The Making of the President 1968

In The Making of the President 1972, the fourth volume of narrative history of American politics in action, Theodore H. White brings his defining quartet of campaign narratives to a surprising and riveting close. The consummate journalist, White chronicles both the Democratic and the Republican parties as they jockeyed for position toward the end of Richard M. Nixons turbulent first term. He illuminates the cinematic moments that shaped the campaign-the attempt on George Wallaces life, Edmund Muskie crying in the snow in New Hampshire, the swift rise and fall of Tom Eagleton, and the ongoing anguish of Vietnam-leading inexorably to a second chaotic collapse among the Democrats and a landslide victory for Nixon. Yet even as the presidents highest ambitions were confirmed, White watches aghast as the new Nixon of 1968 is eclipsed by the corrupt Nixon of old-a Shakespearean conclusion to an astonishing political epoch.

Theodore H. White’s landmark Making of the President series revolutionized American political journalism, investing his subject with both epic scope and a fresh frankness about backroom political strategy that was unlike anything that had come before. In this secondvolume of his groundbreaking series, White offers an intimate chronicleof the 1964 campaign for the White House, from the earthshaking tragedy of President Kennedy’s assassination through the battle for power between Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater, whose candidacy paved the way for the modern conservative movement. White reports from within both campaigns, bringing to life a turbulent year in America’s history and a furious contest between two tough and seasoned political pros.

The greatest political story ever told—the epic clash between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, as captured in Theodore White's dramatic and groundbreaking chronicle

The Making of the President 1960 is the book that revolutionized—even created—modern political journalism. Granted intimate access to all parties involved, Theodore White crafted an almost mythic story of the battle that pitted Senator John F. Kennedy against Vice-President Richard M. Nixon—from the decisive primary battles to the history-making televised debates, the first of their kind. Magnificently detailed and exquisitely paced, The Making of the President 1960 imbues the nation's presidential election process with both grittiness and grandeur, and established a benchmark against which all new campaign reporters would measure their work. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction—and the first entry in White's influential four-volume "narrative history of American politics in action"—this classic account remains the keystone of American political journalism.