New book recounts a bitter primary of the past, not the present

Jon Ward must’ve had a crystal ball handy when he decided to start on his latest book.

Ward, the senior political correspondent for Yahoo News, began work on his analysis of the 1980 Democratic presidential primary back in 2013 — before the crowded Republican field of 2016 and the increasingly large potential pool among Democrats for 2020.

So the divisiveness shown in Camelot's End seems, sadly, somewhat timely and appropriate.

The book focuses on Senator Ted Kennedy’s primary challenge to incumbent President Jimmy Carter and, in its subtitle’s words, how it broke the Democratic Party.

Listen to Davies’s interview with Ward below or read the transcript on NPR’s website.