Analysis of The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H. White - Book Report/Review Example

 The making of the president 1960 The book was written and written by Theodore H. White. He was born in the year 1915 and died in the year 1986. In his career, he worked as a political analyst and historian. He is mostly known for his reporting during war from china. In the accounts of the 1960 to 1972 and 1982 presidential elections in the United States of America, he played a great role which sow him become one of the major analyst of the American politics. From the vast experience that he had gathered while abroad on different cultures, he managed to come up with a comprehensive analysis of the American politics culture. White came home with a main goal of analyzing the culture of American politics. Following his interest in analyzing the culture of the American politics, he wrote his first book in a series of books titled the making of the president in 1960. The book was published the following year (1961). The book had an enormous impact on the United States politics image. Most of analyst’s, critics and journalist had to change their way of describing the Americans everyday politics after reading the book. In his book, Theodore did show a presidential battle in many different angles. The book brought about a remarkable point of analysis on the world of politics and its victories, strategies and defeats. In his book, White also did note all postures and intonation of politicians following the elections of 1960. In one of the other chapters, he describes the reasons as to why Americans vote and live their life is the way they do. The book has a chronology of events from preliminaries to the time when Kennedy takes over office. It shows physically powerful rivalry between Kennedy and Nixon and the voter’s preference overtime. It captures the ideologies of both candidates by giving quotes of the speeches that they made to support their ideologies and win votes. The book goes on to portray the act of patriotism and conformity to democracy when Nixon is reported to be watching Kennedy’s speech at t the same time accepting defeat. Furthermore, white writes a lot about the Kennedy presidency and what he had in mind as he took over power as the president of the super power country. He knew that most of the world’s problems lay by the office that he was now heading. The author thus brings in a segment that gives an account of the knowledge, Kennedy has to say on what awaits him as the president of the United States. He portrays Kennedy analyzing the world problems in details which is crucial before one embarks on coming up with solutions. Mr. White is pro Kennedy in a very aggressive manner in his argument. There is no chance of tarnishing Kennedy’s image in any part of the book. For instance, at some point, Kennedy’s father who is one of the largest real estate owners in the county, influences most delegates by a compelling persuasion. These persuasion, have not been well defined by the author. It is evident that most politicians make their wealth form real estate’s or insurance, hence he had to categorically bring out the role his(Kennedy) father played while campaigning for his presidential bid. White takes into account the reasons as to why different people from different groups voted Kennedy into office. He showed that the parties they serve or the group they belong to guides the decisions of many people in the United States. For instance, there are two groups that of Protestants and Catholics in the United States according to religion alignment. Each of these groups gave their vote to Kennedy at different capacities depending on how much each group agreed with the ideologies of Kennedy and the party and what they had for the nation as the next president. White brought in a completely new approach in which journalist would approach an issue while giving a deep analysis of an issue. This aspect is displayed well when he analyses the television debates of candidates. For instance, he gives his opinion on the need for the candidates to give an immediate answer as they are being interviewed. “Every experienced newspaperman and inquirer knows that the most thoughtful and responsive answers to any difficult question come after long pause, and that the longer the pause the more illuminating the thought that follows” (White, 34). White prompts the analysts and journalists to take keen interest on such responses for they are deeply thought and they display the candidates’ capacity to handle the issues at hand. White describes the passion with which the Americans exercise their right to vote and seal their fate and future on the Election Day. A vivid description brings about the real picture of what was happening. The clear description shows the way republicans had small returns coming in first and then was followed by the surge of the democrats from those big city-states in the evening. Then came in a second wave of the republicans form the mountains and farm states after midnight. Thus from this well-structured chronology of events, one is able to tell exactly what was taking place and could learn the voting blocks of the United States at that time. Mover, one could easily tell the motivating factor for a particular group of people to seal their fate and future on a particular candidate. Most of these people in any particular group, have the same socio-economic activities thus, most probably the face the same problems that need to be dealt with in particular way as White brings it out. Thus, it is possible that a candidate has to represent the needs of these people in order to gain their support. Conclusion In most instances, the analysis of the political landscape of the United States is exactly the way white had dictated it to be today. In his book he brought about the fact that the United States had become of age democratically with people having that explicit chance of choosing who they want as their leader. He further goes on to explain the events that follow Kennedy’s winning in relation to Nixon who was his major competitor. Nixon, accepted the defeat and went ahead to congratulate Kennedy and watched his victory speech. The book brings about a new dimension in analyzing the politics of the United States, unraveling the major issue that were most of the time left out while carrying out political analysis. Thus the book and the author played fundamental role in shaping the way in which the united states journalism industry and political analysis over time. Works Cited White, Theodore H. The Making of the President, 1960. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1961. Print. 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