Watergate In American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, And Reconstruct The Past

Examines how America's collective memory of Watergate has changed over time and compares current memory to the historical record

Multiple, conflicting versions of the Watergate scandal coexist in the public's collective memory, according to University of California sociologist Schudson. To leftists, the scandal was managed by establishment forces to preserve the national security state. The moderate-liberal version holds that "the system almost failed" and views Watergate as a crisis over presidential abuses of power, while conservatives identify a recklessly autonomous press as a threat to the social order. Published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters, this intensive, evenhanded academic study challenges "the myth of Watergate journalism," which holds that the press alone brought down Nixon. Using surveys, interviews and news clips, Schudson clarifies the meaning of Watergate as a social process of discovery and outrage, a constitutional crisis and a contribution to the public's political education.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A fitfully perceptive account of the collective American ``memory'' of Watergate, and of what this tells us about the nature of history. Schudson (Communication and Sociology/UC-San Diego; Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion, 1984, etc.) contends that Watergate, like other traumatic public events, has entered the national consciousness in a variety of ways. It is, of course, still within the reach of personal recollection, not only for the participants but for the millions who watched the televised hearings. It has produced a massive body of published writing, and it still casts a long shadow over national politics, as the Irangate affair showed. Yet, Schudson points out, questions arise. How significant was Watergate, in fact? Was it a serious constitutional crisis or just a ``scandal''? Was the real villain of the piece Nixon, or was it the political system that produced him? What does the collective memory of Watergate tell us about how we learn from the past? Does it tell us that there are facts of history we would do well to remember, or, rather, that our past is largely constructed by our present? Schudson bobs back and forth among these possibilities, his aim being less to answer such questions ``than to identify them and their continuing influence.'' The result is a great many interesting remarks and observations concerning particulars, coupled with an irritating circularity and vagueness of direction in general. This is especially apparent when the author attempts to extract general conclusions about what it is to learn from the past. Much labor is expended in arriving at the unremarkable view that the past is neither wholly objective nor wholly constructed. Schudson is at his best when describing the careers, reforms, myths, celebrities, and expectations created by Watergate, and when showing how Watergate became a lens through which, for better or worse, Irangate was viewed. Sociologically and politically interesting; philosophically half-baked. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

On the 20th anniversary of the Democratic headquarters break-in, has the Watergate perpetual publishing machine cranked out another play-it-again-Sam Ervin reprise? No! This engrossing overview shows how Watergate has evolved into part of our collective memory. Watergate, a cultural flashpoint rivaling the traumas of the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Challenger disaster, carries a legacy that includes an elevation of the journalism profession and the rise of Jimmy Carter based on a promise of clean government and his fall when he couldn't deliver. Ironically, the lessons of Watergate were cleverly and subliminally manipulated so that the players of Ronald Reagan's Iran- contra fiasco would not be prosecuted. This and an unassertive Congress allowed Reagan, whom Schudson sees as more deserving of impeachment than Nixon, to complete his second term while Nixon continued his struggle for rehabilitation. A provocative, controversial panorama of institutional Watergate, enthusiastically recommended for large public and academic collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/92.
- Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp . Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.