A fresh, authoritative analysis of a pivotal election year.
A revisionist view of a momentous election.
Historian Nichter, who received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in support of this book, draws on abundant archival sources and interviews with 85 key individuals to create a penetrating examination of the 1968 presidential election, a contest among Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Setting the election in the context of the political, social, and economic upheaval that roiled the nation, the author examines the appeal of third-party candidate Wallace; explains Lyndon Johnson’s tepid support for his vice president, Humphrey; and raises questions about the scandal surrounding the ties between Chinese-born socialite Anna Chennault and Nixon. Anti-war and Black Power protests, along with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, “brought a period of national soul-searching.” Wallace, as “the living embodiment of resistance to social change,” appealed to voters fearful of unrest and rising crime. His critics, Nichter argues, “by remaining focused on his racist origins, missed the deeper bonds he was forming with anti-establishment supporters.” The polls consistently showed that Wallace “received high marks for ‘saying it the way it really is,’ and for having ‘the courage of his convictions.’ ” He has proven to be a model, Nichter asserts, for “every conservative who has run for the presidency since 1968.” Whereas Eisenhower endorsed his former vice president, Johnson, with history in mind, “saw the rightward shift of the nation and came to believe that a President Nixon,” rather than Humphrey, “would be better for Lyndon Johnson’s legacy.” While Humphrey struggled to distance himself from Johnson’s policies, Nixon promised Johnson—through go-between Billy Graham—to promote his position in Vietnam peace negotiations. Accusations that Chennault acted for him in preventing peace talks, Nichter has found, are unsubstantiated; Nixon, he asserts, was trying “to rally people toward Johnson’s Vietnam position, not commit treason against it.”
A fresh, authoritative analysis of a pivotal election year.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9780300254396
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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