Description
Book SynopsisKotlowski offers a surprising study of an administration that redirected the course of civil rights in America. He examines such issues as school desegregation, fair housing, voting rights, and affirmative action, as well as Native American and women's rights, and details Nixon's role, revealing a president who favored deeds over rhetoric.
Trade ReviewNixon's Civil Rights is, far and away, the best book written on the topic. It is contemporary history at its absolute finest: exhaustive research, clear prose, trenchant analysis, and shrewd judgments. Anyone interested in the Civil Rights Movement, the 1970s, and the Nixon era will find this book indispensable. A truly landmark study. -- Douglas Brinkley, University of New Orleans
This book surpasses anything previously published on Nixon's civil rights in terms of research, including interviews with participants, and interpretation. The segment dealing with women's civil rights provides more details than any other work to date. Other aspects are equally well researched and controversial, particularly Kotlowski's analysis of Nixon's much publicized 'southern strategy.' He shows how limited in scope and short-lived this strategy actually was. His handling of Nixon's successful desegregation of southern schools, the president's approach to implementing civil rights in general, and his first two unsuccessful Supreme Court appointments is insightful and enlightening. -- Joan Hoff, Ohio University
In this scrupulously researched investigation of his civil rights policies, Kotlowski presents a differing view of Nixon--a complex leader who listened to the advice of his knowledgeable domestic advisers...This excellent book is a worthy successor to Allen Matusow's
Nixon's Economy as a skillful appraisal of Nixon's domestic policies. Highly recommended. -- Karl Helicher * Library Journal *
Scholars of the Nixon presidency and of the civil rights movement have generally overlooked the Nixon administration's civil rights policies. Kotlowski's book fills this void...The book shows how Nixon moved the civil rights debate from integration to economic opportunity, from rhetoric to action, and expanded the civil rights issue to women and Native Americans, while also helping to establish the Republican Party's "southern strategy". Well-researched and persuasively argued, the book captures the intriguing if frustrating complexity that characterizes Richard Nixon and will appeal equally to Nixon lovers, loathers, and those undecided. Strongly recommended. -- S. C. Matheson * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Contents Prologue: Deeds versus Words 1 Flexible Response: Southern Politics and School Desegregation 2 Open Communities versus Forced Integration: Romney, Nixon, and Fair Housing 3 The Art of Compromise: Extending the Voting Rights Act 4 Jobs Are Nixon's Rights Program: The Philadelphia Plan and Affirmative Action 5 Black Power, Nixon Style: Minority Businesses and Black Colleges 6 A Cold War: Nixon and Civil Rights Leaders 7 Challenges and Opportunities: Native American Policy 8 Stops and Starts: Women's Rights Epilogue: In the Shadow of Nixon Notes Select Bibliography Index
