American Melodrama

Author: Chester, Lewis. Title: An American melodrama; the presidential campaign of 1968 [by] Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson [and] Bruce Page. Publisher: New York, Viking Press [1969] Edition Date: 1969 Language: English Physical Details: xv, 814 p. 25 cm. Other Authors: Hodgson, Godfrey, joint author. Page, Bruce, joint author.

Most US elections are at least moderately interesting. The current one certainly has a number of twists that will intrigue the more than casual observer. On some elections, the course of history is crucially determined. Probably the last one of those was 1932 but you could make the case for several since then. I'm not sure that 1968 qualifies as such an election. After all, it seemed like we redid it in 1972. However, it was probably the most passionate election and the most tragic election year in many decades. I have read quite a number of accounts of the election of 1968 and most of them are long forgotten. However, the one that stands out above all the rest for me is clearly "An American Melodrama". Perhaps it is because so many of the books I read were by those in or close to the action as well as affiliated with one side or the other (or the still other). "An American Melodrama" was written by a trio of British journalists who seemed better able to step back a from the emotional involvement for a better overall perspective of what happened. Their sober, insightful look at the whole process is the version that should be the textbook for future researchers into the subject. You don't have to be a researcher, however, to be able to enjoy this book. If you actively lived through those years or if you just happened to have heard of a few of the main events, the retelling of this emotional time in US history is fascinating.

For many political buffs, Teddy White's "Making of the President" series of books is the standard by which all other books written about presidential campaigns are judged. And while I would agree that White's series is superb, I believe that "An American Melodrama" is even better - that it is, in fact, the best book about an American presidential camapaign that I've ever read. The book, which covers the presidential campaign of 1968 - one of the most dramatic, emotional, and tragic elections of the twentieth century - was written by 3 British journalists, who then combined their writings into a single book. Although this technique often doesn't work, in "An American Melodrama" it does so brilliantly, and in fact you'd never know that it was written by three people instead of just one if they didn't tell you in the prologue. The authors cover all of that year's stunning events - Eugene McCarthy knocking President Johnson out of the race, Martin Luther King's murder, Bobby Kennedy's murder, the bloody riots between the antiwar hippies and the Chicago police at the Democratic Convention, the racist third-party candidacy of Alabama's George Wallace, and the down-to-the-wire fall campaign between Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Republican Richard Nixon. What makes this book so outstanding is the author's realism and refusal to be overly respectful or impressed with American politicians, while not descending into the cynicism and harshness of today's political reporting. One of the flaws of Teddy White's books is that he can be overly respectful, even worshipful (especially with the Kennedy brothers) of the political leaders he wrote about. In an "American Melodrama" we get to see Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey on the Democratic side as they really are - warts and all - without being too cynical or harsh. And on the Republican side the authors give the best analysis of Richard Nixon that I've ever read in any campaign biography - they neither idealize Nixon or are overly harsh. The author's insights of the leading politicians in this book - what makes them tick? - have been proven to be right on-target by subsequent events. This book did generate some controversy in the chapter on Bobby Kennedy's assassination in June 1968. The authors, while definitely showing sorrow and sympathizing with the family, also refused to accept the self-pitying, "America has gone to h***" attitude that many intellectuals and journalists adopted in the wake of Kennedy's murder. They pointed out that, statistically speaking, the late 1960's were much less violent than earlier decades, and that blaming all of American society and culture because of the acts of a single madman (Sirhan Sirhan, RFK's assassin) was absurd. Although some Americans were offended that a team of British reporters would criticize the American liberal establishment in such a manner, events in the years since have largely proven them to be correct. To sum up, this book'