When John Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, he also won the right to put his own spin on the victory. Rorabaugh cuts through the mythology of this election to explain the operations of the campaign and offer a corrective to Theodore White's flawed classic, 'The Making of the President'.

A Harper Perennial Political Classic, The Making of the President 1960 is the groundbreaking national bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the 1960 presidential campaign and the election of John F. Kennedy. With this narrative history of American politics in action, Theodore White revolutionized the way presidential campaigns are reported. Now back in print, freshly repackaged, and with a new foreword written by Robert Dallek, The Making of the President 1960 remains the most influential publication about the election of John F. Kennedy.

Based on massive new research, a compelling and surprising account of the twentieth century's closest election The 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon is one of the most frequently described political events of the twentieth century, yet the accounts to date have been remarkably unbalanced. Far more attention is given to Kennedy's side than to Nixon's. The imbalance began with the first book on that election, Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960—in which (as he later admitted) White deliberately cast Kennedy as the hero and Nixon as the villain—and it has been perpetuated in almost every book since then. Few historians have attempted an unbiased account of the election, and none have done the archival research that Irwin F. Gellman has done. Based on previously unused sources such as the FBI's surveillance of JFK and the papers of Leon Jaworski, vice-presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge, and many others, this book presents the first even-handed history of both the primary campaigns and the general election. The result is a fresh, engaging chronicle that shatters long†‘held myths and reveals the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates.

“[White] revolutionized the art of political reporting.” —William F. Buckley The Making of the President 1972 is the fourth book in Theodore H. White’s landmark series, a riveting account of the 1972 presidential campaign and Richard M. Nixon’s precedent-shattering landslide victory. White had made history with his groundbreaking narrative The Making of the President 1960, winning the Pulitzer Prize for revolutionizing the way that presidential campaigns were reported. Now, The Making of the President 1972—back in print, freshly repackaged, and with a new foreword by Cokie Roberts—joins Theodore Sorensen’s Kennedy, White’s The Making of the President 1960, 1964, and 1968, and other classics in the burgeoning Harper Perennial Political Classics series.

“White unites a novelist's knack of dramatization and a historian's sense of significance with a synthesizing skill that grasps the reader by the lapels.” —Newsweek The third book in Theodore H. White's landmark series, The Making of the President 1968 is the compelling account of the turbulent 1968 presidential campaign, the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and election of Richard Nixon. White made history with his groundbreaking The Making of the President 1960, a narrative that won the Pulitzer Prize for revolutionizing the way that presidential campaigns were reported. Now, The Making of the President 1968—back in print, freshly repackaged, and with a new foreword by Chris Matthews—joins Theodore Sorensen's Kennedy, White's The Making of the President 1960, 1964, and 1972, and other classics in the burgeoning Harper Perennial Political Classics series.