In the summer of 1968, during the Vietnam War and after events turbid as the assassination of Martin Luther King or Bobby Kennedy, Republicans met in Miami and elected as unpopular candidate Richard Nixon, while Democrats supported in Chicago nomination of Vice President Hubert Humphrey ineffective. Televisions across the country showed antiwar protesters crowding the streets of Chicago and rampant police beating and arresting protesters and delegates alike. An image of chaos likely possibilities Humphrey sentenced in the fall campaign against Nixon, a decisive year contemporary American politics, which bitterly divided the country emerged today. During its coverage in Chicago, Mailer himself was about to be arrested when the police was Mayor Daley was the hand against the Yippies, hippies and media.

With its characteristic descriptive style, Mailer tells the two conventions acutely analyzing the profile of the candidates and their environment: from Republican Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan in Miami, even Democrats Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson and Eugene McCarthy in Chicago .