1968: The Election That Changed America

American Ways Series

by Lewis L. Gould

The race for the White House in 1968 was a watershed event in American politics. In this brilliantly succinct narrative analysis, Lewis Gould shows how the events of that tumultuous year changed the way Americans felt about politics and their national leaders; how Republicans used the skills they brought to Richard Nixon's campaign to create a generation-long ascendancy in presidential politics; and how Democrats, divided and torn after 1968, emerged as only crippled challengers for the White House throughout most of the years until the early twenty-first century. Bitterness over racial issues and the Vietnam War that marked the 1968 election continued to shape national affairs and to rile American society for years afterward. And the election accelerated an erosion of confidence in American institutions that has not yet reached a conclusion. In his lucid account, now revised and updated, Mr. Gould emphasizes the importance of race as the campaign's key issue and examines the now infamous October surprises of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon as he describes the extraordinary events of what Eugene McCarthy later called the Hard Year.

Genres: History, Politics

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 1993

About the author

Lewis Ludlow Gould is Eugene C. Barker Professor Emeritus in American History at the University of Texas in Austin. Gould earned an A.B. from Brown University in 1961, and an M.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1966) from Yale University.

Reviews

[Josh O'Connor]

Five stars for content and the quality of the narrative . The author was really able to draw the reader in and presented a cohesive narrative.

Three stars for typos and lack of citations. Where in the heck are the citations?? Heavy use of quotations and refers to papers and magazines and TV broadcasts but there are no footnotes, no end of chapter citations, no works cited or bibliography. How did that fly with the publisher?

[Jonathan Koan]

While this book had some great revelations, it was hardly well done or impressive in any way.

The largest strength of this book lies in its frankness. I am unable to determine the author's political positions or party. Rather, Lewis L. Gould provies a straightforward retelling of the election of 1968 and all of it's preceeding effects. I had never heard about many of the events that the book discusses, and the book was able to put other events I had heard a litte about into a greater context.

The largest flaw with the book is it's lack of citations. There is not one single note or citation in the book and, according to the academic laws, it is downright criminal. Seriously, the lack of citations frustrated me from end to end. The book might possibly be worth another point or so if only it had more notes.

Another flaw of the book is it's pagelength. At only 155 pages, this seems like a summary of the election as opposed to a deep dive into it. Perhaps that is what the author intended, but I think it seriously lacked from depth and meaning. The other non-fiction books I've read, with the exception of "Politics as Usual" have all had a core theme to them, and while this book had a central thesis, it did not have a main theme.

Overall, the narrative of this book is decent, but it is not a well done or scholarly book. It could have been done much better. I give this book a 5.0 out of 10.

[John]

Much of the book was a review of living through 1968; it was reliving the past. However, if a persons wants an understanding of the origins of contemporary politics, one should read this. I need say no more when I say that Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others came out of the politics of the 1968 campaign. William Safire says that to understand the election of Reagan and the politics of the right, you have to go back to Nixon and 1968.

[Maya Berardi]

Content and pacing was perfect; writing was sloppy and droned on

[Bryan Ericson]

Concise summary of the 1968 Presidential election. Easy to read. Did not blow me away. A good quick read for political geeks. 3.5 stars.

[Kathy West]

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Excellent - Highly Recommended
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - A good, solid read
3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - An okay read
2 ⭐️⭐️ - Meh
1 ⭐️ - Not my cup of tea

[Doodle]

The elections of 1968 and 2008 were similar in a lot of ways. Except for, well ... you know.