From one of America's most talented historians comes a brilliant new account of Richard Nixon--set against the violent passions of America's 1960s civil war--that reveals the riveting backstory to the red state/blue state resentments that divide the nation today and the many ways Nixon used riots, anti-Vietnam War protests, the drug culture and other displays of unrest as an easy relief against which to frame his pitch for his narrow win of 1968 and...

"In this character-driven narrative history, Aram Goudsouzian portrays the key transformations that played out over that dramatic year. It was the last 'old politics' campaign, where political machines and party bosses determined the major nominees, even as the 'new politics' of grassroots participation powered primary elections. It was an election that showed how candidates from both the Left and Right could seize on 'hot-button' issues to alter...