|
|
|
Book Reviews
| Kevin L. Yuill. Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action: The Pursuit of Racial Equality in an Era of Limits. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Pp. 264. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Paper, $29.95.
|
|
Kevin Yuill offers some important insights into the origins of affirmative-action policies in this study of Richard Nixon's role during his presidency in expanding programs to increase minority hiring by the government and private employers. Nixon's civil rights record has confounded scholars because of its inconsistencies and contradictions. A conservative who won office in part by appealing to the racist tendencies of white voters, Nixon supported affirmative action while rolling back other civil rights initiatives such as school desegregation, open housing, and antipoverty programs. In Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action, Yuill attempts to solve this paradox by emphasizing the moderate nature of affirmative action compared with other potential solutions to the nation's racial problems. In a decade when unlimited economic growth no longer seemed possible or even desirable, Yuill argues, Nixon shifted civil rights policy away from sweeping reforms aimed at eliminating inequality to smaller projects designed to keep racial tensions within manageable limits. |
1
|
|
Combining political theory with archival research, Yuill links the emergence of affirmative-action plans to the "legitimation crisis" that threatened the stability of American institutions in the late 1960s. Although he acknowledges some grassroots pressure from civil rights activists, he believes that elite concerns about race riots, student protests, and more widespread social disorder were the driving forces behind efforts to reduce black unemployment through programs that encouraged employers to hire more African Americans. Conservatives were the "first advocates of government-enforced affirmative action," while many liberals were wary of such efforts (p. 93). Some feared that setting targets for minority hiring would provoke a white backlash, and they noted the inadequacy of these policies for solving the unemployment crisis. Earlier proposals had focused on generating millions of new jobs and achieving full employment, which would have increased economic opportunities for all Americans, including white workers. Next to those schemes, as black congressman Augustus Hawkins pointed out, affirmative action appeared to be "only one, and not necessarily the best of tools" for achieving racial equality (p. 141). |
2
|
|
In this context, Nixon's support for affirmative action becomes less puzzling. Consistent with his other actions in domestic policy and foreign policy as well, Nixon's approach to civil rights reflected a narrower vision than those that had motivated his liberal predecessors. By highlighting this feature of Nixon's presidency, Yuill enhances our understanding of this period and reminds us that there were other paths the nation might have taken, and may still take, in the struggle to end racism. |
3
|
| Greta de Jong
|
| University of Nevada, Reno |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|