Nixon's Shadow

To his conservative supporters in 1940s southern California, Richard Nixon was a populist everyman; to liberal intellectuals of the 1950s, he was ?Tricky Dick,? a devious manipulator; to 1960s radicals, a shadowy conspirator; to the Washington press corps, a pioneering spin doctor; to his loyal Middle Americans, a victim of liberal hatred; to recent historians, an unlikely liberal. Nixon?s Shadow rediscovers these competing images of the protean Nixon, showing how each was created and disseminated in American culture and how Nixon?s tinkering with his own image often backfired. During Nixon?s long tenure on the national stage Americans came to realise how thoroughly politics relies on manipulation. More than what Nixon did, this fascinating book reveals what Nixon meant.

Author Biography

David Greenberg is a historian of American politics and a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of the prize-winning Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image, among other books. Currently a columnist for Politico, he has been an editor at Slate and the New Republic and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other popular and scholarly publications. He lives with his family in New York City.