Watergate @ 50: Looking Back and Looking Forward
 

Fifty years is often sufficient for revisionism to reshape our understanding of even the most complex and controversial subjects. Not so with Watergate. Today the history we have is remarkably similar to what journalists wrote in the 1970s. However, there is hope for a breakthrough in the near future.

Join us for this talk by Luke Nichter, American historian, professor of history and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University, and author or editor of eight books, including most recently The Year That Broke Politics. With introduction by Victor Davis Hanson, the Martin and Illie Anderson senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

 


 

Select books by Luke Nichter

Books by Luke Nichter related to Nixon

Learn more about The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 by Luke Nichter from Yale University Press.


About the Speaker

Luke Nichter headshot

Luke A. Nichter is a Professor of History and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University. His area of specialty is the Cold War, the modern presidency, and U.S. political and diplomatic history, with a focus on the "long 1960s" from John F. Kennedy through Watergate. He is a New York Times bestselling author or editor of eight books, including, most recently, The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 (Yale University Press), which was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by the Wall Street Journal.

 

 


About the Un-Presidented Speaker Series


The Un-Presidented Speaker Series highlights conversations with historians and experts of the Nixon era, and is presented by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in conjunction with the exhibition Un-Presidented: Watergate and Power in America now on view in the Lou Henry Hoover gallery of Hoover Tower at Stanford University.

 

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Lyuba's Hope
Lyuba's Hope
Please join us for an extraordinary screening Lyuba's Hope on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. PT in the Hauck Auditorium, Hoover…
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
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Ideas Uncorked: One Year After Pahalgam
The Hoover Institution in DC hosts Ideas Uncorked: One Year After Pahalgam on Wednesday, June 3 from 5:00–7:00 pm ET. The event will feature Šumit… Hoover Institution in DC
Thursday, June 4, 2026
Victoria Park 2012
Lighting Candles In Darkness: From Tiananmen Square To Hong Kong
The Hoover Institution's Human Security Project and Program on US, China, and the World invites you to a discussion on Lighting Candles in Darkness:… Shultz Auditorium, George P. Shultz Building
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