Nixon reconsidered

by Joan Hoff

Nixon Reconsidered is an eye-opening look at the Nixon phenomenon, arguing that Nixon's notoriety over Watergate has obscured the fact that he achieved much more than most people would like to admit. In this major work of revisionist history, Joan Hoff argues that the Nixon presidency "remains more important than those that have followed in its wake and most that preceded it in this century.". When given credit for certain accomplishments, Nixon is remembered for his dramatic successes in foreign policy, such as opening relations with China. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, Hoff argues that Nixon's most lasting achievements are in domestic rather than foreign policy. She points out that it was Nixon rather than Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Johnson who actually desegregated southern schools. It was Nixon who led Congress to our first concrete federal legislation on the environment. Nixon's bold attempts to achieve welfare and health care reform (opposed by both liberals and conservatives at th