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1. Nixon – More Than Just Watergate?

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the extent to which Watergate scandal dominates our appraisal of the Nixon presidency, focusing in particular on: (i) what actually happened at the Watergate complex in the early hours of 17 June 1972, including the involvement of the White House; (ii) the political influence importance of the FBI in this period, and the role of its director, J. Edgar Hoover; (iii) the existence of extensive of recordings of conversations between Nixon and administration officials, family members and White House staff, which included Nixon implicating himself in the Watergate scandal; (iv) the release of these tapes in August 1974 and Nixon’s resignation four days later; and (v) the way the Nixon presidency is seen now.

Course

In this course, Dr Kevin Yuill (University of Sunderland) explores the presidency of Richard Nixon, 1969-74. In the first module, we think about the incident for which Nixon is best known and which dominated his final year in office – the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation on 9 August 1974. After that, in the second module, we go back to the beginning of the story and trace Nixon’s rise to power between from his childhood in Yorba Linda, California to his losses in the 1960 presidential election and 1962 California gubernatorial election. in the third module, we continue the story up to Nixon’s victory in the 1968 presidential election, before turning in the fourth and fifth modules to Nixon’s time in the White House.

Lecturer

Dr Kevin Yuill is Associate Professor of American History at the University of Sunderland. His primary interests are in the intellectual history of the United States, particularly race and equality in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, attitudes to suicide and death, and attitudes to the possession of firearms. His recent publications include (as co-author) The Second Amendment and Gun Control: Freedom, Fear, and the American Constitution (2017) and Assisted Suicide: the Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization (2013).