"'Before Chappaquiddick' is the story of Mary Jo Kopechne, a twenty-eight-year-old secretary who worked for Robert F. Kennedy and later Ted Kennedy"--

"Zelizer takes the full measure of the entire story [of Johnson's liberal agenda] in all its epic sweep. Before Johnson, Kennedy tried and failed to achieve many of these advances. Our practiced understanding is that this was an unprecedented liberal hour in America, a moment, after Kennedy's death, when the seas parted and Johnson could simply stroll through to victory. As Zelizer shows, this view is off-base: in many respects America was even more...

"In the spring of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson had a decision to make. Just months after moving into the White House under the worst of circumstances--following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy--he had decide whether to run to win the presidency in his own right. He turned to his most reliable, trusted political strategist: his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. The memo she produced for him, long overlooked by biographers, is just one revealing...

"The 1968 presidential race was a contentious battle between vice president Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, and former Alabama governor George Wallace. The United States was reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy and was bitterly divided on the Vietnam War and domestic issues, including civil rights and rising crime. Drawing on previously unexamined archives and numerous interviews, Luke A. Nichter...

"The definitive history of the Kerner Commission, whose report on urban unrest reshaped American debates about race and inequality In Separate and Unequal, historian Steven M. Gillon offers a revelatory new history of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders--popularly known as the Kerner Commission. Convened by President Lyndon Johnson after riots in Newark and Detroit left dozens dead and thousands injured, the commission issued a report...

Examines Lyndon Johnson's volatile relationships with John and Robert Kennedy, describes JFK's assassination from Johnson's viewpoint, and recounts his accomplishments as president before they were overshadowed by the Vietnam War.

An evaluation of the complex relationship between the Kennedy family and the FBI director traces their shared political years through their parallel rises and controversial deaths and considers the roles played by such figures as Joe McCarthy and Martin Luther King.