December 4, 2004
The Convention of 1968
American elections are sometimes hinges between one period in the nations political history and the next. The presidential election of 1968 was one of those hinge points. The election of 1968 was the culmination of a tumultuous year that saw demonstrations, assassinations, and political twists and turns that were even sharper than is usual for politics. And when it was over, though it wasnt necessarily clear at the time, a new period in American politics had come into being.
From a teaching standpoint, hinge elections such as 1968 are useful because they provide a point for summarizing what came before and what comes after while also featuring events that are dramatic and illustrative. 1968 provides a model for looking at political history not as a chronology of elections, as some historians and textbooks tend to present it, but in terms of focusing on hinge points. Other key elections (such as 1800, 1828, 1860, 1896, 1920, 1932) can be studied in a similar way.
Instructor: Kevin Boyle, Department of History, Ohio State University
Time: 9 AM-3 PM
Location: Ohio Historical Center Classrooms
ASSIGNMENT(S)
READING(S)
- "1968," from The Unfinished Journey by William Chafe. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
- 1968: The World Transformed, edited by Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert, and Detlef Junker. Washington, DC: German Historical Institute; Cambridge, UK & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- "1968 and the Unraveling of Liberal America" by Alan Brinkley
- "Tet and the Crisis of Hegemony" by George Herring
- "1968: A Turning Point in American Race Relations?" by Manfred Berg.
- "George Wallace and the Politics of Rage" by Dan Carter, from George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and the Transformation of American Politics. Baylor University Press, 1992.
- "The Conservative Capture: From Nixon to Reagan," Chapter 10 from The Populist Persuasion by Michael Kazin. New York: BasicBooks, 1995.
