An American melodrama: The Presidential campaign of 1968

For those who can bear to face it again, here is a report on the '68 Presidential campaign by three British journalists who covered it for the London Times. Beginning with the foreboding events of 3/31-4/6, they plunge onward thru the primaries to the conventions, paying rather less attention to the anti-climactic Nixon-Humphrey bout which followed. Using the mass-psychoanalytic approach developed by the better journalism since '63, the authors probe the styles & personalities of the major figures, & interpret phenomena such as Daley, Abby Hoffman & the Kennedy intellectuals. They comment on American violence, on the role of the media & on the conflict between rhetoric & reality in American life. Their insights will not startle readers of liberal-left periodicals, but they write with wit & concision, & have some sharp moments, as in their dissection of Johnson's Vietnam advisers, or in their remarks on Mayor Daley's Newspeak version of the Chicago police frolic. Their acquaintance with American history & idiom is impressive. Some an attempt to say too much & a paucity of straight political analysis (votegetting strategies etc.) which renders the book less valuable as campaign history than the White studies on '60 & '64. Still, until the mists clear further, this will serve to keep alive the drama of a fantastic & frightening election year.--Kirkus