Camelot's End

October 15, 2018
The story of internecine warfare in the Democratic Party.In 1980, Jimmy Carter was in trouble. The sitting Democratic president was unpopular. Though the economy had been flagging for most of the past decade, as sitting president, he bore much of the blame even if he did not deserve it. Iranian revolutionaries had taken Americans hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and Carter seemed helpless. On matters both domestic and foreign, Carter was perceived as weak and out of touch. Even as he anticipated a tough election fight against whomever the Republicans nominated (Ronald Reagan, it would turn out), he faced a challenge from the left within his party. Ted Kennedy, the youngest son of the legendary political family, challenged Carter for the Democratic nomination that year. As Yahoo senior political correspondent Ward notes, "it was one of only a handful of times...that an incumbent president running for reelection had been challenged from within his own party." Though Carter would emerge from that struggle, bruised and battered, he would succumb to Reagan in the general election. This is the story the author tells in this intriguing political history. In a fine dual political biography that becomes a riveting tale of a party seemingly in chaos, the author occasionally overstates his case--the Democrats were hardly "broken" as a party in the 1980s and beyond--and the dual-biography structure sometimes makes it seem as if Carter and Kennedy are somehow inevitably on a political collision course. Still, Ward provides deep insight into American politics in the past five decades. He writes fluidly and demonstrates a firm grasp of how politics work. It is also interesting that he writes in a time when there are increasing whispers that a sitting president might face an internal challenge to his renomination.A useful reminder of a past era that resonates with contemporary politics.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2018

Former White House correspondent and current political reporter for Yahoo News Ward argues that Ted Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign represented a desperate attempt to revitalize the Democratic Party and provide more focused leadership for the nation. The author asserts that the Kennedy campaign split the party into rival factions: those supporting incumbent president Jimmy Carter and those nostalgic for the Camelot dynasty. His narrative takes readers through the journey, from the perspective of both the Carter and Kennedy campaigns to the 1980 election and the political struggles and successes that followed both camps. Overall, Carter is portrayed as a benevolent public servant who, while not above political entanglement, remained primarily concerned with the best interests of the nation. In contrast, Kennedy was perceived as a challenger; a savvy political operator yet unsure of his own vision and unable to escape the gravity of the Kennedy legacy. The party division Ward describes is apparent in the two campaigns and especially following Carter's nomination for reelection, but it could have been emphasized more strongly throughout earlier portions of the book. VERDICT Recommended for those interested in American political history and the dawn of the Reagan era.--Philip Shackelford, South Arkansas Community Coll., El Dorado

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2018
In 1980, Ronald Reagan decisively defeated incumbent president Jimmy Carter. The so-called Reagan Revolution transformed both the Republican Party and the national political landscape. Ward, a longtime Washington-based political correspondent, asserts that the year's primary battle between Carter and Senator Ted Kennedy had an equally dramatic and transformative effect on the Democratic Party. Ward highlights the contrasts between their backgrounds and personalities. Carter grew up in rural poverty. Kennedy, of course, was born into wealth and privilege. Carter was driven, self-assured, and intensely ambitious. Kennedy, the youngest of nine children, often seemed overshadowed in that very competitive family, and he struggled to find a role. According to Ward, Carter eyed a run for the presidency as early as 1974, and he already resented Kennedy as a potential rival before he even met him. Ward may exaggerate the civil war within the Democratic Party; indeed, the national electoral map had been shifting well before the Carter-Kennedy duel. Still, this is a well-researched and valuable look back at a period of intense political turmoil that helped shape our current environment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)