Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image Book

To his conservative supporters in the 1940s, he was a populist everyman. To intellectuals of the 1950s, he was Tricky Dick. To 1960s radicals, a shadowy conspirator. To Washington reporters, a clever spin doctor. To Middle Americans, a scapegoat. To psychologists, a paranoiac. To foreign policy hands, a statesman. To recent historians, an unlikely liberal. Drawing on new archival research as well as novels, movies, cartoons, and songs, Nixon?s Shadow rediscovers these competing views of our most controversial president and shows how each took hold in the American imagination. Uniquely image-conscious among postwar politicians, Richard Nixon pioneered new methods of shaping his public persona. But often his ploys backfired, revealing only how much politicians rely on the manipulation of their images. After Nixon?s half-century on the national stage ? and after the colorful parade of "New Nixons" so brilliantly described here ? it has become impossible to discuss politics without asking the questions he brought to the fore: What is the politician?s "real" character? What image is he trying to project? This fascinating book reveals not just what Nixon did but, more importantly, what he meant.Read More