Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

good condition - all is well

A truly remarkable work that presciently foreshadows what we are experiencing today. It’s sad to think how our politics have only worsened in the last fifty years. We face the same corruption, the same threat of totalitarianism, the same media fecklessness, and the same corruption in spades! I wonder what Thompson would say about Trump. I shudder to think.

It's a great book, but it arrived with the corner crushed in. Someone was not careful with this package.

I read this book as an appetizer for the current US presidential election campaign. And what an appetizer it is - akin to a halopenio shrimp cocktail with mescalin! It would have been an even better starter for the 2004 election, with which the 1972 election (featured here) shared many features: An incumbent hated by all the progressives at home and everybody in the rest of the world, an opponent who stands for nothing but not being that incumbent (defeated in the primaries in 72) and a murderous, immoral and expensive war on the other side of the world, which nevertheless didn't cost the US president his job.When the great HST covers the 1972 campaign, the verb "cover" takes on a whole new meaning. He immerses himself in the broadcast of a pro football game in order to adopt the same mindset as pro football fanatic Richard Nixon. He almost drowns in the Atlantic ocean in Miami in sight of his friends at a democratic primary-night party. At the republican convention, he joins the young republicans and talks to them about acid (they think he is referring to proton donors, like hydrochloric acid). Not despite, but rather because of this famous "gonzo" style of journalism, HST's book is rich in insight about US politics and politics in general. He goes so much further than the horse-race type coverage commonly fed to the public. Thompson provides an intelligent assessment of the moods and trends in the US population and a really smart analysis of why people vote for whom. He has excellent insight into the dynamics of the individual campaigns and how they are molded by the characters and agendas of the candidates, the interactions with their campaign workers and their relations to the party apparatus. HST doesn't think of elections as some kind of stunt happening every couple of years, but he explains them as deeply interwoven with the social and demographic workings of the USA.Some of my most favorite political quotes are from this book. Thompson really loves his country, he says "it could have been a testament to some of man's best instincts", but he is in despair over the crocks (Nixon and cronies) who have taken it hostage. This emotional state of his and the worry about the direction the US will take in '72 got him to write an intense and fiery book.Do yourself a favor - stop following the electoral coverage on the corporate media for a week, use your time to read this book, and then go back to the current campaign and you will view it in a new light.

It’s like time travel readng this coverage of the Nixon campaign written for Rolling Stone.The more things change, the more they stay the same.

You say that following politics is frustrating and boring? Not when H.S.T. explains the 1972 road to the presidency. Amazing.

I read this long ago in college and decided I need to reread it. Still enjoy Thompson's insights and writing style all these years later. No one else has ever peered into the heart of political darkness with such conviction and written about it in such a raw and funny manner. His takes on McGovern and Nixon are without equal. Highly recommended.

Outstanding!!! Once again, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson proves that his peculiar way of meeting deadlines and covering the story with nothing but dangerous substances in his head isn't a wacked job but instead pure stealth journalism. From riding with the Hell's Angels to talking football with Richard Nixon, Thompson has been part of those moments that stand out in American culture. He's written books like "The Proud Highway", "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear & Loathing in America", which have become icon classics of an era in American history that we will never see again. In "Fear & Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72", Dr. Thompson covers the 1972 Presidential Campaign for Rolling Stone, writing the story in highway motels, midnight coffee shops and dim airport bars throughout America for over a year. Only a journalist with Thompsons' character and high-speed lifestyle could cover a story like this with the gut-renching details that allow the reader to grasp the political reality behind a presidential election. After reading this book, it's impossible to ignore the concept of the political junkie because he lives in all of us. Or at least those of us who have some kind of understanding that we are not in all control of our own destiny, but elected public servants in their fifties who think they have a close idea of what we want. But what do we want? Who knows? But maybe this book will give some insight on how the political machinery works. Find out that votes aren't the crucial factor that elect a president, they are just another variable in a very complex equation. Just a rockin' good book. Dr. Thompson writes it as he sees it, which actually makes it even better for us. Maybe his rollercoster lifestyle might be a shock for most people, but when he gets his hands on a typewriter, the guy writes like an orgasm.