From a strange, dark chapter in American political history comes the captivating story of Ted Kennedy’s 1980 campaign for president against the incumbent Jimmy Carter, told completely for the very first time.

The Carter presidency was on life support. The Democrats, eager to maintain power and yearning to resurrect former glory, considered Kennedy. And so, 1980 became a civil war. It was the final time an American leader received a significant reelection challenge from inside his very own party, the about Camelot’s End: Kennedy vs. Carter as well as the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party last contested convention, and the last all-out floor fight, where politics combatants fought instantly to decide who would be the nominee. It had been the last gasp of an outdated program, an insider’s game that outdated Kennedy hands believed they had mastered, and the entire year that proclaimed the unraveling of the Democratic Party as America had known it.

Camelot’s End details the incredible drama of Kennedy’s problem — what led to it, how it unfolded, and its own lasting results — with cinematic sweep. It really is a story in what happened to the Democratic Party when the country’s lengthy string of successes, good luck, and global dominance following World Battle II ran its course, and how, on a quest to capture the magic of JFK, Democrats plunged themselves into an intra-party civil war.

And, at its heart, Camelot’s End is the story of two extraordinary and deeply flawed men: Teddy Kennedy, among the nation’s biggest lawmakers, a guy of defects and of great personality; and Jimmy Carter, a politically tenacious but frequently underestimated trailblazer. In depth and nuanced, offering new interviews with main party leaders and behind-the-scenes revelations from enough time, Camelot’s End presents both Kennedy and Carter in a fresh light, and requires readers deep inside a dark chapter in American politics history.