Stewart Alsop's THE CENTER is an excellent, well-written book about American politics in the 1960s. Drawing on his three decades' experience as a journalist and pundit in DC, the author provides readers with an engaging account of some key events in American political history: McCarthy and the Red Scare. the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK's assassination, and the Vietnam War. Specifically, Alsop explores the people involved in these events -- their motivations, their agendas, and more. It's an excellent, highly recommended insight into this momentous and tumultuous period in modern American history.