NONFICTION - June 21, 1992

WATERGATE IN AMERICAN MEMORY: How We Remember, Forget and Reconstruct the Past by Michael Schudson (Basic Books: $24; 269 pp.). Michael Schudson, a professor of communication and sociology at UC San Diego, notes in the introduction to this volume that he was forewarned by colleagues not to use the Watergate scandal to illustrate the dynamics of collective memory. Those cautions, as it turns out, were on target, for a reading of this book demonstrates that Watergate--even on its 20th anniversary--is too recent, too charged, too familiar, and too unusual an episode to act as a springboard for anything else. Those who loved wallowing in Watergate the first time around will enjoy yet another immersion--Schudson spends a lot of time recounting the details and aftermath of the scandal--but in the final analysis, “Watergate in American Memory” tells us little we don’t already know. Schudson begins from the assumption that there are many different Watergates, ranging from the constitutional crisis to the purported victimization of Richard Nixon, but that’s stretching a point: Although Watergate is, as Schudson puts it, a “portmanteau term,” it is above all a simple, singular scandal. Schudson brings forth some interesting historical strands--it’s amazing to learn how long William Safire played the role of Nixon apologist--but this book isn’t nearly as effective as his previous volumes on advertising and the media.