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Campaign of the Century: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960
Bottom of the pile
17
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
32/100Critics
2/100Scholars
Author:
Irwin F. Gellman
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Date:
January 4, 2022
Based on massive new research comes an account of the twentieth century's closest election.
What The Reviewers Say
... exhaustively researched and lucidly written.
Gellman has, arguably, logged more hours and examined more documents in the Nixon archives than any other historian to date. That doggedness, he says, has yielded new information and insights into the events of 1960. There is much ballyhooing in this book of its author’s willingness to follow facts wherever they lead.
... as detailed an exploration of the 1960 presidential race as can be found. [Gellman's] bibliography and endnotes encompass fully 125 pages. In lean prose and a hammering style, he presents a catalog of complaints designed to present Nixon as the victim of hostile reporters, rabid partisans and biased historians..
Gellman complains that too many chroniclers have conducted research at the JFK library in Boston but have neglected to plumb the files at the other presidential libraries. I had the sense throughout that the several chips on Gellman’s shoulder enliven this narrative and contribute to its urgency.
