The Making of a Classic

In Britain, we don’t have a ‘JFK’, a dashing young leader, effortlessly graceful, extremely competent and ushering in a new era of fairness and tolerance. The nearest we have is Tony Blair, but no-one is going to write a book like this about him. This is Theodore White’s first book in ‘The Making of the President’ series that ran until Nixon/McGovern 1972. Put simply it attempts to tell the full story of the 1960 US Presidential Election, starting from the primaries, right through the conventions and on to election day. And it does a remarkable job of it.

The structure of the book is fairly traditional, starting at chez Kennedy on election day then taking an effectively chronological approach. So it starts with a description of the early candidate’s preparations on both sides, moves on to the Democratic Primaries in Wisconsin, and the key vote in West Virginia, which started the Kennedy myth, skirts around the conventions and then focuses on the campaign itself in three parts.

As could be expected by an experienced journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner this book is wonderfully written. In particular the chapter focusing on the Democratic Convention and Stevenson’s last challenge is a wonderful piece of writing. As is the story of Hubert Humphrey’s hopeless challenge in West Virginia, concluding with the great line, ‘proving nothing else than television is no medium for the poor man.’ Although he tends to get bogged down towards the finish, his ‘analysis of crowds’ is just poor; his grasp of details and facts pulls him through.

In general that seems to summarise the book as a whole. As a story it is superb, White completely grasps the significance of this election, he fully understands the importance of John Kennedy as a Catholic President and he does a wonderful job of reporting the twists and turns, the hope and heartache, that occur during any battle for the worlds highest political office. His description and use of language is wonderful, however it is his analysis that lets him down. It isn’t poor as such; merely anyone looking in depth at the election of 1960 would be forced to use another, more scholarly text, as a compliment.

Another slight fault seems to be the almost ‘hero worship’ of JFK. Whether because of restrictions on his reporting or some other reason, White seems to concentrate far more on JFK than Nixon. It is just a minor point, and undoubtedly JFK was far more interesting, and important, than Nixon, but it does lead you to question his impartiality.

Despite this, ‘The Making of the President’ series as a whole is well worth owning for anyone, American or not, intrigued by Presidential politics; or indeed anyone looking for a good story.