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Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy. By Dean Kotlowski. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002. xii + 404. Notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $35.00. ISBN 0-674-00623-2.
Few historical figures are as puzzling as Richard M. Nixon. Throughout his political career, Nixon tread a path of liberal "zigs" and conservative "zags" that bewildered commentators, then and now. His civil rights policies exemplified the complexity of the man: Nixon courted white voters by opposing "forced integration," but antagonized them by making affirmative action a permanent element of the government's racial regime. He acted upon black demands for contracts and jobs, yet African American leaders gave Nixon little credit for his "progressive" polities. Dean Kotlowski covers this rugged historical terrain remarkably well. A model of scrupulous research, Nixon's Civil Rights illuminates the enigmatic character of Nixon's presidency.
The eight chapters of Nixon's Civil Rights deal separately with issues that run the gamut-from those on the black civil rights agenda (school desegregation, fair housing, voting rights, "black capitalism")to concerns voiced by other interest groups (women's rights, Native American self-determination). Nixon appears most often as a compromiser who defined himself against the political extremes. For example, he used litigation to desegregate southern schools while...