Press Release - For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Hayley Richards

(334) 353-1881 or hayley.richards@archives.alabama.gov

Montgomery, AL (11/16/2023) – On Thursday November 30 at 12:00 pm CT, author Luke A. Nichter will present a book talk on his latest work, The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH). The program will be presented in-person in the ADAH’s Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium. It will also livestream through the ADAH’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Admission is free.

The 1968 presidential race was a contentious battle between Vice Pres. Hubert Humphrey, Republican nominee Richard Nixon, and former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. The election season unfolded as Americans grappled with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, bitter domestic issues, and the ongoing the war in Vietnam. During this presentation about his new book, Nichter will discuss the encounter between evangelist Billy Graham and Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, which occurred after the president faced obstacles from his own party in re-entering the race. Nichter argues that this eye-opening new account of the political calculations and maneuvering that ultimately decided the election reshapes our understanding of a key moment in American politics.

Luke A. Nichter is a Professor of History and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University. His area of specialty is the Cold War, the modern presidency, and U.S. political and diplomatic history with a focus on the "long 1960s," from John F. Kennedy through Watergate. During his career, he has served as a Visiting Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan's Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Rothermere American Institute, and a Hansard Research Scholar at the London School of Economics.

For additional information call (334) 353-4636. A recording of the book talk will be available on the ADAH’s YouTube channel shortly after the presentation. Copies of The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 will be available for purchase. Book Talks are sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Alliance.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state’s government-records repository, a special-collections library and research facility, and home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across Washington Avenue from the State Capitol. The ADAH is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. The EBSCO Research Room is closed on Mondays. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364. 

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