Maryland and the District of Columbia were “restricted” against Jews, blacks, Asians, Hispanics―anyone who was not a “real American”, as FDR had put it. He had told one of his Cabinet members that the United States was made by and for Northern European Protestants. No one else, even Jews trying to escape certain death at Hitler’s hell holes, was welcome. We Jews, some of us incredibly fortunate enough to have been several generations in America, were out in Silver Spring, still a perfectly pleasant place, extremely far from  the horror show that was Europe for us Jews in the Hitler years. For some reason which I have not ever been able to figure out, many of those Jews just hated Nixon. When they said the word “Nixon” they spat it out like Jews in the Pale when they were anticipating a visit from the Tsar, always accompanied by the rapine and murder of the accompanying Cossacks. It was almost as if Nixon had done some secret awful thing which could not be specified but was suggested just by the mention of his name. As a small child, I picked up that it had something to do with someone named “Hiss”, who was apparently a Soviet spy, but who also might have been a super hero heartily slandered and persecuted by the evil “Nixon.” I was a precocious reader, especially of The Washington Post, and well informed on current events, but I never could figure out at that stage of my life, what Hiss had done and what Nixon had done. But it was something mysterious and powerful and almost otherworldly.  I do not recall having any discussions with my parents about the subjects of Nixon or Hiss at that time. I do know that they were affected by the fears of Communists in high positions in government, and of Communists generally.  One small detail of that fear was that in those halcyon days before there was “racial profiling”, we children, even of very young age, were asked to fill out detailed forms about our families, where they were from, and ( of special interest ) what our father’s occupations were. ( In those days, few mothers worked. Yes, many of our teachers at our beautiful Parkside elementary school were women. But few indeed of them were married.) By the way, in those far off days, Montgomery County, Maryland, schools were racially segregated by law. It was a crime for black people to attempt repeatedly to enroll at a whites only school. Yes. A crime. The only black person we ever saw at school was “Willie”, a black former US Army soldier who had found work as the school janitor. The school was heated in winter by a coal furnace. Willie had to get up very early on frosty mornings and drive in from his home far out in the forests of upper Montgomery County ( which we thought of as being as forested and far away as if they were in Maine ) to get to Parkside. There, he shoveled coal into the furnace to keep us white boys and girls warm all through the day. Between the shoveling,  he walked up and down the hallway at our school tossing out resin and using it to sweep up the floors. Even then, I was repulsed by the mistreatment of Willie. For him to have been in the Army fighting as a truck driver and then to be working at a school which would not have allowed his children to attend it was disgusting to me. He retired when I was a sixth grader. I gathered money and bought him a trophy.) As I said, I had to write down on a form what my father’s occupation was. We were then to read the form to our classmates and teachers in a facet of elementary school life called “show and tell.” My mother was so concerned that out of my little mouth would come a word which sounded too much like “Communist” instead of “economist”. So, she had me say to the class of elementary school kids that my Pop was a “statistician” instead of an economist.It was a mouthful but I did it. Meanwhile, back on Caroline Avenue, on our brand new Magnavox TV in its immense blond wood cabinet, there were stories about something called “HUAC”, the House Un-American Activities Committee. This entity was deeply hated in our neighborhood, as far as I could tell. I was not sure why. I had no clear idea at all what it did, only that it was hated by the same people who hated Nixon. What the connection was, if any, I did not know.Then there were TV news stories about Richard M. Nixon, who was starting to become truly famous. Again, it had something to do with the mysterious “Hiss”. But I still did not know what that was. ( More about that to come. ) And I started to see images of Mr. Nixon on the TV screen and also on the pages of The Washington Post and our afternoon newspapers, The Daily News ( a tabloid ) and The Washington Star. The photos in The Post often were accompanied by text that noted what a horrible human being Nixon was. There was also a famous political cartoonist at The Post named Herbert Block, whose nickname, or “nom de plume” was “Herblock”. He simply loathed Nixon and drew him with a gangster style slobby beard, sometimes wielding aa dripping meat cleaver.The pictures and the “cartoons” mystified me. Mr. Richard Nixon did not look like a bad guy. He did not in fact have a beard or a “five o’clock shadow” as they were then called. He was not wearing a Nazi uniform. He was not wearing a Swastika armband. The images behind him were not in German or Cyrillic. He just looked like an ordinary solid citizen American. He looked a lot like the few male teachers we had at Parkside. He looked astonishingly like our next door neighbor on Caroline Avenue.Why did his name call forth such sneering hatred? It certainly didn’t at our house, at least as far as I recall it. Then came my first encounter with the real Richard Nixon. I do not recall the exact date or even the approximate date. I just recall that the 1952 Presidential election was going on. As everyone knows, the Republican ticket was General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Western Europe in World War II. His Veep would be Richard M. Nixon, then a US Senator from the Golden State of California. That, in itself, was cause for further hatred and sneering at Mr. Nixon in our little neighborhood. Why? Who knew? Apparently, according to overheard snippets of conversation from neighbors, amply fortified by angry accusations in The Washington Post, especially by Drew Pearson, a columnist who's widely read words appeared on the same pages as the comics in The Post, Richard Nixon had done some terrible things to win his election for The US Senator against a much beloved woman named Helen Gahagan Douglas.What these terrible things were was never clear to me. He had apparently called Mrs. Douglas a Communist. But there was never any clear evidence of those comments. And The Star ran pieces insisting that Mrs. Douglas’s Democrat opponents in the Primary had called her far worse―and there was documentation of those words. So, again, lots of smoke but no fires that I could see.And my parents, both highly educated economists and well informed, did not sneer at Nixon and could not show me where in our newspapers Nixon’s horrible comments ( allegedly horrible ) about Mrs. Douglas appeared. Senator Nixon’s very highly publicized efforts against Alger Hiss, and his part in something called a “witch hunt” against alleged Communists in government were well known. His work in that arena were necessary and even life-saving as far as we in our little family were basic. They could be cruelly mocked and lambasted at The Post. But in our little house, Nixon’s efforts seemed to make sense. After all, if there really were subversives in the government, we wanted them out of there and quick.From the earliest possible age, I had been inoculated against Communism and any form of “totalitarianism.” My parents had both been strongly anti-Communist and anti-fascist all of their lives, as far as I knew. We were taught at Parkside that life in a Communist country was a slave life. There was fear, violence, no civil rights, nothing but misery. Even as a very young child, I read “Darkness at Noon” by Arthur Koestler, about Stalin’s Show Trials. It was genuinely terrifying. By far the worst nightmare I have ever had was about your truly, even as a small child, being made to “confess” horrible acts of treason and sabotage against the Soviet Amerika. ( Yes, I recall that spelling from my dream. ) In my nightmare, I was made to stand against a brick wall along with some other “criminals” and await shooting.Of courses, we were also taught that Nazism was even worse in that we Jews were singled out for torture, starvation, and general immiseration. But as we were taught, Stalinist Communism was not much different from Nazism.So, for Nixon to be hated for being strongly anti-Communist was inexplicable. For Hiss seemingly to be admired and considered a martyr for being an agent for the Communists was utterly incomprehensible. Why would a man whose fame was largely derived from unmasking an agent of a hideous foreign power and a horrifyingly evil ideology be hated for it? Back to square one: My first “meeting” with Nixon. The 1952 Campaign was underway. My home town, Silver Spring, Maryland, had a small Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station on Georgia Avenue. It was right next to an International Harvester tractor dealership. There was to be a small rally for the GOP ticket on the train tracks of the B & O station. I do not recall if Gen. Eisenhower was to be there, but Senator Richard Nixon was. My parents took me to the station. I stood on my father’s shoulder at age seven and looked at Mr. Nixon speak. He was startlingly close to us. I have no recollection of what he said. I do recall that he swung his fists often to underline whatever point he was making. And I recall that he was a handsome man. Then, we would have said, “Movie star handsome.” He bore no resemblance at all to Herblock’s frighteningly ugly cartoons of Nixon.I also recall that after Mr. Nixon’s remarks, some of us in the audience came up close to the back platform and asked him questions. I do not even remotely recall what the subjects were. I just remember that he had a warm, engaging smile and that he took my little hand and smiled at me.Very soon, he was gone and one of the last of the “whistle-stop” train rallies was over.In the campaign, General Eisenhower was a divinity. He was largely beyond reproach or even questioning.All of the endemic anger of the press was directed at Mr. Nixon and none at the SAC. There were many questions about something called a “slush fund”. It was a fund supposedly hidden from The Law, given by local businessmen. It allowed Nixon to buy things he should not have been allowed to buy. That turned out to be a pure invention of the press. There were many questions about a man whom our neighbors hated as if he were Satan. Joseph R. McCarthy. There were a raft of questions and rage about something called “The China Lobby,” which I did not understand at all.What I did see―but not understand―was a raging subterranean torrent of fury at the handsome man with  the friendly smile and the engaging handshake. I have never understood it. Read more