The 1968 general election was pivotal in the future of the U.S.  While locally it saw Arkansas voters re-electing GOP Governor Winthrop Rockefeller & Democratic Senator J. William Fulbright while tossing their electoral votes for independent (and segregationist) George Wallace, on the national scale the election of Richard M. Nixon set the tone for a new type of political partisanship.  Though the long-reaching outcomes of that election were not really apparent at the time.  The narrative in 1968 was more about Nixon’s career redemption, but it was also about the rise of the GOP in the formerly solidly Democratic South.

Michael Nelson, author of Resilient America: Electing Nixon in 1968, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government, will discuss his book at the Clinton School today at 12 noon.

Nelson is the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College, a Fellow of Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. He is the author of numerous books, including “How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation,” with John L. Mason, winner of the 2009 V. O. Key Award for Outstanding Book on Southern Politics from the Southern Political Science Association. His new book, “Resilient America,” explores how urban riots and the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the politics of outrage and race—all pointed to a reordering of party coalitions, of groups and regions, a hardening and widening of an ideological divide—and to the historical importance of the 1968 election as a watershed event.

With all the talk recently about the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, this talk will present an interesting take on the set-up to Nixon’s first term.  In addition, as both the GOP and Democrats have their eyes on Arkansas’ political future, Nelson’s book sets the stage for the seeds being sown of the rise of the two party system in the South.

Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239.