Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
It was the election that would ultimately give America "Camelot" and its tragic aftermath, a momentous contest when three giants who each would have a chance to shape the nation battled to win the presidency.
Award-winning author David Pietrusza combines an engaging narrative with exhaustive research to chronicle the pivotal election of 1960, a war between three legendary, unique and totally different personalities--John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, and Lyndon Baines Johnson--three imperfect, all-too-human giants scrambling and scheming and clawing for the presidency of the United States. How they battled, how they warily saw each other, their strategies, their alliances, their ambitions, their ideals and scandals and compromises, their strengths and tragic flaws are all forcefully detailed in 1960.
No author--not even Theodore H. White--has pieced together the brilliant, million-pieced mosaic of this fascinating, unprecedented struggle for power like David Pietrusza has--its towering events and personalities, unlocking its secrets, mixing solid historical scholarship and rich, anecdotal, human storytelling.
Masterfully building on painstaking research, drawing on nearly a half-century of documentary literature--histories, biographies, memoirs, interviews, and press accounts, David Pietrusza tracks down every lead and applies the critically-acclaimed formula that has drawn comparisons to the work of Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's a winning, engaging, savvy combination of unparalleled research and breezy, compelling narrative, riveting character studies, subtle wit, and a remarkable gift for historical perspective.
Synopsis
"1960 aims to take us deeper into the campaign than Theodore White's famous The Making of the President, 1960. And it does." --Chicago Sun-Times Award-winning historian David Pietrusza's hard-edged account of the 1960 Presidential Campaign--the bare-knuckle politics of the primaries, the party conventions' backroom dealings, the unprecedented television debates, along with hot-button issues of race, religion, and foreign policy. And, at the center of it all, three future presidents--LBJ, JFK, and Nixon.
"Terrific " --Robert A. Caro, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award
It was the election that ultimately gave America "Camelot" and its tragic aftermath. 1960 is a stunning recreation of the bare-knuckle politics of the primaries, the party conventions' backroom dealings, the unprecedented television debates, along with hot-button issues of race, religion, and foreign policy. And, at the center of it all, three future presidents--Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.
In this essential work of history, David Pietrusza chronicles 1960's struggle for power by bringing to life its towering events and personalities, unlocking its secrets, and turning expert scholarship into rich, human storytelling.
"A stirring, hard-edged political saga... An outstanding reexamination." --Booklist
"1960 provides new insights into that year's hard-fought, pivotal election, but, more than that, 1960 is great storytelling--a fascinating, can't-put-it-down account of how American politics really works." --Former United States Attorney General Richard Thornburgh
"Pietrusza's 1960 is essential for understanding the political forces that in many ways shaped the world we live in today." --David Mark, journalist, political analyst, and author of Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning
Synopsis
Award-winning historian David Pietrusza's hard-edged account of the 1960 Presidential Campaign-the bare-knuckle politics of the primaries, the party conventions' backroom dealings, the unprecedented television debates, along with hot-button of race, religion, and foreign policy. And, at the center of it all, three future presidents-LBJ, JFK, and Nixon.