O'Donnell, the host of MSNBC's The Last Word, turns to print with an in-depth examination of the tumultuous 1968 election year. Supporting his work with credible sources, O'Donnell argues that 1968 forever changed the direction of American politics. The year was marked by President Lyndon Johnson's extraordinary decision to decline a second term, the divisive and violent 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and bitter nomination fights at both parties' nominating conventions, all put into high relief by the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. O'Donnell also posits that Nixon's defeat of the more liberal Nelson Rockefeller for the Republican nomination sounded the death knell of that party's liberal wing. Offering a unique thesis on what drove the year's events, O'Donnell advances the idea that Eugene McCarthy's decision to run against Johnson led to Johnson's decision not to run, which spurred R.F.K. into the race and earned Hubert Humphrey the Democratic nomination. O'Donnell further speculates that, had McCarthy not run and Johnson stood for a second term, regardless of who won the 1968 election, R.F.K. would have been elected president in 1972. Instead there was Nixon and Watergate. O'Donnell untangles the many forces that made 1968's election a watershed event. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The well-known television host held an abundance of political positions earlier in his career and is well suited to write about the election year of 1968. Even before the events at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, it had been an astoundingly turbulent year, and O'Donnell capably sets the historical context, from the King and RFK assassinations through the urban (and university) riots, and including the roles in the campaign and election of George Wallace and dueling commentators William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal. O'Donnell's breezy style, an outgrowth of his broadcasting persona, makes the chaos easier to follow. Eventual nominee Richard Nixon's illegal approach to Vietnam his greatest crime was still to play out, but O'Donnell insightfully sets the table for what was to come. The Dump Johnson movement and the very active role of liberal Allard Lowenstein, which preceded the events at the convention, are treated in detail, and the positions of Hubert Humphrey, Bobby Kennedy, and the quixotic (and, according to O'Donnell, supremely influential) Eugene McCarthy are stressed as well, all leading up to what happened in Chicago. Satisfying popular history.--Levine, Mark Copyright 2017 Booklist

Nearly a half century has passed since the 1968 election that put Richard Nixon in the White House, setting in motion waves of political forces that have yet to ebb. Here, O'Donnell, host of MSNBC'S The Last Word and former producer/writer for The West Wing, crafts a smoothly written history of the 1968 campaign, beginning with congressman Eugene McCarthy's shocking decision to challenge Lyndon B. Johnson for the nomination. O'Donnell provides background information on people such as presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy, businessman and politician Nelson Rockefeller, former vice president Hubert Humphrey, and Alabama governor George Wallace, among many others. The author also provides insight on debates between intellectuals Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr., which shaped convention coverage in 1968. While O'Donnell covers familiar territory, he tells the story exceedingly well. Appropriately, there is nothing dull about this book, just as there was nothing dull about this specific election or period in American history. VERDICT Recent studies such as Michael Nelson's Resilient America or Michael A. Cohen's American Maelstrom offer more research, but O'Donnell writes accessibly for all readers, creating a beneficial work for anyone interested in modern political history.-Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.