Thirty years ago American political life was all relentless, painful, and confounding: the Tet Offensive brought new intensity to the Vietnam War; President Lyndon Johnson would not seek re-election; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; student protests rocked France; a Soviet invasion ended "e;socialism with a human face"e; in Czechoslovakia; the Mexican government massacred scores of peaceful demonstrators; and Richard M. Nixon was elected president. Any one of the events of 1968 bears claim to historical significance. Together they set off shock waves that divided Americans into new and contending categories: hawks and doves, old and young, feminists and chauvinists, straights and hippies, blacks and whites, militants and moderates. As citizens alive to their own time and as reporters responsible for making sense of it, journalists did not stand aside from the conflicts of 1968. In their lives and in their work, they grappled with momentous issues--war, politics, race, and protest.

PrefacePart I: War1. The Turning Point That Wasn't Daniel Hallin 2. Justified Doubts David Halberstam 3. Unfortunate Stupidity Winant SidlePart II: Politics4. Reassessing the Winners and Losers Jules Witcover 5. Dumping Johnson Curtis Gans 6. Good Copy Dan T. Carter 7. Enemas for Elephants Robert ShoganPart III: Race8. The Kerner Legacy Pamela Newkirk 9. Goals for the Year 2000 and Beyond Loren Ghiglione 10. Optimism, Pessimism and the Kerner Report Randall KennedyPart IV: Protest11. A Generational Divide at Columbia Robert Friedman 12. A New Birth in France Claude-Jean Bertrand 13. The Czech Press Fighting for Change Madeleine K. Albright 14. The Nightmare of Tlatelolco Raymundo Riva PalacioPart V: Cultures, 1968 and 199815. The Transformation of Time Magazine James L. Baughman 16. The Best of Times Richard Reeves 17. Climbing Down from Olympus Andrew Tyndall 18. Finding Ourselves in the New Journalism John J. Pauly 19. An Unexpected Aeratio Todd Gitlin 20. From Underground to Alternative Abe PeckPart VI: 1968 in Books21. Heresies of Liberalism Godfrey HodgsonFor Further Reading Index