About the Author

Luke A. Nichter is professor of history and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University. He is the author of The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War. He lives in Orange, CA, and Bowling Green, OH.

Reviews

“Both a serious work of scholarship and a romp of a book. . . . Mr. Nichter treats conventional wisdom the way defensive linemen treat quarterbacks, and the result is splendid.”—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal, “The Best Books of 2023: Politics”

“The book is a delightful demolition of the many political myths that continue to muddy our understanding of that election year. . . . Nichter’s book stands out for its clear, direct prose and the scrupulous research on which it’s based.”—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal

“Luke Nichter is a brilliant scholar who knows how and when to keep digging. He is also a clear and compelling writer. The Year That Broke Politics is surprising, revelatory, and riveting.”—Evan Thomas, author of Being Nixon

“The Year That Broke Politics is a masterpiece of political detective work full of fresh anecdotes often anchored with just unearthed archival documents. This is a game-changing book about the politics of 1968 from a first-rate Presidential historian. Highly recommended!”—Douglas Brinkley, author of Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening

“No one is writing the history of modern American politics with more insight and originality than Luke Nichter. In The Year That Broke Politics, Nichter offers a radical revision of the momentous election of 1968. Overturned is the conspiracy theory that Richard Nixon undermined Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam peace initiative. With meticulous research and invaluable new sources, Nichter shows that it was in fact Johnson who undermined Hubert Humphrey’s bid to succeed him—and who came to see Nixon as preferable. This is one of those rare books that recasts a major turning point and renders a shelf-load of earlier studies obsolete.”—Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, and author of Kissinger, 1923–1968: The Idealist