Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action is a well-written, scrupulously researched book that makes an important contribution to our understanding of civil rights in the post-1968 era. While book shelves bulge with works on Richard Nixon and civil rights, this book is unique in extending Nixon's importance to today's social and political scene. As Yuill makes abundantly clear, ... Read moreNixon's shadow still hangs over America, for better or worse.
Jonathan Bean, author of Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration Kevin Yuill's new book, Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action, is a tour de force of research, interpretation, and perspective, offering a tough, unblinking assessment of a highly controversial public policy by a highly controversial president. It will help guide scholarly and political arguments on affirmative action for some time to come.
Hamilton Cravens, Iowa State University An important book on racial politics and affirmative action during the Nixon administration.
Journal of American History
In [Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action] . . . 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.
Greta de Jong, University of Nevada, Reno
Michigan Historical Review
Yuill's book contains top-down analysis based on extensive research. . . . This is a book many professors will like and many others will shake their head over.
American Journal of Sociology
Kevin L. Yuill’s new book, Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action, is an important contribution to the scholarly literature on race equality and affirmative action. Yuill provides the most comprehensive and thorough discussion available to date of how the Nixon administration became a pioneer of positive discrimination. Demonstrating a mastery of relevant primary and secondary sources, Yuill addresses the unexpected significance of the Nixon presidency both for contemporary affirmative action policy and for identity politics in the U.S., concluding that the evolution of affirmative action has undermined progress toward race equality in America. Yuill’s thought provoking and engaged book will be of wide interest to students and scholars of U.S. politics.
Desmond King, Mellon Professor of American Government, Oxford University Show Less