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Nixon's Civil Rights - Politics, Principle, and Policy (Hardcover)
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Nixon's Civil Rights - Politics, Principle, and Policy (Hardcover)
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A capable dissection of the Nixon administration's policies on such
matters as affirmative action and housing integration, charting
failures and successes alike. According to Richard Nixon, writes
Kotlowski (History/Salisbury State Univ.), "once blacks became
educated and entered skilled trades or professions or opened
businesses, they would be able to purchase homes in suburbs." The
president's thinking on matters of civil rights was seldom more
complex than that, and he was motivated more by political
expediency than a concern for social justice. Even so, as Kotlowski
demonstrates, and even against the opposition of close advisors
such as Charles Colson ("a bigot and crass opportunist"), Nixon's
lieutenants managed to push through meaningful reforms in civil
rights legislation and federal policy, most notably an aggressive
program of affirmative action that ignited a firestorm of
controversy. Kotlowski leaves little doubt that Nixon was in his
heart a racist, but his pragmatic approach to politics and
professional survival drove him to set aside his own inclinations,
stand up to the Republican Party's archconservative Southern wing,
and endorse reform. In taking such actions as increasing funds for
the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, Kotlowski wryly
observes, "Nixon's motives were not entirely high-minded, since he
saw hiking the budget as a way to improve his 'image' with
minorities and liberals." But whatever the motivation, the author
insists, Nixon's policies "helped minorities enter the middle
class" and broadened federal concern to include other minorities
such as Mexican Americans and Native Americans. Though these
policies failed in other realms, checkered success, Kotlowski
suggests, is better than no success at all; as civil rights
activist Roger Wilkins observes in the closing pages, "looked at
through the prism of the Reagan Administration, the Nixon civil
rights record does not look as bad today as it did in 1971, '72,
and '73." Of considerable interest to students of contemporary
history, race relations, and federal policy. (Kirkus Reviews)
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.
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