NIXON'S CIVIL RIGHTS: Politics, Principle, and Policy
Dean J. Kotlowski, . . Harvard Univ., $35 (404pp) ISBN 978-0-674-00623-2
"Rather than a means for rehabilitation," Kotlowski concludes, Nixon's "civil rights policy offers a vista on his multifarious persona." Despite that claim, this account serves as a de facto apologia for Nixon's record, elevating his accomplishments while downplaying his divisiveness and antagonism—his Southern strategy, his nominations of Haynsworth and Carswell, his cultivation of racial code words, the racial subtext of his "law and order" politics and the war on drugs or his bigotry revealed in the White House tapes. Nor (except for sporadic comments) does Kotlowski situate Nixon's racial policies within his overall political objectives or within the larger history of the struggle for civil rights, much less the balance of forces during Nixon's presidency. Attention is tightly focused on specific accomplishments and the internal workings of Nixon's administration. Separate chapters cover education, housing, voting rights, employment, black colleges and businesses, relationships with civil rights leaders, Native American policies and women's rights. Sixteen years after the Supreme Court's
Reviewed on: 11/05/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
Other - 417 pages - 978-0-674-03973-5