What It Takes: The Way to the White House

Richard Ben Cramer. Vintage Books USA, $25 (1072pp) ISBN 978-0-679-74649-2

Cramer's compulsively readable chronicle of the 1988 presidential campaign, a BOMC featured selection and a one-week PW bestseller in cloth, focuses on six contenders--Bush and Dole among the Republicans, and Democrats Hart, Biden, Gephardt and Dukakis--bringing them to life with detailed descriptions and well-crafted interior monologues. (June)

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