Includes bibliographical references (pages 405-452) and index.

Jack and Dick -- Team Kennedy -- The unifier -- The least attractive candidate -- Not a political type -- The whippersnapper and the riverboat gambler team up -- The waiting game -- No capacity for sensible advice -- "One of us" -- Mending fences -- Uniting Republicans -- Starting the contest -- The Catholic candidate -- The great debates -- The Democrats' frantic finale -- Nixon's plan for winning -- How they voted -- But did he win? -- In with the new -- Between myth and reality.

"This revelatory account of the 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon shatters long-held myths about one of the twentieth century's most important political events. Drawing on a wide variety of archival sources, such as FBI surveillance of Kennedy, Nixon's correspondence with Billy Graham, and the papers of Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and many others, Irwin F. Gellman provides the first balanced history of both the general election and the jockeying within the parties that preceded it"-- Provided by publisher.