Men and the Moment

The presidential election of 1968 forever changed American politics. In this character-driven narrative history, Aram Goudsouzian portrays the key transformations that played out over that dramatic year. It was the lastOld Politics campaign,where political machines and party bosses determined the major nominees, even as theNew Politics of grassroots participation poweredprimary elections. It was an election that showed how candidates from both the Left and Right could seize on hot-button issues to alter the larger political dynamic. It showcased the power of television to package politicians and political ideas, and it played out against an extraordinary dramatic global tableau of chaos and conflict. More than anything else, it was a moment decided by a contest of political personalities, as a group of men battled for the presidency, with momentous implications for the nations future.Well-paced, accessible, and engagingly written, Goudsouzians book chronicles anew the characters and events of the 1968 campaign as an essentialmoment in American history, one with clear resonance in our contemporary political moment.