The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H White

This book has long been considered one of the seminal writings on American politics. Theodore White documented the 1960 campaigns of Nixon and Kennedy as well as their challengers for their respective parties nominations.

White, who I have been reading about in the David Halberstam book The Powers That Be, began as a journalist in with Time magazine under Henry Luce. His writing and book on China made him famous.

This book started a new chapter in his life. Later he wrote similar books about the 64, 68, and 1972 elections.

Perhaps it is because I have read several books on Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and the major players in the 1960 election. I am not sure why. This book, however, is just not that good. Maybe the more modern political writing is just better or more my style but as much as I wanted to like this, as much as I wanted to be reverant to something that has been spoken of as some of the best political writing ever, I cannot. This book is just not very good.