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Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 is a collection of articles covering the 1972 presidential campaign written by gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson and illustrated by Ralph Steadman. The articles were first serialized in Rolling Stone magazine throughout 1972 and later released as a book in early 1973. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. ...
Ralph Steadman (born Wallasey, May 15, 1936) is a British cartoonist and caricaturist. ...
In political geography and international politics a country is a geographical entity, a territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Hunter S. Thompsons famous Gonzo logo. ...
A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ...
Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...
ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ...
Presidential electoral votes by state. ...
Gonzo Journalism is a journalistic style, most famously used by Hunter S. Thompson. ...
Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (born Louisville, Kentucky July 18, 1937) is an American journalist and author. ...
Ralph Steadman (born Wallasey, May 15, 1936) is a British cartoonist and caricaturist. ...
This article is about the magazine. ...
The book focuses almost exclusively on the Democratic Party's primaries and the breakdown of the party as it splits between the different candidates. Of particular focus is the manic maneuvering of the George McGovern campaign during the Miami convention as they sought to ensure the democratic nomination despite attempts by the George Wallace campaign and other candidates to block McGovern. The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ...
George McGovern on May 8, 1972 cover of Time Magazine George Stanley McGovern, Ph. ...
George Corley Wallace, Jr. ...
Thompson began his coverage of the campaign in December 1971, just as the race toward the primaries was beginning, from a rented apartment in Washington, DC (a situation he compared to "living in an armed camp, a condition of constant fear"). Over the next 12 months, in voluminous detail, he covered every aspect of the campaign, from the smallest rally to the raucous conventions. Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...
Because of the freewheeling nature of the campaign, a first-generation fax machine was procured at great expense by the magazine for Thompson. Dubbing it "the mojo wire", Thompson used the new technology to extend the writing process precariously close to printing deadlines, often haphazardly sending in notes mere hours before the magazine went to press. Fellow writers and editors would have to assemble the finished product with Thompson over the phone.
Thompson's controversial, drug-laden novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was released in early 1972 and grew in popularity while Thompson was covering the campaigns. Thompson employed a number of similarly controversial literary styles in On the Campaign Trail as well, including profuse vulgarity and the humorous exaggeration of events. Despite the unconventional style, the book is still considered a hallmark of campaign journalism and helped to launch Thompson's role as a popular political observer. The hard cover version of the book. ...
Insider look at the Political Campaigns
A self-described political junkie, Thompson fixes his sights early on McGovern as the candidate to which he will attach himself. Dismissing 1968 Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey as a "hopeless old hack" and presumed nominee Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, whose campaign he said exuded a "stench of death" Thompson was vindicated in his choice of McGovern. The nomination of McGovern was not assured, however, as others in the Democratic party attempted to recruit Teddy Kennedy to run or focused on George Wallace's perceived ability to win the South. Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. ...
Edmund Muskie (March 28, 1914 – March 26, 1996) was an American Democratic politician from Maine. ...
With brutal honesty Thompson narrates the smallest decisions on what speech to give where (from school gymnasiums for young voters, to public halls in heavily Polish districts of Milwaukee, to the attempt to create buzz for Muskie through an old-fashioned and disastrous whistle-stop train tour through Florida dubbed the Sunshine Special) to the ill-fated selection of Thomas Eagleton as the Vice-Presidential candidate. This article is about Milwaukee in Wisconsin. ...
Thomas Eagleton and George McGovern on July 24, 1972 cover of Time magazine after his nomination for vice president on the Democratic ticket Thomas Eagleton on August 7, 1972 cover of Time Magazine after his withdrawal for vice president on the Democratic ticket. ...
The book is notable for its introduction not only to the candidates of 1972 but also its early glimpses of future political leaders. Gary Hart of Colorado, who served as McGovern's campaign manager and would later run for and win a seat in the US Senate, and Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, who would himself capture the 1976 Democratic nomination and Presidency, are two examples. Gary Warren Hart (born Gary Warren Hartpence, November 28, 1936) is a politician and lawyer from the state of Colorado. ...
James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr. ...
Thompson's hatred of Richard Nixon, the "he-who-must-not-be-named" character of the book, is on display throughout in diatribes on policy, as well as personal invective directed at Nixon and his inner circle. Despite this, Thompson humanizes the incumbent through several episodes, including recounting a private interview with Nixon in New Hampshire during the 1968 presidential election that largely focused on their mutual fascination with football. In later years and articles, Thompson recounted his amazement that Nixon wasn't just talking about football but that he seemed to have a "genuine interest" in the game, and often cited the encounter as further evidence of how Nixon's every public maneuver was politically calculated even if it hid his true self. Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...
The incumbent, in politics, is the current holder of a political office. ...
Presidential electoral votes by state. ...
By the end of the 1972 campaign and its disastrous defeat for McGovern (Nixon won all but one state — Massachusetts — even winning McGovern's home state of South Dakota) Thompson was clearly thoroughly exhausted and burned out on the process of politics.
Critique of journalism As much as it is about the candidates and their various political processes, the book is equally a critical look at the mainstream media coverage of the campaigns and politics. Criticizing the various pundits and political 'experts', Thompson rails against the often incestuous relationships between politicians and those who write about them. The most famous example of this being Muskie's supposed addiction to the West African drug ibogaine, and the well-known fact of Eagleton's electroshock therapy for depression which was later broken through the press as a scandal of their own making. Ibogaine is an indole alkaloid, a long-acting hallucinogen which has gained attention due to its application in the treatment of opioid addiction and similar addiction syndromes. ...
Electroconvulsive therapy, also known as electroshock or ECT, is a controversial type of psychiatric shock therapy involving the induction of an artificial seizure in a patient by passing electricity through the brain. ...
Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or unipolar depression when compared to bipolar disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ...
Timothy Crouse, who provided supplemental coverage of the campaign for Rolling Stone, wrote a memoir called “The Boys on the Bus” that critically analyzes the coverage of the '72 presidential campaign. In the book, often a standard text in university journalism courses, Crouse echoes Thompson’s observations on the Pack Journalism mentality of the reporters covering the campaign, who were greatly dependent on the access provided by the Nixon campaign staff. Crouse describes Thompson as the one reporter who broke from the pack, however, and later printings of “The Boys on the Bus” contain an introduction by Thompson. Son of Russel Crouse and brother of Lindsay Crouse, Timothy Crouse is the author of The Boys on the Bus, a largely critical look at the journalists who covered the 1972 US presidential campaign. ...
Boys on the Bus (1973) is author Timothy Crouses seminal non-fiction book detailing life on the road for reporters covering the United States 1972 presidential campaign. ...
Pack Journalism is an often derogatory term used to describe the tendency of news reporting to become homogeneous when a group of reporters covering the same topic are required to spend large amounts of time together. ...
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