The Nixon Presidency

Abstract

The Nixon Presidency is a concise and accessible survey of domestic policy, foreign affairs, and politics during the thirty-seventh president’s time in office. Richard Nixon was the most polarizing president of the twentieth century and one who continues to fascinate observers of American political life. Admirers saw him as the personification of the American dream of upward mobility and their ally against threats at home and abroad. Detractors considered him a deceitful, sinister figure who threatened democracy, was wrapped up in Watergate, and perpetuated an immoral war in Vietnam. As time passes, new questions and insights into the Nixon era arise and various phenomena, such as the expansion of the welfare state, the growth of the administrative state, the evolution of the Republican and Democratic Parties, and the deepening polarization in politics and the broader society, cast Nixon’s presidency in a new light. This book uses Nixon as a prism through which to view American history at home and abroad and shows how Nixon’s influence remains evident half a century after he left office. The text is supported by primary source documents, which makes it ripe for classroom use and key for students of American history, the American presidency, and the sixties.