1968
Gould considers the surprising decision of Lyndon Johnson not to seek renomination for the presidency; the phenomena of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy; the campaigns of Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and the third-party candidate George Wallace; the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy; the disastrous Democratic convention in Chicago; and the extraordinary events of what Eugene McCarthy later called the "Hard Year." it was, Mr. Gould observes, "a time of recurrent shocks, intense emotions, and passionate Judgments. During a troubled time, fallible men and women made decisions that changed the nation." Mr. Gould offers deft portraits of the major players' and a balanced analysis of the campaigns, their strategies, and their results. He describes how Nixon and the Republicans discovered the so-called wedge issues that would later serve Ronald Reagan and George Bush so well in their presidential campaigns.