There are similarities between the law-and-order language used by the 1968 and 2020 presidential candidates and the racial tension and political polarization both years. But much is different.
Americans didn’t always have primaries and caucuses to choose presidential candidates. The system was meant to be more democratic, but it places too much attention on largely white, small states.
President Trump solicited foreign help for his presidential campaign. So did presidential candidate Richard Nixon. The difference, writes scholar Ken Hughes, is that Nixon was more skilled at it.
While other countries set strict limits on the length of campaigns, American presidential races have become drawn-out, yearslong affairs. It wasn’t always this way.
In 1968, Lyndon Johnson’s ridicule of presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey as weak and feminine tells us something about how a party of progressives still struggles with the idea of masculinity.
RNC protests in Cleveland have been peaceful, but are they effective? A historian explains what happened at the DNC in 1968 and why activists may want to reconsider their tactics.
Delegates and media are gathering this week in Tampa, Florida, for the Republican National Convention. With the threat of Hurricane Isaac forcing a one-day delay to the start of the convention, political…