A great look at a key election, impacting more than 15 years of U.S. history.

This is more than just The Great Debate and Papa Joe. The backroom dealings begin with the primaries, and the mistakes made by all.

Adlai Stevenson dithers, Nelson Rockefeller jumps in late and Hubert Humphrey isn't up to the task.

Kennedy takes on Nixon, and both sides have their pros and cons. And Nixon led deep into the election season. Then The Great Debate. Then Nixon battled back and took the lead again - which isn't widely remembered.

A lot of interesting characters populate this tale, and coming off worst of all were Eleanor Roosevelt (pretty much a racist), Bobby Kennedy (pretty much a profane bully) and Dwight Eisenhower (pretty much a disconnected president).

You'll likely find a lot of new information here, and new takes on old facts. Worth your time.

More reviews at my WordPress site, Ralphsbooks. ( )

The 1960 U.S. presidential election is largely viewed today as an era-defining election, with JFK coming into power on an irresistible wave of change. Well, this book does nuance that idyllic view quite significantly and that's what make it an interesting and enjoyable read. For starters, the election was anything but a landslide for Kennedy, who barely squeezed a tiny 100,000 votes majority over Nixon on a total 70 millions votes cast. Secondly, for all its charismatic and telegenic proprieties, JFK only really won the first of the four TV debates, although it's the only one people remember now.

One of the thing that I found so difficult to do throughout the book: not seeing Nixon distorted by what we now know about Watergate. But I am not alone as I found the author David Pietrusza himself seemed to have a tendency to portray Nixon as quite a dark man, even though 1974 hasn't arrived yet. Pietrusza does a good job of carrying the story starting more or less a year before the election, going chronologically thought the main highlights of the election campaign.

I removed a star because the sub-heading of this book (The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies) made me expect much more development and thought around the connections between those 3 presidencies (Kennedy 1960, Johnson 1964, and Nixon 1968). But Pietrusza doesn't really do that, except in a few rushed pages in the last chapter. He does explore in more details the complicated Kennedy-Johnson relationship, especially as it happened at the Democratic convention when Kennedy, to the surprise of everyone and himself too, selected LBJ as his running mate. ( )

It was a good, in-depth look at the 1960 election. However, there were some blatantly wrong facts cited. ( )

In 1960, I was growing-up in a staunch Democratic household, so I heard a lot about JFK/LBJ - and not much about Nixon (at least, not much good). Reading this book was very interesting - resurrecting memories, as well as giving a lot of information. You always hear about the "backroom" dealings of the politicians - and this book told the details about them. Reading this during an election year when the race was close (as it was in 1960) made me wonder what goes on behind the scenes in today's politics. ( )

One of the books I got for Christmas was [1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon] by David Pietrusza, focused upon the 1960 election. I started it almost immediately and basically shunted aside most of the rest of the books I have in play to focus upon it, finishing it this morning.

Let me say that Pietrusza demonstrates that a writer of history – in the tradition of Tom Holland, for example -- CAN write an exciting, very readable book for ALL audiences that contains copious (70+ pages) footnotes. I would suggest that anyone who has interest in this election, those three giants who would dominate American politics in the 1960's, or simply the American political/electoral system shortly after mid-century should read this book. More than 400 pages long, yet never for a moment tedious or dull, Pietrusza brings to life a realistic and not-too-flattering portrait of the candidates and their respective entourages in this pivotal election that was to be (with the critical addition of television debates) the dawn of modern campaigning. More than that, however, the author introduces and fleshes out the larger cast of characters – from Eisenhower to Symington to Lodge to Stevenson to Rockefeller – who dominated American politics in the fifties, and capably brings you up to speed on American politics in what was very much a transitional era.

Whether you are already widely familiar, as I am, with the intimate personalities of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, or whether you are completely new to their bios, “1960” will suck you in and not let you go, page-by-page, from the first stirrings of the campaign to election night and beyond. Highly recommended! ( )