Richard Nixon believed that history would show his administration in the forefront of civil rights progress. What does the record really say about civil rights under Nixon? In a groundbreaking new book, Dean Kotlowski offers a surprising study of an administration that redirected the course of civil rights in America.

Nixon's policymaking recast the civil rights debate from an argument over racial integration to an effort to improve the economic station of disadvantaged groups. Kotlowski examines such issues as school desegregation, fair housing, voting rights, affirmative action, and minority businesses as well as Native American and women's rights. He details Nixon's role, revealing a president who favored deeds over rhetoric and who constantly weighed political expediency and principles in crafting civil rights policy.

In moving the debate from the street to the system, Nixon set civil rights on a path whose merits and results are still debated. Nixon's Civil Rights is a revealing portrait of one of the most enigmatic figures of modern American politics and a major contribution to the study of civil rights in America.

Nixon'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

About the Author
Dean J. Kotlowski is Professor of History at Salisbury University.

Reviews
Nixon'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 *


Awards
Nominated for Ellis W. Hawley Prize 2002 and OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2002 and Francis Parkman Prize 2002 and James A. Rawley Prize 2002 and Merle Curti Award in American Intellectual History 2002 and Pulitzer Prizes 2003 and Bancroft Prize 2003 and OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2003 and Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award 2002 and J. David Greenstone Book Prize 2002 and Best Book Award in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 2002 and J. David Greenstone Book Prize 2003.



Book Information
ISBN 9780674006232
Author Dean J. Kotlowski
Format Hardback
Page Count 416
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Weight(grams) 744g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 38mm