An embattled presidency. A nation divided. The tumult in today’s America harkens back to the 1970s and one of the country’s most controversial political figures, Richard M. Nixon.

Author John A. Farrell examines our 37th president and the new relevance of his career and complex legacy in a discussion of Farrell’s biography Richard Nixon: The Life, a 2018 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Nixon oversaw health care, welfare, civil rights, and environmental reforms. His overtures to China were the first break in the Cold War. But he spurred the nation’s so-called Silent Majority to distrust elites, forestalled peace in Vietnam for political gain, and resigned at the height of the Watergate scandal in 1974.

Farrell is a contributor to Politico Magazine and The Atlantic and a former member The Boston Globe’s famed Spotlight investigative team.