For Mailer, the 1960s were not only notable for the volume of his published writing, but for the extent of his political engagement and participation. Though Mailer wrote and spoke about American politics until the end of his life, he was arguably most directly involved in political protest during the Vietnam War era. During this time, he spoke out frequently against the war, and in 1967 published the stylistically innovative Why Are We In Vietnam?, often read as an allegorical criticism of the national mindset that led to America’s involvement in the unwinnable war. Most notably, Mailer participated in the March on the Pentagon in October of 1967, which provided the foundation for his Pulitzer Prize winning work Armies of the Night (1968), a seminal work of New Journalism that to this day is considered one of the best pieces covering the event.

This chapter discusses Mailer’s work in the context of the New Journalism movement, including his own unique contributions in terms of style and perspective. It explores the ways Mailer blends characteristics of autobiography, participatory journalism, and literary fiction, and also addresses Mailer’s use of illeism, a style which allowed him to write about himself in the third person, and which became one of his signatures as a New Journalist in the 1960s and 1970s.