The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 w/ Luke A. Nichter

On this edition of Parallax Views, historian Luke A. Nichter, author of such books as The Nixon Tapes (w/ Douglas Brinkley), The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War, and Lyndon B. Johnson: Pursuit of Populism, Paradox of Power, joins the show to discuss his new book The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968.

Although many think of the 1960s as the "summer of love", it was in truth an era of great turbulence and tumult beyond all the imagery of flower-pop and free love as depicted in pop culture explorations of the era. 1968, in particular, was particularly chaotic year both domestically within the U.S. and internationally. The Vietnam war was raging. It was a time of protests. The assassinations of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not be seeking another term in office. Riots broke out outside the Democratic National Convention. And an election was in our midst that would see Republican Richard Nixon, Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and pro-segregation third-party candidate George Wallace.

Luke will take us through what that year meant political, delve into how LBJ may have dropped out of the race but not out of making political maneuverings, evangelist Billy Graham's only recently discovered role in the election year and the campaigns, what motivated the voters with their decision at the ballot box in 1968, Luke's questioning of the narrative that Nixon's "Southern Strategy" played an outside role in the election outcome, the meaning of 1968 in the age of Trump and in lieu of the 2024 election, Nixon's centrism?, and much, much more.