The Year That Broke Politics

Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968

By: Luke A. Nichter

Narrated by: Kent Klineman

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The unknown story of the election that set the tone for today's fractured politics

The 1968 presidential race was a contentious battle between Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, and former Alabama governor George Wallace. The United States was reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy and was bitterly divided on the Vietnam War and domestic issues, including civil rights and rising crime. Drawing on previously unexamined archives and numerous interviews, Luke A. Nichter upends the conventional understanding of the campaign.

Nichter chronicles how the evangelist Billy Graham met with Johnson after the president's attempt to reenter the race was stymied by his own party, and offered him a deal: Nixon, if elected, would continue Johnson's Vietnam War policy and also not oppose his Great Society, if Johnson would soften his support for Humphrey. Johnson agreed.

This eye-opening account of the political calculations and maneuvering that decided this fiercely fought election reshapes our understanding of a key moment in twentieth-century American history.

©2023 Luke A. Nichter (P)2023 Tantor

History Amazingly relevant today

Really good compendium of a fascinating year, with great political perspective about the many key players, the political experience and mastery of Nixon, Johnson’s complicated thought process, the chaos of the time, and the movement led by George Wallace, which has been mostly lost in popular histories, but echoes in time today.

History as it should be written

This is an excellent piece of research and story telling. I can’t wait to read more by Luke Nichter.

New Take on 1968, Worst Narration Ever

Although I don’t share Nichter’s positive view of the traditional villains of 1968, Nixon and Johnson, I respect him for challenging orthodoxy and for using new historical material. His interpretation is fresh if open to challenge.
But this was the worst narration I’ve ever heard on Audible. It’s hard to believe Nichter was narrating his own book. It’s monotone and halting. Another reviewer said he sounded like a robot. I would just amend that slightly and say a malfunctioning robot. How an accomplished scholar can sound like an adult just learning to read is beyond me (no disrespect to courageous adults learning to read, but they shouldn’t narrate Audible books).
Read, don’t listen to, this book.

Good book, very bad reader.

The author gives a convincing revisionist account of 1969. Anyone interested in American politics will gain by reading this book. Unfortunately, the reader is really bad. Indeed, I often wandered if it not machine-read, but it was even worse than that. I would suggest redoing it. It helped to speed up things to 2x.

Complicated web of "supposeds."

Yet another attempt at molding history to a preconcieved bias. After taking every possible shot at pre-1968 players, author falls over himself in hopes of leaving the reader with positives notions of both Nixon and Johmson. That is, of course, while frequently reminding us of the tremendous debt we owe to Billy Graham for brokering good tidings between the two men. It takes much stretching to embrace the narrative, and even more to accept it with history as our guide. In 2023, however, we should not be surprised.

Is he reading this for the first time?

The book is good, but the reader sounds like he was just given the book five minutes ago, and his strategy is to read it out loud very slowly in the hope of making sense.

Not worth the time

This book starts as an effort to proclaim that 1968 was a seminal election. Yet the narrative, which relies on heavy quotes from memoirs (which most observers believe are ways for retired politicians to establish their place in history and thus not substantially relied on a good history) has several minor and glaring errors (including a minor one like the author's claim that Nixon lived in Park Palisades - not Pacific Palisades.

Nichter seems to believe in the Burns theory of presidential power (Burns was an admired of FDR who ignored the separation of powers and claimed that the president is the center of government). He argues that LBJ could have won had he chosen to declare in spite of the six months where his poll numbers were dropping like a stone.

While I don't like arguments like this one could make a much more credible case that 1972 was the year that broke politics - when the progressives in the Democrat party realized that they could change the rules for selecting candidates and the primacy of the progressives began to assert itself. Or one could argue that 1980 was the time that broke politics where Reagan built a coalition that would dominate the GOP for a decade and then transform politics in the country.

I am sorry I spent the time necessary to listen to this. The narrator is one of the worst I have ever heard on Audible - his malapropos and halting narration was annoying.

Dreadful

It's like it's being read by a robot. Absurd pauses and stilted diction. Impossible to listen to.