The Hardhat Riot

"In May 1970, four days after Kent State, construction workers chased students through downtown Manhattan, beating scores of protesters bloody. As hardhats clashed with hippies, it soon became clear that something larger was underway- Democrats were at war with themselves. In The Hardhat Riot, David Paul Kuhn tells the fateful story of when the white working class first turned against liberalism, when Richard Nixon seized the breach, and America was forever changed. It was unthinkable one generation before: FDR's "forgotten man" siding with the party of Big Business and, ultimately, paving the way for presidencies from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. This is the story of the schism that tore liberalism apart. In this riveting story- rooted in meticulous research, including thousands of pages of never-before-seen records- we go back to a harrowing day that explains the politics of today. We experience an emerging class conflict between two newly polarized Americas,m and how it all boiled over on one brutal day, when the Democratic Part's future was bludgeoned by its past."--

In the popular imagination, opposition to the Vietnam War was driven largely by college students and elite intellectuals, while supposedly reactionary blue-collar workers largely supported the war effort. In Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks, Penny Lewis challenges this collective memory of class polarization. Through close readings of archival documents, popular culture, and media accounts at the time, she offers a more accurate "counter-memory" of a diverse, cross-class opposition to the war in Southeast Asia that included the labor movement, working-class students, soldiers and veterans, and Black Power, civil rights, and Chicano activists.Lewis investigates why the image of antiwar class division gained such traction at the time and has maintained such a hold on popular memory since. Identifying the primarily middle-class culture of the early antiwar movement, she traces how the class interests of its first organizers were reflected in its subsequent forms. The founding narratives of class-based political behavior, Lewis shows, were amplified in the late 1960s and early 1970s because the working class, in particular, lacked a voice in the public sphere, a problem that only increased in the subsequent period, even as working-class opposition to the war grew. By exposing as false the popular image of conservative workers and liberal elites separated by an unbridgeable gulf, Lewis suggests that shared political attitudes and actions are, in fact, possible between these two groups.

“Perlstein...aims here at nothing less than weaving a tapestry of social upheaval. His success is dazzling.” —Los Angeles Times “Both brilliant and fun, a consuming journey back into the making of modern politics.” —Jon Meacham “Nixonland is a grand historical epic. Rick Perlstein has turned a story we think we know—American politics between the opposing presidential landslides of 1964 and 1972—into an often-surprising and always-fascinating new narrative.” —Jeffrey Toobin Rick Perlstein’s bestselling account of how the Nixon era laid the groundwork for the political divide that marks our country today. Told with vivid urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America’s turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency of the United States. Perlstein’s epic account begins in the blood and fire of the 1965 Watts riots, nine months after Lyndon Johnson’s historic landslide victory over Barry Goldwater appeared to herald a permanent liberal consensus in the United States. Yet the next year, scores of liberals were tossed out of Congress, America was more divided than ever, and a disgraced politician was on his way to a shocking comeback: Richard Nixon. Between 1965 and 1972 America experienced no less than a second civil war. Out of its ashes, the political world we know now was born. Filled with prodigious research and driven by a powerful narrative, Rick Perlstein’s magisterial account of how it all happened confirms his place as one of our country’s most celebrated historians.

In the 1960s, the Republican Party began to win over a crucial demographic: white male voters. Presidential politics was transformed for a generation. David Paul Kuhn explains this fundamental fact behind the rise of the Republicans and the decline of the Democrats, and reminds the political left that midterm victories (1986, 2006) do not always equal sustainable success. In revealing, lucid prose, Kuhn explains how America's conservative party came to win a majority of workingmen and the White House. Grounded in practical politics, The Neglected Voter presciently reconfigures the American political landscape. Equipped with unprecedented research data, reporting, and exclusive interviews with such figures as Jimmy Carter, Norman Mailer, Mark Warner, and Pat Robertson, Kuhn examines the role of gender and racial identity in presidential politics through the social changes that have defined the last half century.

Chemical Warfare during the Vietnam War documents the use of antipersonnel chemical weapons throughout the Vietnam War, and explores their effectiveness under the wide variety of circumstances in which they were employed. The short, readable account follows the US program as it progressed from a focus on the humanitarian aspects of non-lethal chemicals to their use as a means of increasing and enhancing the destructiveness of traditional weapons. It also presents the efforts of the North Vietnamese to both counter US chemical operations and to develop a chemical capability of their own. This largely overlooked facet of the Vietnam War provides an opportunity for students and scholars to examine many of the potential issues surrounding the use of non-lethal chemical agents in modern military operations, and serves as a backdrop to discussion of broader issues associated with chemical warfare, including the power of public perception. Chemical Warfare during the Vietnam War is a comprehensive and thoroughly fascinating examination of riot-control agents during the Vietnam War.

Stretching from the colonial era to 9/11 and beyond, New York at War is that most rare of books: a work of history that is at once local and international, timely and timeless. Bringing a unique lens to bear on the world's most celebrated and contested city, Jaffe reveals the unimaginable ways the city has changed -- and how it has stubbornly endured -- under threats both external and internal.

Riot Control is the classic manual on riot-control techniques and equipment by the father of the science of crowd control, Col. Rex Applegate. This invaluable manual supplies complete training information on organizing riot patrols, handling sniper situations, clearing houses, and street fighting, plus a complete survey of modern gear, such as chemical agents, foggers, batons, helmets, firearms and vehicles.

The King is dead. Demacia is mourning. And in the eyes of Garen Crownguard, it’s his fault. But can he rise to the challenge when Demacia needs him again? While on a peacetime expedition beyond the borders of Demacia, Garen, Quinn, and the Dauntless Vanguard uncover a plot that threatens to destroy long-standing alliances. As the knight-ranger Quinn tries to get word back to Demacia, Garen and his comrades make a desperate last stand. How long can they last, and at what cost?

"A story that truly explores the American system not just from an insider's viewpoint, but from the very real experiences of human beings ... and yes, add a dose of romance to the political cocktail: it's just what this drink needs to make it perfect!" declares the Midwest Book Review. What Makes It Worthy is a brilliant tell-all about the tabloidization of American politics that takes readers inside the corruptive interplay between powerbrokers and press at the highest levels. This "absorbing novel ... does what nonfiction cannot: it allows readers to know what it's like to live Washington politics ... with fictional characters who seem all too real," says political strategist James Carville. "Captivating," writes novelist Matthew Thomas, "part case study, part postmortem, and part love letter to political intrigue." And novelist Lynn Lauber calls it "a Primary Colors for this generation." Kirkus Reviews writes that the novel is "a genuinely tender love story" and "insightful." "Both a love story and an exposé on modern American campaigns," says former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. What Makes It Worthy is also the personal story of Taylor Solomon and Cait Ellis. Taylor is a rising star at America's fastest-growing political media machine. Cait is a young New York Times reporter who wrestles with the shadow of her legendary mother. And it is an historic-yet familiar-campaign. The Republican, who hails from one of America's power clans and has long been in the national spotlight, seeks to become the first female president. Her Democratic opponent, a State Department veteran setting the election afire with populism, hopes to make his own history as the first Hispanic president. On the campaign trail, as ethics gray and events envelop politicians, operatives, and reporters-as Cait and Taylor struggle with how much distance must be accepted between their ideals and their choices-the political not only becomes personal, but also threatens to upend their lives, as well as the presidential campaign itself. Written by well-known political journalist David Paul Kuhn, What Makes It Worthy is "a heartfelt page-turner that proves a good novel can both entertain you and inform you," in the words of former Michigan Governor

The 1968 Democratic Convention, best known for police brutality against demonstrators, has been relegated to a dark place in American historical memory. Battleground Chicago ventures beyond the stereotypical image of rioting protestors and violent cops to reevaluate exactly how—and why—the police attacked antiwar activists at the convention. Working from interviews with eighty former Chicago police officers who were on the scene, Frank Kusch uncovers the other side of the story of ’68, deepening our understanding of a turbulent decade. “Frank Kusch’s compelling account of the clash between Mayor Richard Daley’s men in blue and anti-war rebels reveals why the 1960s was such a painful era for many Americans. . . . to his great credit, [Kusch] allows ‘the pigs’ to speak up for themselves.”—Michael Kazin “Kusch’s history of white Chicago policemen and the 1968 Democratic National Convention is a solid addition to a growing literature on the cultural sensibility and political perspective of the conservative white working class in the last third of the twentieth century.”—David Farber, Journal of American History