Nixon's Shadow: The History of the Image [Paperback]

David Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2004

How an image-obsessed president transformed the way we think about politics and politicians.

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—and through the succession of "new Nixons" so brilliantly described here—Americans came to realize how thoroughly politics relies on manipulation. Since Nixon, it has become impossible to discuss politics without asking: What is the politician's "real" character? How authentic or inauthentic is he? What image is he trying to project? More than what Nixon did, this fascinating book reveals what Nixon meant. 30 photographs

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this aptly named study, Greenberg, a Bancroft Prize winner who also collaborated with Bob Woodward on The Agenda, sedulously avoids value judgments about the effectiveness of Richard Nixon's policies, offering instead a kaleidoscopic view of the man's many images: as Tricky Dick, as conspirator, as victim, as statesman, among others. Borrowing Woodward's device of calibrating his subjects through the eyes of others, Greenberg presents the opinions of Nixon loyalists, Nixon haters, pundits from the left and right, mainstream historians, revisionist historians, psychobiographers, the Washington press corps and members of the foreign policy establishment. According to Greenberg, this retrospective shows Nixon to have been the first postmodern president, the first whose image was purposefully manipulated for political reasons and without regard to accomplishments. The author also argues that the key to understanding Nixon is not in "discarding the many images of him... but [in] gathering and assembling them into a strange, irregular, mosaic." But with an impressive number of viewpoints sampled, hundreds of sources quoted and even TV shows Laugh-In and Saturday Night Live plumbed for Nixon references, readers may find the citations overwhelming. Still, for sheer drama, Nixon's career remains worthy of review, from his red-baiting 1950 Senate campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas, his involvement in the Alger Hiss perjury case and the infamous "Checkers" speech to the Khrushchev kitchen debate, his China policy and the political drama of the century, Watergate. Greenberg's thoroughly researched book, despite its faults, brightly illuminates the passionate public responses that swirled around one of the most controversial politicians of our times. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Nixon haters, Nixon apologists, and would-be Nixon explainers here receive in Greenberg what has long been needed: an impartial umpire. This is not a biography; instead, Greenberg analyzes what biographers, journalists, historians, and artists have to say about the deeds, dastardly and otherwise, of Richard Milhous Nixon. Greenberg unpacks this commentary the old-fashioned way, by arraigning a writer's assumptions and biases. He parallels this with smart analysis of Nixon's career-long efforts to shape his own image--to his critics the surest evidence of Tricky Dick's unprincipled phoniness, but to Greenberg a case study in a politician's spin-control. Working off the superheated rhetoric produced by Vietnam, radical protest, and Watergate, Greenberg's appraisals produce much discernment and subtle bemusement at Nixon's ever-malleable reputation. There will always be a New Nixon, it seems, whether it's Nixon the crypto-liberal (to historian Joan Hoff); Nixon the epitome of a corrupt, imperial system (to the New Left); or Nixon, "one of us" (to journalist Tom Wicker). An impressively balanced work. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (October 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393326160
• ISBN-13: 978-0393326161
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( N ) > Nixon, Richard

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, September 25, 2003

By 

MJD1 (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (Hardcover)

Nixon's Shadow sheds light on Nixon's life and legacy--and it opens up a fascinating world on the civic life of the United States. It's one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.

What I love about most this book is that it tells Nixon's story through the eyes of his critics and the lens of his detractors. In doing so, Greenberg opens up a whole new way, really, of thinking about our politics. The book marks a major contribution to the Nixon literature as well as a shrewd, detailed portrait of the rise of image-making in 20th century America.

By focusing on the forces that led to Nixon's rise and fall, Greenberg shows us how images in politics aren't simply products created by a candidate--they are, in fact, the result of complex forces in our culture and our politics. This book goes to the heart of our civic life. It is one of the most fascinating take our politics that I've ever had the pleasure to read--and one of the best-written non-fiction books to come down the pike in recent memory.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Shadow Knows, September 24, 2003

By 

I. Joseph (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (Hardcover)

It amazes me that anybody reading this book would believe that having one central idea could be considered a flaw. The brilliance of this book is its central theme. The coherence brought to this subject is staggering, given past and often failed attempts to capture the essence of Nixon not as a political person, but as a political hydra.

The legwork it must have taken to build such a coherent narrative out of that many disparate sources is truly a remarkable achievement. To make it accessible to the non-academic reader is nothing short of a miracle and reflects the writer's well-established credentials as a seasoned political writer and editor. If this is book one, I eagerly look forward to his future efforts.

I would also recommend this book to anybody who wants to challenge his or her pre-conceived notions about who Richard Nixon was and what his influence will be on the political landscape of America. For the Nixon neophyte, the book frames the Nixon legacy into a well-organized source on an individual's significant role in the revolution and evolution of American politics towards image control and ideological spinning.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An impressive and engaging read, September 24, 2003

By 

Rebecca Locker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (Hardcover)

Seldom does one find such a readable, enlightening treatment of a subject so many of us believe we know so well. Nixon's Shadow documents, in a most engaging fashion, the genesis of a significant change in American political culture. One has not studied Nixon, or modern American political history, until one understands Nixon's many images. Greenberg breaks this ground in fascinating and well-organized detail. The guy can write, too.