Nixon's War at Home - (Justice, Power, and Politics) by Daniel S Chard (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Drawing on thousands of pages of declassified FBI documents, [this book] shows how America's guerrilla war prompted the FBI to institute a host of new policing measures while reviving illegal spy techniques previously used against communists in the name of fighting terrorism. These efforts did little to stop the guerrillas--instead, they led to a bureaucratic struggle between the Nixon administration and the FBI that fueled the Watergate scandal and brought down Nixon. Yet despite their internal conflicts, FBI and White House officials developed preemptive surveillance practices that would inform U.S. counterterrorism strategies into the twenty-first century, entrenching mass surveillance as a cornerstone of the national security state"--

Book Synopsis

During the presidency of Richard Nixon, homegrown leftist guerrilla groups like the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army carried out hundreds of attacks in the United States. The FBI had a long history of infiltrating activist groups, but this type of clandestine action posed a unique challenge. Drawing on thousands of pages of declassified FBI documents, Daniel S. Chard shows how America's war with domestic guerrillas prompted a host of new policing measures as the FBI revived illegal spy techniques previously used against communists in the name of fighting terrorism. These efforts did little to stop the guerrillas--instead, they led to a bureaucratic struggle between the Nixon administration and the FBI that fueled the Watergate Scandal and brought down Nixon. Yet despite their internal conflicts, FBI and White House officials developed preemptive surveillance practices that would inform U.S. counterterrorism strategies into the twenty-first century, entrenching mass surveillance as a cornerstone of the national security state.

Connecting the dots between political violence and "law and order" politics, Chard reveals how American counterterrorism emerged in the 1970s from violent conflicts over racism, imperialism, and policing that remain unresolved today.

Review Quotes

"An ambitious book that engages with several disciplines and historical subfields. Scholars of counterterrorism will benefit from Chard's analysis of the escalating cycles of violence, and he adds important nuance and clarity to the history of Watergate. . . . Nixon's War at Home will serve as a critical foundation for further research on the counterintelligence operations that succeeded the COINTELPROs."-H-War

"An immersive and eye-opening account of how the Nixon administration's fight against the Weather Underground, the Black Liberation Army, and other insurgent groups gave rise to counterterrorism tactics and philosophies of 'punitive policing' that reshaped American politics. . . . Making excellent use of declassified FBI documents, Nixon's White House tapes, and other sources, Chard shines a light on this turbulent era."--Publishers Weekly

"An impressive first book by a young historian. . . . Nixon's War at Home offers genuine contributions to the continuing examination of the Long Sixties."--CHOICE

"Besides being a well-documented research project supported by a robust amount of references, the book is successful in explaining the conceptual development of counterterrorism."--The Society for U.S. Intellectual History