1968 was perhaps the pivotal year of the ‘60s, and the images that flashed around the world — the student riots in France, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the violence surrounding the Democratic convention in Chicago — were the ones that solidified the image of the decade for years to follow. But as Michael Cohen makes clear in his new book, American Maelstrom, perhaps the longest-lasting legacy is the political divide that emerged as a result of the presidential election that year. As he writes: “What would change was the attitude of Americans towards their government. Post-1968 … would be defined by economic, cultural, even spiritual anxiety, informed by a fundamental and seemingly unwavering mistrust of those in positions of authority.”
Unlike other books on 1968, which have focused on the infamous Chicago convention, Cohen refines his commentary almost exclusively to the ensuing political campaign. As he makes clear as he profiles the more than half-dozen candidates who tossed their hats in the ring, the war was always the overriding factor, not just in the campaign itself, but in the unification-shattering aftermath of American political discourse. No event before or since has divided America to such an extent, and as Cohen emphatically makes clear, the toxic political environment in which we live today is a direct result of this fracturing.
