TV(Nixon)Land

Over in the “showbiz” area of CNN’s site, Todd Leopold interviews Rick Perlstein about Nixonland, and some of the TV programming of the era is discussed in the context of the historian’s America-in-conflict thesis, such as the Smothers Brothers...

Nixonland Nitpick 2

Describing the 1962 California GOP gubernatorial primary between Richard Nixon and Joe Shell, Rick Perlstein writes (p. 60): Nixon’s primary victory over Shell was humiliatingly close. Shell did hurt Nixon by undermining his conservative support and forcing him...

Nixonland Nitpick 1

Whatever its virtues, Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland contains a number of factual errors. In the weeks ahead, I shall note some of them. The first deals with the 1950 Democratic senatorial primary in Florida (p. 34): George Smathers beat Florida senator Claude...