The 1968 Project

A Nation Coming of Age Author Brad Zellar Minnesota Historical Society Press (October 1, 2011) Illuminates the extraordinary events of a pivotal year in America, with photography, eyewitness accounts, and iconic art and artifacts of the times. Description The social and political forces that swirled through the turbulent 1960s crested in 1968. That year saw the peak of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, riots at the Democratic National Convention, assertions of Black power at the Olympic Games, and feminist demonstrations at the Miss America Pageant. Hair opened on Broadway, Laugh-In debuted on TV, and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey polarized critics. President Lyndon Johnson chose not seek reelection following a tumultuous five years in office, and his successor, Richard Nixon, promised in his nomination acceptance speech that “the long, dark night for America is about to end.” In the closing days of the year, we saw earth in it