America Awry: The Year 1968  is a non-fiction narrative that chronicles one of the most tumultuouos years in the 20th Century. The publication is yet another book in the author's "Bringing History Alive" series. - Throughout 1968, the  Vietnam War served as a constant, bloody backdrop  that polarized the country into hawkish and dovish camps, particularly following the surprising and demoralizing Tet Offensive and horrific My Lai Massacre. The war also irrevocably altered political dynamics, ending the career of Lyndon Johnson, one of the most progressive-minded Presidents in American history. Those actively opposing the war as well as socioeconomic and racial injustices were often subjected to violent reprisals, including police brutality. - Aside from seemingly endless war in Southeast Asia, Americans awakened each morning to learn of additional disrupting news events, including two high-profile assassinations (Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Sr.) multiple riots often involving vandalism, looting, and death, a dramatic and controversial presidential election, ground-breaking  supreme court decisions, blatant cases of systemic racism, nearly 30 airliner hijackings, 71 commercial air crashes totaling 349 fatalities, repeated nuclear  test explosions that contaminated an already fragile ecosystem, and ever-growing mistrust of governmental and other authority figures. - Literature, music, theater, movies, television programs, and sports offered brief respites from daily turmoil. Even then, several of those entertainment venues featured major controversies. That same year, a number of technological advancements, many taken for granted in the 21st Century, also took root. - Trepidation, however, was the pervasive theme throughout 1968. Radio and television news broadcasts as well as daily newspapers were consistent conduits of dread. No one could predict what might happen next. - America Awry  invites readers to revisit 1968, a year like no other. A year like no other. OTHER BOOKS BY JEFFREY K. SMITH Sudden Despair - Two Down, Two to Go - A Phantom Killer - Rendezvous in Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy (2nd edition) - The Fighting Little Judge: The Life and Times of George C. Wallace - Fire in the Sky: The Story of the Atomic Bomb - Bad Blood: Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and the Tumultuous 1960s (2nd edition) - Dixiecrat: The Life and Times of Strom Thurmond - The Loyalist: The Life and Times of Andrew Johnson - The Eagle Has Landed: The Story of Apollo 11 - The Presidential Assassins: John Wilkes Booth, Charles Julius Guiteau, Leon Frank Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald - The War Against Crime: J. Edgar Hoover Versus the John Dillinger Gang - The Wizard of the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest - You Were Right and We Were Wrong: The Life and Times of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. - Grover Cleveland: The Last Conservative Democratic President - Listen to Me: The Brief Life and Enduring Legacy of Buddy Holly - A Family Affair: The Rosenberg Espionage Case - A Prelude to War: The Presidency of James Buchanan - The Assistant President: South Carolina's James F. Byrnes - A Lingering Evil: The Unsolved Murder of Buford Lolley - A Pea River Progency: Alabama's Colorful and Controversial James E. "Big Jim" Folsom - Freedom and Opportunity: Robert Smalls and the End of Slavery in America - The 25-Day Vice-President: Alabama's Rufus de Vane King Jeffrey K. Smith is a physician and author. A native of Enterprise, Alabama, he earned undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Alabama. After completing residency training at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, he entered private practice in Upstate South Carolina. Along with his wife, Anne, they reside in Greer, South Carolina. They are the proud parents of two adult sons and their wives, a grandson, and a pair of beloved and spoiled dogs. Dr. Smith is the author of three murder-mystery novels and 22 works of non-fiction. The latter narratives represent his "Bringing History Alive" series.