Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics

The New York Times bestseller!

"A thriller-like, propulsive tour through 1968, told by a man who is in love with American politics and who knows how all the dots connect. Brilliant and totally engrossing."
-Rachel Maddow

"Delightful...brings to life the most fascinating election of modern times."
-Walter Isaacson

From the celebrated host of MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, an enthralling account of the presidential election that created American politics as we know it today

Long before Lawrence O'Donnell was the anchor of his own political talk show, he was a senior adviser to Senator Patrick Moynihan, one of postwar America’s wisest political minds. The 1968 U.S. presidential election—marked by RFK’s assassination, massive upheaval in the Democratic Party, and the first of Richard Nixon’s dirty tricks—was O’Donnell’s own political coming of age. In the decades since, the election has remained one of his abiding fascinations, as it set the tone for so much of what followed in American politics, all the way through to today. Playing with Fire represents his master class in American electioneering, as well as an extraordinary human drama that captures a system, and a country, coming apart at the seams.

Lawrence O'Donnell is the host of The Last Word on MSNBC. Formerly an Emmy Award-winning executive producer and writer for "The West Wing," O'Donnell also served as senior advisor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), chief of staff to the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works and the Senate Finance Committee. He is the author of Deadly Force and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Born in Boston, O'Donnell graduated from Harvard College.