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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies

The Best Biographies of John F. Kennedy

31 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by Steve in Best Biographies Posts , President #35 - J Kennedy

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American history , Arthur Schlesinger Jr. , book reviews , Doris Kearns Goodwin , Geoffrey Perret , Herbert Parmet , JFK , John F Kennedy , Michael O'Brien , Nigel Hamilton , Pulitzer Prize , Richard Reeves , Robert Dallek , Ted Sorensen , Thomas Reeves , Thurston Clarke

In the end, JFK proved to be everything I hoped for – and more! Like several of the presidents who preceded him, Kennedy’s life is a biographer’s dream .

His forebears were dynamic, endlessly fascinating, occasionally unscrupulous and, from time to time, oddly dysfunctional. Kennedy himself proved to be no less interesting: he was medically infirm, an ardent bookworm, a serial philanderer, often ruthlessly pragmatic and extremely charismatic.

But after spending five-and-a-half months with JFK and experiencing his presidency nine times (three of the books did not cover his time in the Oval Office) I still find Kennedy undeservedly well-ranked by historians. But that’s a subject for another day.

* “ An Unfinished Life: JFK 1917-1963 ” by Robert Dallek (published 2003) – This comprehensive biography was the first book on JFK that I read. It also proved to be my favorite. Dallek provides a devastating early indictment of JFK’s personal behavior, but more than half of the book is reserved for Kennedy’s presidency where his personal affairs take a back seat to the nation’s issues. Overall, Dallek’s biography provides the best combination of insight, balance and color of any of the JFK biographies I encountered — 4¼ stars ( Full review here )

* “ JFK: Reckless Youth ” by Nigel Hamilton (1992) – This was intended to be the first book in a three-volume series but as a result of his “unflattering” portrayal of the Kennedy family Hamilton lost access to important research documents and, regrettably, abandoned the series. This lively 800-page narrative is riveting and provides unparalleled insight into JFK’s relationships with his older brother and his parents (who are painted in an extremely unflattering light). No other biography I read covers Kennedy’s early life better than this volume — 3¾ stars ( Full review here )

* “ Kennedy: The Classic Biography ” by Ted Sorensen (1965) – Written by Kennedy’s long-time adviser and speechwriter, the author’s proximity to JFK proves both a blessing and a curse. Sorensen’s allegiance to Kennedy is quickly obvious – and occasionally distracting – but the narrative covers events from a unique perspective. But in the end it does not provide balanced, comprehensive coverage of JFK and can only serve as the eloquent observations of a staunchly loyal aide — 3½ stars ( Full review here )

* “ John F. Kennedy: A Biography ” by Michael O’Brien (2005) – This 905-page biography is encyclopedic and provides more detail (and more perspectives) on most events than any other JFK biography. But while it is 200 pages longer than Dallek’s biography (its most comparable counterpart) it is no more potent…and its numerous nuggets of wisdom are buried beneath an avalanche of unnecessary verbosity — 3½ stars ( Full review here )

* “ Jack: A Life Like No Other ” by Geoffrey Perret (2001) – This full-scale (but lightweight, at just 400 pages) biography is easy to read and decidedly informal. Unfortunately, it also provides less insight or analysis of Kennedy than most other biographies. And while readers new to JFK may appreciate its lack of “complexity” almost everyone else will finish this biography still feeling hungry — 3 stars ( Full review here )

* “ A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy ” by Thomas Reeves (1991) – This study quickly proves to be a captivating, but flawed, critique of its subject. Devoted to exposing the hypocrisy hidden beneath Camelot’s polished veneer, it feels more bluntly partisan, and less scholarly, than Nigel Hamilton’s somewhat similar “JFK: Reckless Youth.” But where Hamilton covers three decades in about 900 pages, Reeves covers JFK’s entire life in just half of that — 3 stars ( Full review here )

* “ Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy ” and “ JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy ” by Herbert Parmet – This two-volume series was published between 1980 and 1983 and totals nearly 900 pages (excluding notes and bibliography). Offering a thoughtful and balanced perspective on Kennedy, this series is serious, scholarly and solid. But where it was the “go to” reference on Kennedy for years, documents which have become available since its publication have left it somewhat stale. Parmet’s writing style also leaves JFK and his family feeling a bit flat and lifeless. Imagine that ! — 3½ star (Full reviews here and here )

* “ The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys ” by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1987) – This non-traditional biography of JFK is actually a family history which ends with a focus on John F. Kennedy – but only up to his presidential inauguration. Despite its heft (943 pages) it is engrossing, clever and insightful. Unfortunately it also left Goodwin embroiled in a plagiarism scandal. But for readers unconcerned with the author’s failure to adequately cite sources – or her awkward effort to conceal her sins – it is a wickedly entertaining and perceptive (if too friendly) treatment of Honey Fitz, Rose Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy. The book does not end as strongly as it starts and the weakest player (ironically) is JFK himself who receives less focus than he deserves — 4½ stars ( Full review here )

* “ A Thousand Days: JFK in the White House ” by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1965) – This Pulitzer Prize-winning tome (with 1,031 pages) is part memoir, part biography and part interpretive history with a nearly exclusive focus on the Kennedy presidency. The author served as Special Assistant to President Kennedy, providing him an advantageous perch from which to view JFK’s presidency. Schlesinger’s reputation as a historian is unquestioned, but his book proves dense, dry and often tedious – as well as uneven in emphasis and highly sympathetic to Kennedy. A classic, perhaps, but not a balanced account of the Kennedy presidency — 3 stars ( Full review here )

* “ President Kennedy: Profile of Power ” by Richard Reeves (1993) – This unique (and extraordinarily revealing) book follows JFK almost moment-by-moment through his presidency. But where most biographies are written from the point of view of the biographer , Reeves’s audience often views the world through Kennedy’s own eyes. Unfortunately missing from the book is much insight on Kennedy’s family and friends, and there is little analysis to be found. But for a unique point of view, and as a supplemental book on JFK, “Profile of Power” is hard to beat — 3¾ stars ( Full review here )

* “ JFK’s Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President ” by Thurston Clarke (2013) – Ostensibly focused on the last weeks of Kennedy’s life, this book is more comprehensive than its title suggests. Almost continuously throughout its 362 pages it reaches back in time to Kennedy’s past in order to provide unfamiliar readers with adequate context. The resulting lack of continuity, however, is perhaps the book’s greatest weakness. Most confounding, however, is the book’s failure (despite its sub-title) to demonstrate that Kennedy was on the verge of greatness when he was assassinated. Otherwise, a stimulating and enjoyable read — 3½ stars ( Full review here )

Best Biography of John F. Kennedy: “ An Unfinished Life: JFK 1917-1963 ” by Robert Dallek

Honorable Mention: “ JFK: Reckless Youth ” by Nigel Hamilton (though “incomplete”)

History Books » American History » Books on American Presidents

The best books on jfk, recommended by fredrik logevall.

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall

Of the thousands of books written about JFK, America's iconic 35th president, which ones should you read first? Fredrik Logevall , professor of history and international affairs at Harvard University, talks us through five key books, starting with the first volume of his biography , tracking JFK's coming of age in the years that also saw America transforming from economic powerhouse to global superpower.

Interview by Eve Gerber

Prelude to Leadership: The Postwar Diary of John F. Kennedy by John F Kennedy

Profiles in Courage by John F Kennedy

Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Ted Sorensen

The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

The best books on JFK - JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall

1 JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall

2 prelude to leadership: the postwar diary of john f. kennedy by john f kennedy, 3 profiles in courage by john f kennedy, 4 counselor: a life at the edge of history by ted sorensen, 5 the best and the brightest by david halberstam.

A lthough 40,000 books have been published about the Kennedys, according to the estimate of Jill Abramson, there are few serious efforts, prior to yours, to take comprehensive look at the life and times of JFK, America’s famous 35th president.

There are many books, as you say, that deal with aspects of his presidency and his family. But we don’t have a lot of full-fledged biographies of JFK himself, ones that contextualize his life and give due attention to his formative years. I don’t know that I have a good explanation for why. But it did cause me to think that there was an opening here. I had written about Kennedy before in different contexts, mostly pertaining to the Cold War and to Vietnam . Given that the materials available at the Kennedy Library and elsewhere are so rich, I thought I was in a good position to fill the lack of a real life-and-times biography.

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam , your 2012 history of America’s involvement in Vietnam, won both the Pulitzer and Frances Parkman prize. Is writing about Vietnam what led you to JFK?

Tell me about JFK, the man—and your book about him, the first volume of your planned two-part biography, which I asked you to discuss as one among the five books you’ve named.

Kennedy is certainly an iconic figure of the 20th century; he is also a highly consequential figure, I would argue, especially in American history, but indeed international history. His lifespan, which is 1917 to 1963, was an extraordinary period in world history and US history.

Hence the reason this became a two-volume work. In volume one, I cover his life through 1956, when he was elected to the Senate, and I also tell a second story about the rise of the United States to great power status and then to superpower status. That second story, remarkable in its own right, maps onto the life of Kennedy. That is, you can better understand some of the seminal developments of the mid-20th century through the lens of JFK’s life. Thus, the debate in the United States between so-called isolationists and interventionists prior to the U.S.’s entry into World War II ; the Second World War itself; the origins of the Cold War; the beginnings of the civil rights struggle and McCarthyism—I believe all of these important developments and controversies in the middle decades of the 20th century are illuminated by looking at them through the prism of Kennedy’s life.

It’s hard for me to imagine people not knowing the basic facts of JFK’s life, but because we have an international audience, can you please convey what is most important for people to grasp about the man who became America’s thirty-fifth president?

We need to grasp that he lived through an extraordinary half century, and that he came of age during the Second World War. Also, he was one of nine children, in a family that became fabulously wealthy. As a result, Jack Kennedy did not suffer during the Great Depression in the way that many others did. He grew up as a young man of privilege.

“Kennedy kept wonderful diaries”

But he also had intense challenges throughout his life. He was sickly from a young age to the end, and he lost the siblings closest to him in age. His older brother was killed in World War II. Kathleen (or Kick), his older sister and the sibling he was in many ways closest to, died in a 1948 plane accident. And he effectively lost his sister Rosemary to a botched lobotomy in 1941. So, he had a lot of frailty and tragedy to overcome.

Turning to the books you selected, I thought the place to start was Prelude to Leadership: The Postwar Diary of John F. Kennedy .

Kennedy kept wonderful diaries, which are quite useful from a biographer’s perspective, at various points in his life, particularly while travelling. This book, edited by Deirdre Henderson, is composed of what he wrote while he toured Europe in 1945, right after the Germans surrendered and immediately before the Japanese sued for peace. There is a foreword by Hugh Sidney, the journalist, who knew Kennedy quite well. The book is fascinating because it is a window into what a young Kennedy, just decommissioned from the Navy, was thinking as he’s seeing up-close the destruction wrought by World War II in Europe and interacting with a lot of high-powered people. He’s clearly fascinated by politics and by international relations.

How do you think his familiarity with the horrors of war as a reporter and as a Navy man influenced his views?

When he wrote these diaries, it was only about a year and a half since he’d returned from his own service in the Pacific theatre. He’s clearly skeptical about the wisdom of using military power to solve political problems. That’s one thing that comes through in the diaries. At the same time, he makes clear his conviction that the United States must play a leadership role in the new international system that is emerging from the rubble of war. Kennedy is convinced, as he travels in these middle months of 1945, that the United States has newfound responsibilities in the global arena, but that it cannot go it alone; it must work in concert with other nations. He endorses the concept of collective security.

Your book begins by detailing Kennedy’s pre-war travels throughout Europe, which would not have been possible without the extraordinary wealth and position of his father, who was Ambassador to the United Kingdom on the eve of World War II.

There’s no question that Joe Kennedy helped pave the way for JFK, his second son. Through his wealth and through his connections, he made it possible for Jack to undertake these travels both before and after World War II, which proved really important to JFK’s maturation as a thinker and his emergence as a political leader. As you say, I open my book with his travels in Europe in 1939. And though now, in 1945, he is emerging from his father’s shadow, it would have been very hard undertaking these travels, maybe impossible, without the older man’s help.

Kennedy has two things in common with the 45th president of the United States. Both he and Trump were sons of extreme fortune and both were second sons whose older brothers were long thought to be the heirs apparent.

It’s true that Trump and JFK were second sons who lost their older brothers. They were both born to privilege and to wealth. And you can say that there’s one more thing that they had in common, they were both sons of very domineering fathers.

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Profiles in Courage is your next recommendation. Of the books written by JFK this is the most familiar to readers, but it may still be unfamiliar to some, so please tell us about it.

This book is about US senators from throughout the nation’s history, who in his judgment had taken principled stands, even at the risk of hurting their political self-interest by going against the wishes of their constituents or region. It’s a book that he published in 1956, as a U.S. Senator who was beginning to think about a White House run, but it concerns issues and conundrums that had fascinated him since his undergraduate days. His senior thesis at Harvard, which became his first book, Why England Slept , concerns the development of British appeasement policy in the 1930s. But in a broader sense it’s about the dilemmas of leadership in democracies in times of crisis, and in this way is a kind of prequel to Profiles .

“He’s clearly skeptical about the wisdom of using military power to solve political problems”

The core question in Profiles in Courage is: When and in what circumstances should politicians seek to go beyond their own personal self-interest and consider what’s best for the nation? When should politicians defy the wishes of their constituents, their party or their region to take policy positions that they think are in nation’s interest? The book investigates why certain senators took such stances throughout U.S. history, how they did it and what we can learn from them. In this way I would argue it’s a timeless book that still has resonance for us today, almost seven decades after publication.

There is controversy about whether Kennedy wrote the book himself. My conclusion is that his role was crucial. His assistant, Ted Sorensen, drafted the case studies that compose the middle of the book, with help Jules David, a scholar at Georgetown. But Kennedy was responsible for the broad themes and the argument, as laid out in the introduction and the conclusion—the most important parts of the book, both then and today. Long before he met Sorensen, he had been fascinated by the concept of political courage and had honed his views on the matter.

You’ve named a book by Sorensen next on your list of books to read about JFK. Before we talk about that one, I wanted to ask whether you think Kennedy can be seen as ‘a profile in courage’ for any stance that he took during his time in the Senate.

I think so. For example, to take a rather esoteric topic, there is his stance in favour of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, even though powerful interests in Massachusetts were against it and even though allies warned Kennedy he might be committing political suicide in supporting it. He favoured the Seaway because he thought it was in the interest of the nation, and ultimately also of Massachusetts.

Moving on to the book by his assistant and speechwriter, Theodore Sorensen, please tell me about Counselor .

Counselor is the memoir of Ted Sorensen, who joined JFK’s staff in early 1953, just as JFK was entering the Senate. He swiftly became Kennedy’s most important aide, a distinction he arguably held right to the end, in November 1963. I argue it was one of the most remarkable partnerships in American political history, as the two men collaborated closely on speeches, on articles, as well as on policy issues. I suggest we can think of them as composer and lyricist, as the Rodgers (JFK) and Hart (Sorensen) of American politics.

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Sorensen is really a rare creature in Washington. He’s somebody who helps devise the substance of policy positions and is then able to translate those positions into elegant, concise prose. It’s not that common that one person can perform both of those functions. Sorensen did. This book, Counselor , which he wrote toward the end of his life, provides insights into this remarkable partnership and what made it work so well. Though Sorensen would have a long and productive career after Kennedy’s death, his name would be forever associated with JFK.

The back of this book characterizes Sorensen as Kennedy’s closest adviser, I assume whoever wrote that is not factoring in Robert Kennedy, his younger brother, who was his attorney general during his presidency. To what extent was the Kennedy presidency a partnership between brothers?

Last on your list of books to read about JFK is a title that is so familiar in the American political and historical lexicon that it’s become a meme. Tell me about David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest .

Halberstam was a New York Times reporter, one of the first members of the American press to report in-depth from Vietnam itself. He arrived in South Vietnam during mid-1962, in the middle of the Kennedy administration. Initially, he believed in the cause, believed it important for the United States to help the South Vietnamese prevail against the insurgency. Over time, he began to doubt this belief. As problems plagued the war effort, he reported the fact, much to the annoyance of the White House, including Kennedy himself. That’s the background.

It’s a sprawling, mesmerizing work. It belongs on any short shelf of essential Vietnam War books. Halberstam looks at the Kennedy years and the Johnson years, asking the question: What brought the so-called ‘best and the brightest,’ referred to in the somewhat ironic title, to undertake this large-scale war in Vietnam? Halberstam doesn’t get everything right. For example, to my mind he exaggerates the amount of hubris in American decision-making in these years; my research and that of others indicates that US officials were more pessimistic, more gloomily realistic, than Halberstam lets on. Still, The Best and The Brightest is altogether an extraordinary work—vivid, incisive, engrossing. Reading it as an undergraduate helped convince me to go to grad school and become a historian.

The most common ‘counterfactual’ question of the twentieth century, next perhaps to, what if Hitler hadn’t been born, is surely, what if Kennedy hadn’t been shot? Many argue that so-called ‘Americanization’ in Vietnam would not have happened, while others insist it would have. Is hypothesizing about what might have been a thought experiment that historians should engage in?

I believe they should. I’m one of those historians who believes that asking ‘what if’ questions, beyond whatever parlour-game fascination it may hold, has historical utility. We can better understand what happened in history if we consider what might’ve happened, if we consider the plausible unrealized alternatives. I’ve written about the question of what might have happened in Vietnam if Kennedy had lived, if Lyndon Johnson remained Vice President and Kennedy had to make the decisions regarding whether to send in more troops in 1964-65 when South Vietnam was on the brink of defeat. I’ll consider it anew as I research and write Volume 2.

February 1, 2021

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Fredrik Logevall

Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Professor of History at Harvard University.

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The 11 Best Books About John F. Kennedy

As we approach the 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination, these books are essential reading on America's 35th president.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Yet, if you're looking for a solid reading list that features an introduction into JFK and what happened on the day of his assassination, these 12 books are a great place to start.

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956

Fredrik Logevall focuses in on JFK's childhood through his time in the Senate in this biography, the first in a two-part planned series. Lovegall explains , "the conceit of the book is that I can tell two stories together: the story of John F. Kennedy’s rise and the story of America’s rise. I believe we can better understand the first half of the so-called American Century through the lens of Kennedy’s life."

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963

Robert Dalek's An Unfinished Life uses new material (new as of 2003, we should clarify) to give a full portrait of JFK. As the publisher notes, "Dallek succeeds as no other biographer has done in striking a critical balance—never shying away from JFK's weaknesses, brilliantly exploring his strengths—as he offers up a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, heroic, human Kennedy."

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President

Thurston Clarke, who has authored other books on Kennedy, turns his attention to a minute-by-minute account of JFK's final days. Weaving together his public and private lives, JFK's Last Hundred Days seeks to understand the last months of his life—and who he was when he was killed.

PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy

Before Kennedy was president, before he was a Senator, he was a lieutenant in the Navy and served during World War II. One boat he commanded, PT 109, was destroyed, and the crew was shipwrecked. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions. PT 109 details what happened during that fateful week, and how it changed the course of JFK's career. "Without PT 109, there never would have been a President John F. Kennedy," JFK aide David Powers once said.

The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963

In the immediate aftermath of November 22, 1963, journalist William Manchester set out to report on what happened during, and immediately after, the assassination. The Death of a President , published in 1967, is his detailed account of the assassination. Jackie, who originally agreed to the book, filed a lawsuit to prevent its publication, and the suit was settled with Manchester reportedly removing some sections of the book that dealt with private family life.

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Case Closed deals with all the conspiracy theories surrounding JFK's assassination and makes the case for Lee Harvey Oswald as the culprit, and of the motivations behind Jack Ruby's subsequent shooting of Oswald.

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

A Thousand Days by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. Schlesinger was a special assistant to JFK throughout his presidency, and he brings this unique perspective from his inner circle to a look at the Kennedy administration.

Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Vincent T. Bugliosi, the prosecutor who tried cult leader Charles Manson, turns his attention to the assassination of JFK in Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy . This book, Four Days in November , is adapted from that—and makes the case for Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole perpetrator.

John Kennedy: A Political Profile

James MacGregor Burns, who authored a biography of FDR in 1956, ran for Congress in 1958. Though he lost, he became close friends with John F. Kennedy—and decided to write a biography of his new friend. "Without any restrictions, Kennedy granted his friend complete access to files, family records, and personal correspondence," the publisher notes. "The two men spoke at great length in Washington, DC, and at the Kennedy family compound on Cape Cod, and afterwards, Kennedy asked his relatives, friends, and political colleagues to talk openly with Burns as well." It's an intimate portrait of Kennedy before he was ever president.

Five Days in November: In Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination

On November 22, 1963, after shots were fired in Dallas, Secret Service agent Clint Hill jumped onto the back of the limousine. Fifty years later, Hill told his story about the events of the day—and the days that surrounded it. He also authored Mrs. Kennedy and Me , Five Presidents , and My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy .

Profiles in Courage

Last but certainly not least, John F. Kennedy authored numerous books—including his famous Profiles in Courage , a profile of eight American patriots. He wrote it in 1955, when he was a junior senator from Massachusetts.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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Reading Lists

The 15 Best Books on President John F. Kennedy

Essential books on john f. kennedy.

There are countless books on John F. Kennedy, and it comes with good reason, aside from being the youngest man elected President of the United States, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die.

“Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past – let us accept our own responsibility for the future,” he remarked.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s most consequential figures to the height of political power, we’ve compiled a list of the 15 best books on John F. Kennedy.

An Unfinished Life by Robert Dallek

An Unfinished Life describes the birth of the Kennedy dynasty, the complexity of Jack’s early years, and the mixture of adulation and resentment that tangled his relationships with his mother, Rose, and his father, Joseph. Forced into the shadow of his older brother, Joe, Jack struggled to find a place for himself until World War II, when he became a national hero and launched his career. Dallek reveals for the first time the full story of Kennedy’s wartime actions and the true details of how Joe was killed, opening the door to Jack’s ascendancy.

Here is the gripping story of Jack’s transformation from an awkward speaker into a brilliant politician with irresistible charm. The book carries us from Jack’s work as a senator from Massachusetts, through the fiercely contested 1960 campaign against Nixon, and takes us on to the White House itself.

This hallmark among books on John F. Kennedy also discloses for the very first time that he was far sicker than we ever knew. While laboring to present an image of robust good health, Kennedy was secretly in and out of hospitals throughout his life, so ill that he was administered last rites on several different occasions. Here is a vivid portrait of a man who, because he knew how close he was to death, lived as much as he could – sometimes hurting others in the process.

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century by Fredrik Logevall

By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the full person.

Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade searching for the “real” JFK. The result of this prodigious effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that properly contextualizes Kennedy amidst the roiling American Century.

This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK’s life – from birth through his decision to run for president – to reveal his early relationships, his formative experiences during World War II, his ideas, his writings, his political aspirations. In examining these pre-White House years, Logevall shows us a more serious, independently-minded Kennedy than we’ve previously known, whose distinct international sensibility would prepare him to enter national politics at a critical moment in modern U.S. history.

A Thousand Days by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. served as special assistant to President John F. Kennedy throughout his presidency – from the long and grueling campaign to Kennedy’s tragic and unexpected assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald. In A Thousand Days , Schlesinger combines intimate knowledge as one of President Kennedy’s inner circle with sweeping research and historic context to provide a look at one of the most legendary presidential administrations in American history.

From JFK’s battle with Nixon during the 1960 election, to the seemingly charmed inaugural days, to international conflict and domestic unrest, Schlesinger takes a close and fond, but unsparing, look at Kennedy’s tenure in the White House, covering well-known successes, like his involvement in the Civil Rights movement; infamous humiliations, like the Bay of Pigs; and often overlooked struggles, like the Skybolt missile mix-up, alike.

The House of Kennedy by James Patterson

The Kennedys have always been a family of charismatic adventurers, raised to take risks and excel, living by the dual family mottos: “To whom much is given, much is expected” and “Win at all costs.” And they do – but at a price.

Across decades and generations, the Kennedys have occupied a unique place in the American imagination: charmed, cursed, at once familiar and unknowable. The House of Kennedy is a revealing, fascinating account of America’s most storied family, as told by America’s most trusted storyteller.

Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

During 1954-55, Kennedy, then a junior senator from the state of Massachusetts, profiled eight American patriots, mainly United States Senators, who at crucial moments in our nation’s history, revealed a special sort of greatness: men who disregarded dreadful consequences to their public and private lives to do that one thing which seemed right in itself. They were men of various political and regional allegiances – their one overriding loyalty was to the United States.

Courage such as these men shared, Kennedy makes clear, is central to all morality – a man does what he must in spite of personal consequences – and these exciting stories suggest that, without in the least disparaging the courage with which men die, we should not overlook the true greatness adorning those acts of courage with which men must live.

John F. Kennedy and PT-109 by Richard Tregaskis

In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, US Navy motor torpedo boat PT-109 patrolled the still, black waters of Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. Suddenly, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri loomed out of the darkness, bearing directly down on the smaller ship. There was no time to get out of the way – the destroyer crashed into PT-109 , slicing the mosquito boat in two and setting the shark-infested waters aflame with burning gasoline. Ten surviving crewmembers and their young skipper clung to the wreckage, their odds of survival growing slimmer by the instant.

Lt. John F. Kennedy’s first command was an unqualified disaster. Yet over the next three days, the privileged son of a Boston multimillionaire displayed extraordinary courage, stamina, and leadership as he risked his life to shepherd his crew to safety and coordinate a daring rescue mission deep in enemy territory. Lieutenant Kennedy earned a Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart, and the story of PT-109 captured the public’s imagination and helped propel the battle-tested veteran all the way to the White House.

The Kennedy Brothers by Richard D. Mahoney

Eight years apart in age, John F. and Robert F. Kennedy were wildly different in temperament and sensibility. Jack was the leader – charismatic, ironic, capable of extraordinary growth and reach, yet also reckless. Bobby was the fearless, hardworking Boy Scout – unafraid of dirty work and ruthless about protecting his brother and destroying their enemies. Jack, it was said, was the first Irish Brahmin, Bobby the last Irish Puritan.

Richard D. Mahoney demonstrates with brilliant clarity in this impeccably documented, magisterial book, how the Kennedys lived their days of power in dangerous, trackless territory. Mahoney gives us the Kennedy days and years as we have never before seen them. Here are Jack and Bobby in all their hubris and humanity, youthfulness and fatalism.

Two Days in June by Andrew Cohen

On two consecutive days in June 1963, in two lyrical speeches, John F. Kennedy pivots dramatically and boldly on the two greatest issues of his time: nuclear arms and civil rights. In language unheard in lily white, Cold War America, he appeals to Americans to see both the Russians and the “Negroes” as human beings. His speech on June 10 leads to the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963; his speech on June 11 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Based on new material – hours of recently uncovered documentary film shot in the White House and the Justice Department, fresh interviews, and a rediscovered draft speech – Two Days in June captures Kennedy at the high noon of his presidency in startling, granular detail.

Moment by moment, JFK’s feverish forty-eight hours unspools in cinematic clarity as he addresses “peace and freedom.” In the tick-tock of the American presidency, we see Kennedy facing down George Wallace over the integration of the University of Alabama, talking obsessively about sex and politics at a dinner party in Georgetown, recoiling at a newspaper photograph of a burning monk in Saigon, planning a secret diplomatic mission to Indonesia, and reeling from the midnight murder of Medgar Evers.

Prelude to Leadership by John F. Kennedy

One of the few books by John F. Kennedy, Prelude to Leadership is his private diary from when he was a 28-year-old reporter in Europe. It offers a short yet intimate look into the mind of the man who was to become the 35th President of the United States.

As World War II was ending and the Cold War was just beginning, a young naval hero decommissioned before war’s end because of his crippling injuries, traveled through a devastated Europe. During the trip, John F. Kennedy kept a diary, never before published. As the diary makes clear, that European trip was a turning point in the future President’s life. It was on this trip that Kennedy first confronted the “long twilight struggle” for the preservation of Western freedom that would define his Presidency.

Counselor by Ted Sorensen

Sorensen returns to January 1953, when he and the freshman senator from Massachusetts began their extraordinary professional and personal relationship. Rising from legislative assistant to speechwriter and advisor, the young lawyer from Nebraska worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches, as well as his book Profiles in Courage .

In this necessary installment among books on John F. Kennedy, Sorenson describes in thrilling detail his experience advising the President during some of the most crucial days of his term, from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when JFK requested that the thirty-four-year-old Sorensen draft the key letter to Khrushchev at the most critical point of the world’s first nuclear confrontation.

After Kennedy was assassinated, Sorensen stayed with President Johnson for a few months before leaving to write a biography of JFK. In 1968 he returned to Washington to help run Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Through it all, Sorensen never lost sight of the ideals that brought him to Washington and to the White House, working tirelessly to promote and defend free, peaceful societies.

Once Upon A Secret by Mimi Alford

In the summer of 1962, nineteen-year-old Mimi Beardsley arrived in Washington, D.C., to begin an internship in the White House press office. After just three days on the job, the privileged but sheltered young woman was presented to the President himself. Almost immediately, the two began an affair that would continue for the next eighteen months.

Emotionally unprepared to counter the President’s charisma and power, Mimi was also ill-equipped to handle the feelings of isolation that would follow as she fell into the double life of a college student who was also the secret lover of the most powerful man in the world. After the President’s assassination in Dallas, she grieved alone, locked her secret away, and tried to start a new life, only to be blindsided by her past.

JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglass

At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark “Unspeakable” forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up.

Douglass takes readers into the Oval Office during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along on the strange journey of Lee Harvey Oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in Dallas where an ambush awaited the President’s motorcade. As Douglass convincingly documents, at every step along the way these forces of the Unspeakable were present, moving people like pawns on a chessboard to promote a dangerous and deadly agenda.

The Death of a President by William Manchester

As the world still reeled from the tragic and historic events of November 22, 1963, William Manchester set out, at the request of the Kennedy family, to create a detailed, authoritative record of the days immediately preceding and following President John F. Kennedy’s death.

Through hundreds of interviews, abundant travel and firsthand observation, and with unique access to the proceedings of the Warren Commission, Manchester conducted an exhaustive historical investigation, accumulating forty-five volumes of documents, exhibits, and transcribed tapes. His ultimate objective – to set down as a whole the national and personal tragedy that was JFK’s assassination – is brilliantly achieved in this galvanizing narrative, a book universally acclaimed as a landmark work of modern history.

JFK: Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton

In retelling JFK’s extraordinary life story, Nigel Hamilton has finally succeeded in getting beyond the many accretions and distortions of recent years. Here at last – often in JFK’s own inimitable words – is the real John F. Kennedy, at once roguish and intelligent, reckless and yet possessing fine judgment. Based on a wealth of never previously published letters and documents, and access to more than two thousand interviews, this gem among books on John F. Kennedy paints a profoundly touching portrait of the tormented, fun-loving, deeply amorous, and yet ambitious youth who grew up to become our thirty-fifth President.

Mary’s Mosaic by Peter Janney

Who really murdered Mary Pinchot Meyer in the fall of 1964? Why was there a mad rush by CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton to locate and confiscate her diary? What in that diary was so explosive? Had Mary Meyer finally put together the intricate pieces of a plan to assassinate her lover, President Kennedy, with the trail ultimately leading to the CIA? And was it mere coincidence that Mary was killed less than three weeks after the release of the Warren Commission report?

These are the questions that author Peter Janney finally answers in a way that no one else ever has. In doing so, he may well have solved Washington’s most famous unsolved murder. Based on years of painstaking research and interviews, much of it revealed here for the first time, the author traces the key events and influences in the life of Mary Pinchot Meyer, including her first meeting with Jack Kennedy at the Choate School in 1936; her explorations with psychedelic drugs; her relationship with Timothy Leary; and finally how she supported the president as he turned away from the Cold War toward the pursuit of world peace.

The Man Who Killed Kennedy by Roger Stone

Consummate political insider Roger Stone makes a compelling case that Lyndon Baines Johnson had the motive, means, and opportunity to orchestrate the murder of John F. Kennedy. Stone maps out the case that Johnson blackmailed his way onto the ticket in 1960 and was being dumped in 1964 to face prosecution for corruption at the hands of his nemesis attorney, Robert Kennedy. Stone uses fingerprint evidence and testimony to prove Kennedy was shot by a long-time Johnson hitman – not Lee Harvey Oswald.

Johnson would use power from his personal connections in Texas, from the criminal underworld, and from the United States government to escape an untimely end in politics and to seize even greater power. Here, in one of the most popular books on John F. Kennedy and his assassination, you will find out how and why he did it.

On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison

On March 1, 1967, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison shocked the world by arresting local businessman Clay Shaw for conspiracy to murder the president. His alleged co-conspirator, David Ferrie, had been found dead a few days before. Garrison charged that elements of the United States government, in particular the CIA, were behind the crime.

From the beginning, his probe was virulently attacked in the media and violently denounced from Washington. His office was infiltrated and sabotaged, and witnesses disappeared and died strangely. Eventually, Shaw was acquitted after the briefest of jury deliberation and the only prosecution ever brought for the murder of President Kennedy was over.

On the Trail of the Assassins – the primary source material for Oliver Stone’s hit film JFK – is Garrison’s own account of his investigations into the background of Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of President Kennedy, and his prosecution of Clay Shaw in the trial that followed.

if you enjoyed this guide to essential books on John F. Kennedy, check out our list of The 10 Best Books on President Franklin D. Roosevelt !

5 Books to Read in Honor of JFK’s Centennial

C ountless pages have been written about John F. Kennedy , and America’s 35th president will likely serve as fodder for biographers for decades and centuries to come. In addition to general biographies, authors have honed in on niches from his famous Anglophilia to how the Vietnam War would have ended differently if he’d lived longer.

For those who don’t have infinite time to sort through these manifold volumes, here are five of the most essential books about JFK , in honor of the 100th anniversary of his May 29, 1917, birth.

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963

By Robert Dallek

Dallek essentially rewrote the story of JFK, surprising readers with revelations about his poor health, love affairs and family dynamics. Many critics and historians now consider the 2003 book to be the essential general interest biography of Kennedy.

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

For a look at Kennedy as his friends and associates knew him, try Schlesinger’s 1965 volume covering the period from JFK’s presidential campaign to his funeral. While the coverage was perhaps friendlier than the average biography, given Schlesinger’s relationship with its subject, it’s a valuable close-up and provides insight on how Kennedy wished to be seen.

Profiles in Courage

By John F. Kennedy

In Kennedy’s own landmark 1955 book, the then-senator profiled eight U.S. senators throughout history who had bravely taken stands against threats to democracy, from John Quincy Adams to Robert A. Taft. The book (written in collaboration with ghostwriter Ted Sorensen) went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.

The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963

By William Manchester

Manchester began work on this 1967 account of Kennedy’s assassination at the request of his widow Jacqueline — but by the time he finished, after two intense years of work, she and Robert F. Kennedy were unhappy with the result and asked him to make changes that would be more flattering. A major bestseller at the time, the book went on to fade into obscurity before returning to prominence with a 50th anniversary edition. It continues to hold a special place in the canon of JFK literature.

JFK: A Vision for America

By Stephen Kennedy Smith and Douglas Brinkley

This new volume combines JFK’s speeches with commentary by leading historians and thinkers, from David McCullough to Kofi Annan. Edited by Brinkley and Smith, a nephew of JFK’s, the volume is illustrated with more than 500 photos and facsimiles of documents from the archives.

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Life of John F. Kennedy

Growing up in the kennedy family.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was a very disciplined and organized woman, made the following entry on a notecard, when her second child was born:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Born Brookline, Mass. (83 Beals Street) May 29, 1917

KFC1239P. The Kennedy children (L-R): Jean, Bobby, Patricia, Eunice, Kathleen, Rosemary, Jack, Joe Jr., Hyannis Port, 1928

In all, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy would have nine children, four boys and five girls. She kept notecards for each of them in a small wooden file box and made a point of writing down everything from a doctor’s visit to the shoe size they had at a particular age. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was named in honor of Rose’s father, John Francis Fitzgerald, the Boston Mayor popularly known as Honey Fitz. Before long, family and friends called this small blue-eyed baby, Jack. Jack was not a very healthy baby, and Rose recorded on his notecard the childhood diseases from which he suffered, such as: "whooping cough, measles, chicken pox."

On February 20, 1920 when Jack was not yet three years old, he became sick with scarlet fever, a highly contagious and then potentially life-threatening disease. His father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, was terrified that little Jack would die. Mr. Kennedy went to the hospital every day to be by his son’s side, and about a month later Jack took a turn for the better and recovered. But Jack was never very healthy, and because he was always suffering from one ailment or another his family used to joke about the great risk a mosquito took in biting him – with some of his blood the mosquito was almost sure to die!

When Jack was three, the Kennedys moved to a new home a few blocks away from their old house in Brookline, a neighborhood just outside of Boston. It was a lovely house with twelve rooms, turreted windows, and a big porch. Full of energy and ambition, Jack’s father worked very hard at becoming a successful businessman. When he was a student at Harvard College and having a difficult time fitting in as an Irish Catholic, he swore to himself he would make a million dollars by the age of 35. There was a lot of prejudice against Irish Catholics in Boston at that time, but Joseph Kennedy was determined to succeed. Jack’s great-grandparents had come from Ireland and managed to provide for their families, despite many hardships. Jack’s grandfathers did even better for themselves, both becoming prominent Boston politicians. Jack, because of all his family had done, could enjoy a very comfortable life. The Kennedys had everything they needed and more. By the time Jack was eight there were seven children altogether. Jack had an older brother, Joe; four sisters, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, and Patricia; and a younger brother, Robert. Jean and Teddy hadn’t been born yet. Nannies and housekeepers helped Rose run the household.

KFC461P. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. with sons Joe Jr. and Jack, Palm Beach, 1931

At the end of the school year, the Kennedy children would go to their summer home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod where they enjoyed swimming, sailing, and playing touch football. The Kennedy children played hard, and they enjoyed competing with one another. Joseph Sr. encouraged this competition, especially among the boys.

He was a father with very high expectations and wanted the boys to win at sports and everything they tried. As he often said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." But sometimes these competitions went too far. One time when Joe suggested that he and Jack race on their bicycles, they collided head-on. Joe emerged unscathed while Jack had to have twenty-eight stitches. Because Joe was two years older and stronger than Jack, whenever they fought, Jack would usually get the worst of it. Jack was the only sibling who posed any real threat to Joe’s dominant position as the oldest child.

Jack was very popular and had many friends at Choate, a boarding school for adolescent boys in Connecticut. He played tennis, basketball, football, and golf and also enjoyed reading. His friend Lem Billings remembers how unusual it was that Jack had a daily subscription to the New York Times . Jack had a "clever, individualist mind," his Head Master once noted, though he was not the best student. He did not always work as hard as he could, except in history and English, which were his favorite subjects.

"Now Jack," his father wrote in a letter one day, "I don’t want to give the impression that I am a nagger, for goodness knows I think that is the worse thing any parent can be, and I also feel that you know if I didn’t really feel you had the goods I would be most charitable in my attitude toward your failings. After long experience in sizing up people I definitely know you have the goods and you can go a long way…It is very difficult to make up fundamentals that you have neglected when you were very young, and that is why I am urging you to do the best you can. I am not expecting too much, and I will not be disappointed if you don’t turn out to be a real genius, but I think you can be a really worthwhile citizen with good judgment and understanding."

Jack graduated from Choate and entered Harvard in 1936, where Joe was already a student. Like his brother Joe, Jack played football. He was not as good an athlete as Joe but he had a lot of determination and perseverance. Unfortunately, one day while playing he ruptured a disk in his spine. Jack never really recovered from this accident and his back continued to bother him for the rest of his life. The two eldest boys were attractive, agreeable, and intelligent young men and Mr. Kennedy had high hopes for them both. However, it was Joe who had announced to everyone when he was a young boy that he would be the first Catholic to become President. No one doubted him for a moment. Jack, on the other hand, seemed somewhat less ambitious. He was active in student groups and sports and he worked hard in his history and government classes, though his grades remained only average.

Late in 1937, Mr. Kennedy was appointed United States Ambassador to England and moved there with his whole family, with the exception of Joe and Jack who were at Harvard. Because of his father’s job, Jack became very interested in European politics and world affairs. After a summer visit to England and other countries in Europe, Jack returned to Harvard more eager to learn about history and government and to keep up with current events. Joe and Jack frequently received letters from their father in England, who informed them of the latest news regarding the conflicts and tensions that everyone feared would soon blow up into a full-scale war. Adolph Hitler ruled Germany and Benito Mussolini ruled Italy. They both had strong armies and wanted to take land from other countries. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.

By this time, Jack was a senior at Harvard and decided to write his thesis on why Great Britain was unprepared for war with Germany. It was later published as a book called Why England Slept. In June 1940, Jack graduated from Harvard. His father sent him a cablegram from London: "TWO THINGS I ALWAYS KNEW ABOUT YOU ONE THAT YOU ARE SMART TWO THAT YOU ARE A SWELL GUY LOVE DAD."

World War II and a Future in Politics

Soon after graduating, both Joe and Jack joined the Navy. Joe was a flyer and sent to Europe, while Jack was made Lieutenant (Lt.) and assigned to the South Pacific as commander of a patrol torpedo boat, the PT-109.

PC81. Lt. (j.g.) John F. Kennedy, 1942. Photo credit: Frank Turgeon. President's Collection Photographs, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Lt. Kennedy had a crew of twelve men whose mission was to stop Japanese ships from delivering supplies to their soldiers. On the night of August 2, 1943, Lt. Kennedy’s crew patrolled the waters looking for enemy ships to sink. A Japanese destroyer suddenly became visible. But it was traveling at full speed and headed straight at them. Holding the wheel, Lt. Kennedy tried to swerve out of the way, but to no avail. The much larger Japanese warship rammed the PT-109, splitting it in half and killing two of Lt. Kennedy’s men. The others managed to jump off as their boat went up in flames. Lt. Kennedy was slammed hard against the cockpit, once again injuring his weak back. Patrick McMahon, one of his crew members, had horrible burns on his face and hands and was ready to give up. In the darkness, Lt. Kennedy managed to find McMahon and haul him back to where the other survivors were clinging to a piece of the boat that was still afloat. At sunrise, Lt. Kennedy led his men toward a small island several miles away. Despite his own injuries, Lt. Kennedy was able to tow Patrick McMahon ashore, a strap from McMahon’s life jacket clenched between his teeth. Six days later two native islanders found them and went for help, delivering a message Jack had carved into a piece of coconut shell. The next day, the PT-109 crew was rescued. Jack’s brother Joe was not so lucky. He died a year later when his plane blew up during a dangerous mission in Europe.

When he returned home, Jack was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage. With the war finally coming to an end, it was time to choose the kind of work he wanted to do. Jack had considered becoming a teacher or a writer, but with Joe’s tragic death suddenly everything changed. After serious discussions with Jack about his future, Joseph Kennedy convinced him that he should run for Congress in Massachusetts' eleventh congressional district, where he won in 1946. This was the beginning of Jack’s political career. As the years went on, John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, served three terms (six years) in the House of Representatives, and in 1952 he was elected to the US Senate.

Soon after being elected senator, John F. Kennedy, at 36 years of age, married 24 year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a writer with the Washington Times-Herald . Unfortunately, early on in their marriage, Senator Kennedy’s back started to hurt again and he had two serious operations. While recovering from surgery, he wrote a book about several US Senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which they believed. The book, called Profiles in Courage , was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedys’ first child, Caroline, was born.

John F. Kennedy was becoming a popular politician. In 1956 he was almost picked to run for vice president. Kennedy nonetheless decided that he would run for president in the next election.

He began working very long hours and traveling all around the United States on weekends. On July 13, 1960 the Democratic party nominated him as its candidate for president. Kennedy asked Lyndon B. Johnson, a senator from Texas, to run with him as vice president. In the general election on November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated the Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon in a very close race. At the age of 43, Kennedy was the youngest man elected president and the first Catholic. Before his inauguration, his second child, John Jr., was born. His father liked to call him John-John.

John F. Kennedy Becomes The 35th President of the United States

John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural speech he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," he said. He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." President Kennedy, together with his wife and two children, brought a new, youthful spirit to the White House. The Kennedys believed that the White House should be a place to celebrate American history, culture, and achievement. They invited artists, writers, scientists, poets, musicians, actors, and athletes to visit them. Jacqueline Kennedy also shared her husband's interest in American history. Gathering some of the finest art and furniture the United States had produced, she restored all the rooms in the White House to make it a place that truly reflected America’s history and artistic creativity. Everyone was impressed and appreciated her hard work. The White House also seemed like a fun place because of the Kennedys’ two young children, Caroline and John-John. There was a pre-school, a swimming pool, and a tree-house outside on the White House lawn. President Kennedy was probably the busiest man in the country, but he still found time to laugh and play with his children. However, the president also had many worries. One of the things he worried about most was the possibility of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. He knew that if there was a war, millions of people would die. Since World War II, there had been a lot of anger and suspicion between the two countries but never any shooting between Soviet and American troops. This 'Cold War', which was unlike any other war the world had seen, was really a struggle between the Soviet Union's communist system of government and the United States' democratic system. Because they distrusted each other, both countries spent enormous amounts of money building nuclear weapons. There were many times when the struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States could have ended in nuclear war, such as in Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis or over the divided city of Berlin. President Kennedy worked long hours, getting up at seven and not going to bed until eleven or twelve at night, or later. He read six newspapers while he ate breakfast, had meetings with important people throughout the day, and read reports from his advisers. He wanted to make sure that he made the best decisions for his country. "I am asking each of you to be new pioneers in that New Frontier," he said. The New Frontier was not a place but a way of thinking and acting. President Kennedy wanted the United States to move forward into the future with new discoveries in science and improvements in education, employment and other fields. He wanted democracy and freedom for the whole world. One of the first things President Kennedy did was to create the Peace Corps. Through this program, which still exists today, Americans can volunteer to work anywhere in the world where assistance is needed. They can help in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction. Many young men and women have served as Peace Corps volunteers and have won the respect of people throughout the world.

President Kennedy was also eager for the United States to lead the way in exploring space. The Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in its space program and President Kennedy was determined to catch up. He said, "No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space." Kennedy was the first president to ask Congress to approve more than 22 billion dollars for Project Apollo, which had the goal of landing an American man on the moon before the end of the decade. President Kennedy had to deal with many serious problems here in the United States. The biggest problem of all was racial discrimination. The US Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that segregation in public schools would no longer be permitted. Black and white children, the decision mandated, should go to school together. This was now the law of the land. However, there were many schools, especially in southern states, that did not obey this law. There was also racial segregation on buses, in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places.

Thousands of Americans joined together, people of all races and backgrounds, to protest peacefully this injustice.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the famous leaders of the movement for civil rights. Many civil rights leaders didn’t think President Kennedy was supportive enough of their efforts. The President believed that holding public protests would only anger many white people and make it even more difficult to convince the members of Congress who didn't agree with him to pass civil rights laws. By June 11, 1963, however, President Kennedy decided that the time had come to take stronger action to help the civil rights struggle. He proposed a new Civil Rights bill to the Congress, and he went on television asking Americans to end racism. "One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free," he said. "This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds…[and] on the principle that all men are created equal." President Kennedy made it clear that all Americans, regardless of their skin color, should enjoy a good and happy life in the United States.

The President is Shot

On November 21, 1963, President Kennedy flew to Texas to give several political speeches. The next day, on November 22, as his car drove slowly past cheering crowds in Dallas, shots rang out. Kennedy was seriously wounded and died a short time later. Within a few hours of the shooting, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the murder. On November 24, another man, Jack Ruby, shot and killed Oswald, thus silencing the only person who could have offered more information about this tragic event. The Warren Commission was organized to investigate the assassination and to clarify the many questions which remained.

The Legacy of John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy's death caused enormous sadness and grief among all Americans. Most people still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington for the President's funeral, and millions throughout the world watched it on television. As the years have gone by and other presidents have written their chapters in history, John Kennedy's brief time in office stands out in people's memories for his leadership, personality, and accomplishments. Many respect his coolness when faced with difficult decisions--like what to do about Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. Others admire his ability to inspire people with his eloquent speeches. Still others think his compassion and his willingness to fight for new government programs to help the poor, the elderly and the ill were most important. Like all leaders, John Kennedy made mistakes, but he was always optimistic about the future. He believed that people could solve their common problems if they put their country's interests first and worked together.

"COURAGE. CHARISMA. PROMISE"

The Best Books to Read on the Presidency of John F. Kennedy

With the exception of Lincoln and Washington, more pages have been written about John F. Kennedy than any other president. Kennedy was the 35 th president, and perhaps the most charismatic political leaders in modern history. In addition to biographies, authors have zoomed in on almost everything about Kennedy, from his famed Anglophilia to his influence on the Vietnam war.

For those who are looking to quench their thirst for knowledge on this remarkable former president of the United States, here are the top 5 books on John F. Kenney.

1. An Unfinished Life by Robert Dallek

Robert Dallek’s book “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963” rewrites the story of John F. Kennedy. In this book, you learn more about Kennedy’s love affairs, ill health, and family dynamics than you’ve ever learned elsewhere. Most historians and critics consider this book, which was published in 2003, to be an essential Kennedy biography.

2. Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

Published in 1955, Profiles in Courage is a book by John F. Kennedy himself. It was written when he was recovering from surgery after one of his many illnesses. The book profiled 8 senators in U.S. history who had courageously taken the unpopular stand against issues that threatened democracy. Some of those named are John Quincy Adams (known for his political independence, patriotism, and brilliant mind), and Robert A. Taft. This book, which was co-authored with Ted Sorensen, won a Pulitzer Prize.

3. A Thousand Days by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

“A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House” is a book that looks at Kennedy the president from the point of view of his friends. Released in 1965, this book speaks volumes about John Kennedy. It provides an insightful analysis of his political career, right from the campaigns all the way to his funeral. Although it’s been critiqued as a friendlier biography (the author had relations with the subject), it provides valuable knowledge on how Kennedy would have wanted to be seen.

4. The Death of a President by William Manchester

William Manchester’s book “The Death of a President: November 20 – November 25, 1963” is an account of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Manchester reportedly started working on this book at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy. But when the book was done, Jackie Kennedy and her brother in law, Robert F. Kennedy were not happy with the work and requested further changes. Although a bestseller back then, the book later faded into obscurity, before it became popular again with its 50th-anniversary edition. It’s still an important text for anyone who’s looking to learn more about Kennedy.

5. Case Closed by Gerald Posner

The assassination of J. F. Kennedy has attracted more conspiracy theories than any other political tragedy in our times. With his book “Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK”, Gerald Posner aims to dig deeper and unearth facts that are otherwise easy to miss. He examines all available evidence and arrives at only one reasonable conclusion – Lee Oswald (the gunman who shot Kennedy) acted alone.

If you still have some spare time after reading these books, others that you should look at are:

Nigel Hamilton’s JFK: Reckless Youth
Richard Reeves’ President Kennedy: Profile of Power
Herbert Parmet’s Jack: The Struggles of John F Kennedy
Michael O’Brien’s John F. Kennedy: A Biography

WHY JOHN F. KENNEDY WASN’T ONE OF OUR GREATEST PRESIDENTS

5 STUNNING PHOTOS THAT CHRONICLE JOHN KENNEDY’S PRESIDENCY AND ASSASSINATION

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JFK anniversary: the best Kennedy books of all time

To coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, new JFK books abound. Some are quite good, but these three classics are hard to beat, even indispensable.

By Peter Grier Staff writer @petergrier

November 8, 2013

John F. Kennedy books are at flood tide this year, the 50th anniversary of his assassination in Dallas .

To name a few, there are good new volumes about his years in Congress (“JFK in the Senate,” by John T. Shaw), about the final months of his presidency (“JFK’s Last Hundred Days,” by Thurston Clarke), and even his general White House glamour (“Camelot’s Court," by Robert Dallek ). There are books about JFK and Jackie, and JFK and Reagan, and JFK and the possible impact of his stillborn son. There’s a great book about Kennedy’s overall impact: “The Kennedy Half Century,” by Larry J. Sabato.

There’s even a book by former pro-wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura titled, “They Killed Our President: 63 Reasons to Believe There Was a Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK.”

Count us among the unconvinced. By Mr. Ventura, anyway.

That said, Decoder still believes in the Kennedy classics. We’ve had to touch on the Kennedy era numerous times in our career, and there are three JFK books on our shelf we could not do without.

“JFK Reckless Youth,” by British journalist Nigel Hamilton. Yes, it’s kind of a salacious title, and it delves much into the young Kennedy’s romances – such as his affair with Inga Arvad, a Danish journalist whom the FBI suspected was a German spy.

But this 1992 classic is great on JFK’s troubled prep school years, the difficulties of his relationships with father, Joe, and older brother Joe Jr., and the general angst of his teen and early adult life. This puts the cool, unruffled façade of his political years in a whole different context. And where else will you read that he and a pal got in so much trouble at Choate that they sent a letter to the French Foreign Legion, asking to join?

“An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963,” by now-retired Boston University historian Robert Dallek. This is the definitive one-volume biography so far. It’s where we go to find pithy, accurate summaries of all JFK’s adult highlights, from his 1946 congressional race, to the 1960 presidential campaign, to the Cuban Missile Crisis, to his final 100 days.

This was the 2003 book that brought the full extent of JFK’s health problems to public view. Again, it sheds a different light on the calm, cool JFK demeanor, showing it often hid physical pain and frustration.

“The Death of a President, November 1963,” by William Manchester. This is a famous book that in our view is not famous enough. It is an extraordinary accounting of the basic facts of the trip to Dallas, the assassination, and the aftermath, as known in the mid-‘60s. To read it is to see where so many of the authors of today get their basic framework for the same material.

And it is gripping. Consider this, Manchester’s description of the post-assassination instant:

“Lee Oswald, watched by the stupefied [street-level witness Howard] Brennan, steps back into the shadows in the deliberate lock step of a Marine marksman retiring from the range. Below him he leaves madness. The plaza resembles nothing so much as a field which has just been swept by a mighty wind.”

Manchester’s book was initially authorized by the Kennedy family, and he had access to Jackie Kennedy and other key witnesses. They later deemed it unseemly and wrestled with the author over its publication. Though hard to find for many years (our copy came from a used book sale), it’s now available again in a 50th anniversary edition.

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Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956

By Fredrik Logevall

Sep 07, 2021 | ISBN 9780812987027 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9780812987027 --> Buy

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Sep 07, 2021 | ISBN 9780812987027

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Sep 08, 2020 | ISBN 9781984843517

1768 Minutes

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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president. “An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE • NAMED BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR BY The Times (London) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Sunday Times (London), New Statesman , The Daily Telegraph, Kirkus Reviews By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the full person. Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade searching for the “real” JFK. The result of this prodigious effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that properly contextualizes Kennedy amidst the roiling American Century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK’s life—from birth through his decision to run for president—to reveal his early relationships, his formative experiences during World War II, his ideas, his writings, his political aspirations. In examining these pre–White House years, Logevall shows us a more serious, independently minded Kennedy than we’ve previously known, whose distinct international sensibility would prepare him to enter national politics at a critical moment in modern U.S. history. Along the way, Logevall tells the parallel story of America’s midcentury rise. As Kennedy comes of age, we see the charged debate between isolationists and interventionists in the years before Pearl Harbor; the tumult of the Second World War, through which the United States emerged as a global colossus; the outbreak and spread of the Cold War; the domestic politics of anti-Communism and the attendant scourge of McCarthyism; the growth of television’s influence on politics; and more. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 is a sweeping history of the United States in the middle decades of the twentieth century, as well as the clearest portrait we have of this enigmatic American icon.

Listen to a sample from JFK

Also by fredrik logevall.

About Fredrik Logevall

Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and professor of history at Harvard University. A specialist on U.S. foreign relations history and modern international history, he is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Embers of… More about Fredrik Logevall

Product Details

G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

George F. Kennan

The Man Who Ran Washington

The Big Rich

Incomparable Grace

Traitor to His Class

Grace and Power

Richard Nixon

The Gatekeepers

“Masterful . . . based on years toiling in the archives but written with a delightfully light touch . . . At times it reads more like a novel than a biography, so vivid is the prose and so extraordinary the material.” — The Economist “Logevall artfully melds the biographical and historical approaches. Though crafted as a kind of bildungsroman , JFK delivers something more than the traditional story of the callow wastrel’s maturation into the admirable adult.” — The New York Times Book Review “A superb book . . . [The] remarkable rivalries within the Kennedy family—propelled by valour, vanity and greed—form the backbone of volume one of Fredrik Logevall’s riveting life of JFK.” — The Guardian “This is the first of two volumes by a Pulitzer-winning Harvard professor of the highest gifts, and the most compelling biography I have read in years.” — The Sunday Times “As Fredrik Logevall shows in his superb JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 , Kennedy was a far deeper, worthier, more interesting character than the familiar revisionist cliche. . . . Logevall has a gifted historian’s grasp of the times as well as the life of JFK.” — The Washington Post “This volume . . . plows much of the Kennedy ground with such dexterity and such wisdom. Misty-eyed Kennedy acolytes of a certain age will read it and weep. Modern, less romantic readers will read it and reap the benefit of Logevall’s acuity.” — The Boston Globe “As Fredrik Logevall points out in his utterly absorbing biography, the first of a projected two volumes, Kennedy deserves our attention not simply because he was a celebrity, but because his celebrity is a key to unlocking modern American history itself. . . . JFK is biography at its very best.” — The Spectator “It is the singular achievement of this magnificent new biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy that it has taken one of the most scrutinized lives of the twentieth century and made it feel fresh. Harvard historian Fredrik Logevall scrapes away the encrusted layers of myth, rumour and cliché; the result is a generous portrait of the young Kennedy, one that is attentive to his contradictions and weaknesses even as it seeks to understand what it was that made him so extraordinary.” — The Telegraph “ With a novelist’s eye for the telling detail and vignette, [Logevall] strips away the layers of myth and sensationalism that obscure the real, live human being that was JFK . . . . One of the many pleasures of reading this keenly perceptive page-turner of a biography is that it also illuminates the story of America’s ascent to great power and then superpower status in [a] fresh and compelling way.” — The Daily Beast “Such are Logevall’s eloquence and storytelling powers that, even though we all know the story’s tragic ending, he provides often overlooked detail about how it all started. He reveals the future president to be less skittish and far more savvy and independently minded than we have been led to believe. He also renders him less mythological and more accessible and familiar.” —Irish Examiner “A magnificent portrayal.” — Detroit Free Press “An excellent book . . . Logevall has taken a familiar story and retold it in a way that is captivating and persuasive, as the tale of triumphant emergence from war and the tragedy of an immigrant family.” — The Times (London) “With impressive vision and flawless execution, Logevall bores down to a molecular level to put JFK’s life and achievements within the context of the history of the times, while simultaneously exposing the truths obscured by the most popular JFK misconceptions.” — Booklist (starred review) “Our best historian of the Vietnam War now turns to another subject you thought you already knew, and he makes John F. Kennedy as alive and compelling as if you were reading about him for the first time. Fredrik Logevall portrays the young JFK with the masterful intimacy and sympathy that only a great scholar and writer could achieve.” —George Packer, author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century “John F. Kennedy was a man before he was a monument, and among the great achievements of this wonderful book is how brilliantly Fredrik Logevall conveys both JFK’s humanity and the history of the age. With precision and with grace, Logevall has given us a memorable portrait of a man and of the world that, before he shaped it, shaped him. It’s a powerful, provocative, and above all compelling book.” —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America “In this magisterial biography, Fredrik Logevall has deftly peeled away the many layers of myth surrounding John F. Kennedy to reveal a complex and surprisingly vulnerable human being. This first installment of his Kennedy biography is also the story of the rise of the United States to world power in a turbulent age. An essential read for anyone interested in the life and the times.” —Margaret MacMillan, author of War: How Conflict Shaped Us “Fredrik Logevall’s brilliant biography rescues JFK from the myths that have long surrounded his early life without in any way obscuring the complexities of his character. There could be no more poignant reminder of what we were—far too soon—to lose.” —John Lewis Gaddis, Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University

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Best Book Lists, Award Aggregation, & Book Data

The Best Books To Learn About President John F. Kennedy

(You can view the rest of our presidential Best Book lists by going to our Best US President Books page, or for a more in-depth look at how we found and ranked the books you can visit our Best Book About Every United States President article.)

The Best Book About John F. Kennedy (Appears on 10 Lists)

An unfinished life: john f. kennedy 1917-1963 by robert dallek.

All The Presidents Books
Best Presidential Bios
Library of Congress
Mandi Lindner
The Christian Science Monitor
The Tailored Man
The Wall Street Journal
The Washington Post

When it was originally published in 2003, AN UNFINISHED LIFE brought to light new revelations about JFK’s health, his love affairs, his brothers and father, and the path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement if he had survived. A blockbuster bestseller, the book was embraced by critics and readers as a landmark assessment of our 35th president. Now, in time for what promises to be remarkable media attention on Kennedy’s death and legacy, AN UNFINISHED LIFE returns with a new, strikingly incisive examination by Robert Dallek in which he further assesses JFK’s impact and hold on American culture.

Learn More About Book

#2 (Appears on 4 Lists)

A thousand days: john f kennedy in the white house by arthur m. schlesinger.

As special assistant to the president, Arthur Schlesinger witnessed firsthand the politics and personalities that influenced the now legendary Kennedy administration.

#3-5 (Appear on 3 Lists)

Case closed: lee harvey oswald and the assassination of jfk, by gerald posner.

Presidential History
Presidents USA
The Dallas Morning News

The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, continues to inspire interest ranging from well-meaning speculation to bizarre conspiracy theories and controversial filmmaking. But in this landmark book, reissued with a new afterword for the 40th anniversary of the assassination, Gerald Posner examines all of the available evidence and reaches the only possible conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. There was no second gunman on the grassy knoll. The CIA was not involved. And although more than four million pages of documents have been released since Posner first made his case, they have served only to corroborate his findings. Case Closed remains the classic account against which all books about JFK’s death must be measured.

JFK: Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton

The first in a multi-volume new biography of John F. Kennedy encompasses the early years of Kennedy’s career, his youth and Harvard education, the story of PT-109, his affair with a suspected Nazi spy, and more.

President Kennedy: Profile of Power by Richard Reeves

President Kennedy is the compelling, dramatic history of JFK’s thousand days in office. It illuminates the presidential center of power by providing an indepth look at the day-by-day decisions and dilemmas of the thirty-fifth president as he faced everything from the threat of nuclear war abroad to racial unrest at home.

#6-14 (Appear on 2 List)

Jack: the struggles of john f kennedy by herbert parmet.

Jack- The Struggles of John F. Kennedy by Herbert S. Parmet

JFK: The Presidency of John F Kennedy by Herbert Parmet

JFK, the Presidency of John F. Kennedy by Herbert S. Parmet

Filled with penetrating portraits of the significant and powerful figures in John Kennedy’s political life, this balanced account chronicles his quest for the presidency and the key events and decisions of his administration

John F. Kennedy: A Biography by Michael O’Brien

John F. Kennedy creates an absorbing, insightful and distinguished biography of one of America’s most legendary Presidents. While current fashion in Kennedy scholarship is to deride the man’s achievements, this book describes Kennedy’s strengths, explains his shortcomings, and offers many new revelations.

Kennedy by Theodore Sorensen

Now with a new preface, Kennedy is the intimate, #1 national bestselling biography of JFK by his great advisor Ted Sorensen. Part of the new Harper Perennial Political Classics series,Kennedy is a perceptive biography of an extraordinary man, and one of the 20th century’s most important sources of history.

Libra by Don DeLillo

In this powerful, eerily convincing fictional speculation on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald’s odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When “history” presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the president will galvanize the nation against communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.

Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath by Mimi Alford

In the summer of 1962, nineteen-year-old Mimi Beardsley arrived in Washington, D.C., to begin an internship in the White House press office. After just three days on the job, the privileged but sheltered young woman was presented to the President himself. Almost immediately, the two began an affair that would continue for the next eighteen months. Emotionally unprepared to counter the President’s charisma and power, Mimi was also ill-equipped to handle the feelings of isolation that would follow as she fell into the double life of a college student who was also the secret lover of the most powerful man in the world. After the President’s assassination in Dallas, she grieved alone, locked her secret away, and tried to start a new life, only to be blindsided by her past.

The Dark Side of Camelot by Sy Hersh’s

This monumental work of investigative journalism reveals the Kennedy White House as never before. With its meticulously documented & compulsively readable portrait of John F. Kennedy as a man whose reckless personal behavior imperiled his presidency, The Dark Side of Camelot sparked a firestorm of controversy upon its initial publication – becoming a runaway bestseller & one of the year’s most talked-about books. Now in paperback, this watershed work will continue to provoke public discussion as the debate intensifies over what constitutes proper personal & political behavior on the part of our nation’s leaders.

The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy by Larry J. Sabato

John F. Kennedy died almost half a century ago-yet because of his extraordinary promise and untimely death, his star still resonates strongly. On the anniversary of his assassination, celebrated political scientist and analyst Larry J. Sabato-himself a teenager in the early 1960s and inspired by JFK and his presidency-explores the fascinating and powerful influence he has had over five decades on the media, the general public, and especially on each of his nine presidential successors.

JFK The Last 100 Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President by Thurston Clarke

JFK's Last Hundred Days- The Transformation of a Man and The Emergence of a Great President by Thurston Clarke

Fifty years after his death, President John F. Kennedy’s legend endures. Noted author and historian Thurston Clarke argues that the heart of that legend is what might have been. As we approach the anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, JFK’s Last Hundred Days reexamines the last months of the president’s life to show a man in the midst of great change, finally on the cusp of making good on his extraordinary promise.

#15-60 (Appear on 1 List)

November 22, 1963 by adam braver.

November 22, 1963 chronicles the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and explores the intersection of stories and memories and how they represent and mythologize that defining moment in history. Jackie’s story is interwoven with the stories of real people intimately connected with that day: a man who shares cigarettes with Jackie outside the trauma room; a motorcycle policeman flanking the motorcade; Abe Zapruder, who caught the assassination on film; the White House servants waiting for Jackie to return; and the morticians overseeing President Kennedy’s autopsy.

November 22 by Bryan Woolley

Through a myriad of characters both real and invented (and some whose names have been changed) journalist and author Bryan Woolley presents one of the best dissections of Dallas life in 1963 in his novel November 22. Covering the twenty-four hours surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Woolley accurately captures the essence of the day’s atmosphere, resulting in a rich cross section of a city more complex and diverse than many observers have been willing to acknowledge. He describes in microcosm how the world changed in the twinkling of an eye and peers into the shifting lives of all people affected by this shattering event. Readers will be surprised at how relevant the book is to the Dallas—and America—of right now.

A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination by Philip Shenon

Philip Shenon, a veteran investigative journalist who spent most of his career at The New York Times, finally provides many of the answers. Though A Cruel and Shocking Act began as Shenon’s attempt to write the first insider’s history of the Warren Commission, it quickly became something much larger and more important when he discovered startling information that was withheld from the Warren Commission by the CIA, FBI and others in power in Washington. Shenon shows how the commission’s ten-month investigation was doomed to fail because the man leading it – Chief Justice Earl Warren – was more committed to protecting the Kennedy family than getting to the full truth about what happened on that tragic day. A taut, page-turning narrative, Shenon’s book features some of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century―Bobby Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Chief Justice Warren, CIA spymasters Allen Dulles and Richard Helms, as well as the CIA’s treacherous “molehunter,” James Jesus Angleton.

A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy by Thomas C. Reeves

Questioning how the less than exemplary life of JFK related to the actions and decisions of his public career, Thomas Reeves probes the bewildering vagaries of Kennedy’s character. He shows in particular the effects of his father’s ruthless political tutelage and follows JFK through a career marked by an ever widening gap between the public image of a courageous and caring intellectual leader and the private reality of indifference to those values of fidelity, compassion, and concern he extolled. Drawing extensively on both published and archival materials, Reeves shows how “the best and the brightest” whom Kennedy attracted in life glorified him in death and transformed a man personally and politically ambivalent about such issues as civil rights into the fallen champion of the subsequent reforms of the Great Society.

All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy by Edward Klein

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and John Fitzgerald Kennedy captured the imagination of a nation from the day their names were linked. For the first time, the inner workings of this century’s most guarded romance are divulged in this in-depth portrait of a marriage. Klein breaks through the wall of secrecy to reveal the true dynamic between the couple who built Camelot. Photos throughout.

America’s Queen: A Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford

America's Queen- The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford

Acclaimed biographer Sarah Bradford explores the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the woman who has captivated the public for more than five decades, in a definitive portrait that is both sympathetic and frank. With an extraordinary range of candid interviews—many with people who have never spoken in such depth on record before—Bradford offers new insights into the woman behind the public persona. She creates a coherent picture out of Jackie’s tumultuous and cosmopolitan life—from the aristocratic milieu of Newport and East Hampton to the Greek isles, from political Washington to New York’s publishing community. She probes Jackie’s privileged upbringing, her highly public marriages, and her roles as mother and respected editor, and includes rare photos from private collections to create the most complete account yet written of this legendary life.

American Tabloid by James Ellroy

American Tabloid (Underworld USA #1) by James Ellroy

James Ellroy’s trademark nothing-spared rendering of reality, blistering language, and relentless narrative pace are here in electrifying abundance, put to work in a novel as shocking and daring as anything he’s written: a secret history that zeroes in on a time still shrouded in secrets and blows it wide open.

Assassination Science: Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK by James H. Fetzer

If you have ever been tempted to believe that President Kennedy was killed by a lone,demented gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, then Assassination Science is the one book which will convince you, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there was indeed a conspiracy and a cover-up. Completely lacking the wild speculation that have marred some books on the shooting of JFK, Assassination Science sticks to the hard facts, interpreted by medical and scientific expertise.

CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys: How and Why US Agents Conspired to Assassinate JFK and RFK by Patrick Nolan

The US Central Intelligence Agency is no stranger to conspiracy and allegations of corruption. Across the globe, violent coups have been orchestrated, high-profile targets kidnapped, and world leaders dispatched at the hands of CIA agents. During the 1960s, on domestic soil, the methods used to protect their interests and themselves at the expense of the American people were no less ruthless. In CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys, Patrick Nolan fearlessly investigates the CIA’s involvement in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy—why the brothers needed to die and how rogue intelligence agents orchestrated history’s most infamous conspiracy.

Cold Case Kennedy: A New Investigation into the Assassination of JFK by Flip de Mey

Cold case Kennedy- een nieuw onderzoek naar de moord op JF by Flip de Mey

Cold Case Kennedy is the first book to systematically scrutinize all aspects of the murder dossier. Why did Robert Kennedy remain silent? Was there really a magic bullet? What was the role of Lyndon Johnson in the drama? Was there more than one sniper? Why did the Warren Commission refuse to consider a third victim on Dealey Plaza? What was a convicted gangster doing in the building directly across from the Texas School Book Depository? And, last but not least: was the official investigation the most in-depth inquest ever to be carried out, or was it nothing more than a clumsy attempt to sweep things under the carpet?

Conversations With Kennedy by Benjamin C. Bradlee

Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Ted Sorensen

Counselor- A Life at the Edge of History by Theodore C. Sorensen

In this extraordinary memoir, John F. Kennedy’s closest advisor recounts in full for the first time his experience counseling Kennedy through the most dramatic moments in American history. Illuminating, revelatory, and gripping, Counselor is the brilliant, long-awaited memoir from the remarkable man who shaped the presidency and the legacy of one of the greatest leaders America has ever known.

Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs

What really happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963? Was the assassination of John F. Kennedy simply the work of a warped, solitary young man, or was something more nefarious afoot? Pulling together a wealth of evidence, including rare photos, documents, and interviews, veteran Texas journalist Jim Marrs reveals the truth about that fateful day. Thoroughly revised and updated with the latest findings about the assassination,Crossfire is the most comprehensive, convincing explanation of how, why, and by whom our thirty-fifth president was killed.

End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson

Based on sweeping research never before collected so powerfully in a single volume, and illustrated with photographs,End of Days distills Kennedy’s assassination into a pulse-pounding thriller that is sure to become the definitive popular account of this historic crime for years to come.

History Will Prove Us Right: Inside the Warren Commission Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Howard P. Willens

History Will Prove Us Right- Inside the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Howard P. Willens

Now, in this eye-opening new account of the Commission and its findings, Howard P. Willens sets out to prove that Warren’s advice was prescient. Willens, one of the few living staff members of the Warren Commission, supervised the investigation from the very beginning and has waited until now to silence the critics and well-intentioned armchair detectives. Drawn from Willens’ own journals and extensive notes on the investigation–which have never before been published–History Will Prove Us Right tells the true and complete story, perhaps for the first time, of every aspect of the investigation into one of the century’s most harrowing events from a uniquely first-person perspective.

Jack: A Life Like No Other by Geoffrey Perret

Jack is both the first comprehensive one-volume biography of JFK and the first account of his life based on the extensive documentary record that has finally become available, including personal diaries, taped conversations from the White House, recently declassified government documents, extensive family correspondence, and crucial interviews sealed for nearly forty years.

JFK: The Second Plot by Matthew Smith

John F Kennedy by Alan Brinkley

John F. Kennedy (The American Presidents #35) by Alan Brinkley, Sean Wilentz

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a new kind of president. He redefined how Americans came to see the nation’s chief executive. He was forty-three when he was inaugurated in 1961―the youngest man ever elected to the office―and he personified what he called the “New Frontier” as the United States entered the 1960s.

John F Kennedy and a New Generation by David Burner

John F. Kennedy and a New Generation (Library of American Biography) by David Burner, Oscar Handlin

John F. Kennedy by Robert Dallek

Here readers will find the fascinating insights and groundbreaking revelations found in An Unfinished Life. The heart of the book focuses on Kennedy’s political career, especially the presidency. The book sheds light on key foreign affairs issues such as the Bay of Pigs debacle, Khrushchev’s misguided bullying of Kennedy in Vienna, the Cuban Missile crisis, the nuclear test ban, the race for space, and the initial dealings with Southeast Asia, especially Laos. It also highlights the difficulties Kennedy faced getting a domestic agenda passed, from a tax cut to spur the economy, to federal aid to education, Medicare, and civil rights. Dallek reveals the thinking behind Robert Kennedy’s appointment as Attorney General and convincingly argues that Kennedy would never have expanded the war in Vietnam the way that Lyndon Johnson did. The book also addresses questions about Kennedy’s assassination and concludes with his presidential legacy and why he remains so popular despite serving only a thousand days in office.

John Kennedy: A Political Profile by James MacGregor Burns

Kennedy by Hugh Brogan

Kennedy (Profiles in Power) by Hugh Brogan

This invaluable account provides an excellent introduction to the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. To understand Kennedy’s aims and achievements in the White House, it looks at Kennedy the man and outlines his background and early career and the influences upon him. Hugh Brogan shows Kennedy as a credible statesman, a man of solid achievement. His record as President was, broadly, impressive and would have been more so had he lived.

Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America by Christopher J Matthews

Kennedy and Nixon- The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America by Christopher J. Matthews

Traces the rivalry between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, whose 1960 presidential contest set America’s Cold War political course.

Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties by W. Rorabaugh

Lists It Appears On:

This book explores life in America during that brief promising period in the early sixties when John F. Kennedy was the U.S. president. Kennedy’s optimism and charm helped to give promise to the times. At the same time, Cold War frustrations in Cuba and Vietnam worried Americans, while the 1962 Missile Crisis narrowly avoided a nuclear disaster. Early in the decade, the Civil Rights movement gained momentum through student sit-ins and Freedom Rides. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a powerful spokesman for non-violent social change and gave his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963.

Killing JFK: 50 Years, 50 Lies: From the Warren Commission to Bill O’Reilly, A History of Deceit in the Kennedy Assassination by Lance Moore

November 22nd, 2013 marks the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy… and at last we have the unbiased facts, concisely-presented by a skilled, acclaimed author who is also a credible voice: an ordained Methodist minister.

Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years by Barbara Leaming

MRS. KENNEDY: The Missing History of the Kennedy Yearsis a poignant and deeply sympathetic account of Jacqueline Kennedy during the 1,000 days of the Kennedy presidency. Critically acclaimed biographer Barbara Leaming has — with revelatory new eyewitness testimony, profoundly moving letters written by Jackie, minute-by-minute Secret Service records, and recently declassified top-secret documents — crafted an astonishing portrait of a Jackie Kennedy the world has not previously known. Leaming’s meticulous reportage illuminates the tumultuous day-to-day life of a young woman fighting for her survival, her marriage, and her husband’s presidency. Its unique perspective on the very public Kennedy marriage during an extraordinary time in our nation’s history is both riveting and shocking. Leaming’s conviction that the Kennedys’ private life cannot be understood outside the context of the presidency makes MRS. KENNEDY something much more than a portrait of a marriage. It is also, in important ways, the story of the Kennedy presidency, with a tremendous missing piece filled in. Leaming has produced not only the definitive account of the Kennedy marriage, but also a richly detailed and marvelously dramatic picture of John F. Kennedy and his administration as they have never been seen before.

Prelude to Leadership by John F. Kennedy

Prelude to Leadership- The Post-War Diary, Summer 1945 by John F. Kennedy

Prelude to Leadership is the private diary of John F. Kennedy when he was a 28-year-old reporter in Europe. It offers a short yet intimate look into the mind of the man who was to become the 35th President of the United States.

Promises Kept: John F Kennedy’s New Frontier by Irving Bernstein

A counter-revisionist examination of JFK and his administration, Promises Kept presents a policy history of major domestic legislative efforts between 1961 and 1963. Bernstein focuses on administraive and congressional progress under Kennedy in civil rights, education, taxes, unemployment, Medicare, and the Peace Corps. He persuasively argues that Kennedy was indeed a successful president, showing that many of JFK’s campaign promises were well on their way to enactment by the time of his assassination, even after two years of dealings with a balky and often hostile Congress, and the difficulty of working in a political system changing from conservative to liberal.

Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi

Reclaiming History- The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi

The brilliant prosecutor of Charles Manson and the man who forged an iron-clad case of circumstantial guilt around O. J. Simpson in his best-selling Outrage Bugliosi is perhaps the only man in America capable of writing the definitive book on the Kennedy assassination. This is an achievement that has for years seemed beyond reach. No one imagined that such a book would ever be written: a single volume that once and for all resolves, beyond any reasonable doubt, every lingering question as to what happened in Dallas and who was responsible.

Strange Peaches by Edwin Shrake

A TV western star quits his successful series and returns to Dallas to make a documentary film that reveals the truth about his home town. His quest forces him to learn if he is capable of using his six-gun for real as he moves from booze and radical politics in oil men’s palaces into the infamous Carousel Club and the underworld of arms and dope smuggling in a city ripe for the murder of a President.

The Day Kennedy Died: Fifty Years Later: LIFE Remembers the Man and the Moment by The Editors of LIFE

LIFE The Day Kennedy Died- Fifty Years Later- LIFE Remembers the Man and the Moment by LIFE Magazine

Fifty years ago on November 22, 1963, in Dallas’s Dealey Plaza, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated while traveling in a motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline. LIFE magazine, the weekly pictorial chronicle of events in America and throughout the world, was quickly on the scene. The Kennedys had been our story: Jack and Jackie made the cover in his sailboat before they were married and he was a fresh-faced senator from Massachusetts, and the White House doors had remained open to LIFE throughout his presidency: Cecil Stoughton’s photographs of Caroline and John-John in the Oval Office, Jackie’s tour of the renovation, tense behind-the-scenes moments during 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis-all of this appeared in LIFE. We needed to be in Dallas.

The Death of a President, November 1963 by William Manchester

The Death of a President- November 20-November 25, 1963 by William Manchester

The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys- An American Saga by Doris Kearns Goodwin

“The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys” is the sweeping history of two immigrant families, their rise to become potent political dynasties, and the marriage that brought the two together to found the most powerful family in America. Drawing on unprecedented access to the family and its private papers, Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling historian Doris Kearns Goodwin takes readers from John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald’s baptism in 1863 through his reign as mayor of Boston, to the inauguration of his grandson as president ninety-eight years later. Each character emerges unforgettably: the young, shrewdly political Rose Fitzgerald; her powerful, manipulative husband, Joseph P. Kennedy; and the “Golden Trio” of Kennedy children — Joe Jr., Kathleen, and Jack — whose promise was eclipsed by the family’s legacy of tragedy. Through the prism of two self-made families, Goodwin reveals the ambitions and the hopes that form the fabric of the American nation.

The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination by Lamar Waldron

The Hidden History of JFK’s Assassination draws on exclusive interviews with more than two dozen associates of John and Robert Kennedy, in addition to former FBI, Secret Service, military intelligence, and Congressional personnel, who provided critical first-hand information. The book also uses government files—including the detailed FBI confession of notorious Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello—to simply and clearly reveal exactly who killed JFK. Using information never published before, the book uses Marcello’s own words to his closest associates to describe the plot. His confession is also backed up by a wealth of independent documentation.

The Kennedy Legacy by Theodore C. Sorensen

In 1968, as in 1963, an assassin’s bullets changed history. Had Robert Kennedy not been suddenly, senselessly taken from us, the world would be a better place today. “The Kennedy Legacy” goes on to project what life and the United States would have been like had Robert Kennedy lived…including another Kennedy presidency…

The Kennedy Tapes by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow

The Kennedy Tapes- Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R. May

The Making of the President, 1960 by Theodore H. White

The Making of the President 1960 (The Making of the President #1) by Theodore H. White

A Harper Perennial Political Classic, The Making of the President 1960 is the groundbreaking national bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the 1960 presidential campaign and the election of John F. Kennedy. With this narrative history of American politics in action, Theodore White revolutionized the way presidential campaigns are reported. Now back in print, freshly repackaged, and with a new foreword written by Robert Dallek, The Making of the President 1960 remains the most influential publication about the election of John F. Kennedy.

The Pleasure of His Company by Paul B. Fay Jr.

The Presidency of John F Kennedy by James N. Giglio

The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (American Presidency Series) by James N. Giglio

The presidency of John F. Kennedy continues to fascinate, even as it also continues to inspire heated debates between admirers and detractors of Camelot’s fallen king. Now readers can gain a new appreciation of JFK in this thoroughly revised and updated edition of James Giglio’s bestselling study, widely acclaimed as the best and most balanced book on JFK’s White House years.

The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F Kennedy by David E. Kaiser

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was an appalling and grisly conspiracy. In this unvarnished story, Kaiser shows that the events of November 22, 1963, cannot be understood without fully grasping the two larger stories of which they were a part: the U.S. government’s campaign against organized crime, which began in the late 1950s and accelerated dramatically under Robert Kennedy; and the furtive quest of two administrations to eliminate Fidel Castro. This book brings to light the complete, frequently shocking, story of the JFK assassination and its aftermath.

Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived by James G. Blight, Janet M. Lang, David A. Welch

Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived- Virtual JFK by James G. Blight, David A. Welch, Janet M. Lang

At the heart of this provocative book lies the fundamental question: Does it matter who is president on issues of war and peace? The Vietnam War was one of the most catastrophic and bloody in living memory, and its lessons take on resonance in light of America’s current devastating involvement in Iraq. Tackling head-on the most controversial and debated “what if” in U.S. foreign policy, this unique work explores what President John F. Kennedy would have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963. Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified documents, frank oral testimony of White House officials from both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and the analysis of top historians, this book presents compelling evidence that JFK was ready to end U.S. involvement well before the conflict escalated. With vivid immediacy, readers will feel they are in the president’s war room as the debates raged that forever changed the course of American history―and continue to affect us profoundly today as the shadows of Vietnam stretch into Iraq.

Warren Commission Report: Report of President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by President’s Commission on The Assassination

The Warren Commission Report- The Official Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Warren Commission

The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on Nov. 29, 1963, by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate Kennedy’s assassination. The commission’s findings have proven controversial.

We Were There: Revelations from the Dallas Doctors Who Attended to JFK on November 22, 1963 by Allen Childs MD

There are few days in American history so immortalized in public memory as November 22, 1963, the date of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Adding to the wealth of information about this tragic day is We Were There, a truly unique collection of firsthand accounts from the doctors and staff on scene at the hospital where JFK was immediately taken after he was shot.With the help of his former fellow staff members at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dr. Allen Childs recreates the horrific day, from the president’s arrival in Dallas to the public announcement of his death. Childs presents a multifaceted and sentimental reflection on the day and its aftermath.

Who Really Killed Kennedy? 50 Years Later: Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination by Jerome Corsi

Almost nothing gives rise to more national intrigue than the murder of an American president. And on November 22, 2013, the nation remembered the 50th anniversary of one of the most traumatic events in modern American history, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Winter Kills by Richard Condon

In WINTER KILLS, Richard Condon probes one of the most significant events in America’s 20th century: the assassination of a president. Timothy Kegan is shot in a Philadelphia motorcade; a presidential commission condemns a lone psychopath as the killer. Fourteen years later, Tim’s half-brother, Nick, learns through a deathbed confession that Tim was the victim of a mysterious conspiracy. As Nick attempts to find the real assassin, he encounters oil kings, movie queens, venal police, organized crime, the CIA, and labor unions — all eager for power and control. The ending is guaranteed to surprise and horrify!

With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit by Dale K. Myers

The Best John F. Kennedy Book Lists Consulted

The Best Books of 2023 – Science Fiction And Fantasy (A Year-End List Aggregation)

The Best Books of 2023 – Graphic Novels And Comics (A Year-End List Aggregation)

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Congressman John Fitzgerald Kennedy (circa 1946-47) in his Congressional Office.

Courtesy of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

A portrait of JFK, in full

Brett Milano

Harvard Correspondent

New biography aims to chronicle a complex life amid a pivotal time for a nation

One of the revelations about John F. Kennedy in Fredrik Logevall’s new biography, “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917‒1956,” is that the man was an excellent letter-writer and diarist. The Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and professor of history makes effective use of the collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, part of which has become available only recently.

“He always had a knack for the English language, even if he was an indifferent student in prep school and in his first years at Harvard,” Logevall says. “His teachers, frustrated by his lack of application overall, were always impressed by his way with words. It is an interesting contrast with his older brother, Joe Jr., the family’s supposed golden child, whose writings had a more dutiful, less imaginative quality.”

The first of a two-volume set, “JFK” aims to give the clearest picture yet available of the 35th president set against the historical, political, and cultural context of a pivotal age. The book begins with great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy’s arrival in Boston during the Irish potato famine and runs through Jack’s childhood, studies at Harvard, and military duty, and finally his rise in politics in 1956, when he almost became the Democrats’ vice presidential pick. Logevall spoke with the Gazette recently about the man and the book.

Fredrik Logevall

GAZETTE: There have certainly been many books written about JFK. What were you able to find that hadn’t been found before?

LOGEVALL: You’re quite right. There are a lot of excellent books out there on various aspects of his life and career, and especially the presidency — one thinks, for example, about the many studies of the Cuban missile crisis, Civil Rights, the Bay of Pigs disaster, the marriage with Jackie, and the assassination in Dallas. But we don’t have many true biographies, even one that is a full-scale examination of the entire life and that looks closely at his early life, in particular his teens and 20s, which I believe were key years for him (as they are for most of us). Mine is a “life and times” biography that places Kennedy in his own context, that of a rising American power in world affairs. I guess the conceit of the book is that I can tell two stories together: the story of John F. Kennedy’s rise and the story of America’s rise. I believe we can better understand the first half of the so-called American Century through the lens of Kennedy’s life.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (from left), Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and John F. Kennedy in Southampton, England, July 2, 1938.

Courtesy of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

GAZETTE: What did you find that people have missed about JFK in the past?

LOGEVALL: One thing that people have underplayed is the degree to which he was a serious student of democracy and world affairs at an earlier point than we imagine. We tend to think of him as a callow playboy, not serious about public policy or his career until quite late, until he runs for Congress in 1946, and maybe not even then. But you can look at the papers he wrote as an undergraduate at Harvard, some of which are available, and you can look at his senior thesis which became a best-selling book [“Why England Slept”] and see a young man already thinking deeply and in sustained fashion about important issues. A second finding is that the young Jack Kennedy was in important respects his own master. Though his father was a towering force in his life and those of his eight siblings, Jack proved willing and able, to a degree I did not expect, to chart his own course. The Harvard years are interesting in this regard: In 1939‒40, as World War II began and debate raged in the U.S. about how to respond, Jack showed himself willing in a way his older brother, Joe Jr., never was to separate himself from his father. Long before Pearl Harbor, Jack had become an interventionist while his father adhered throughout to a staunch isolationist position. Later, during his political campaigns, Jack always kept the key decision-making role for himself, notwithstanding the common misconception that his father called the shots. [gz_soundcloud title=”John F. Kennedy recording for public speaking class at Harvard, 1937″ track_id=”321147626″ playlists=”” height=”350″ show_artwork=”false”] [/gz_soundcloud]

GAZETTE: Another family relationship we learn more about is with his brother Bobby, and how this became increasingly important.

LOGEVALL: Yes, the age difference between the two brothers was such — 8½ years — that in the early years, when Jack was at prep school and then at Harvard, they weren’t particularly close. But what we see especially in 1951, when they traveled together along with their sister Patricia on an extended tour of the Middle East and Asia, is that they developed a strong bond. Bobby admired his brother to no end, and Jack could now see Bobby’s intelligence and loyalty and good cheer. Then in 1952 Bobby, all of 26 at the time, came aboard to take charge of Jack’s floundering Senate campaign against Henry Cabot Lodge and helped to turn the thing around. Jack could now see just how important Bobby could be to his career, could see the powerful combination of doggedness, shrewdness, and ruthlessness that his brother possessed.

The Kennedy family at Hyannisport, Mass., 1931. Robert (from left), John, Eunice, Jean (on lap of) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (behind) Patricia, Kathleen, Joseph, Rosemary.

Photo by Richard Sears, courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

GAZETTE: He was quite a complex character. He did have his playboy side, but some of his war actions can be called heroic.

LOGEVALL: Yeah, I think that is right. There is a seriousness of purpose which you see in his letters home from the South Pacific, and more dramatically in the actions he took to help save his crew after his boat, the PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Was there heroism there? I believe so, even if he deserves no accolades for allowing his boat to be rammed. The efforts he made in the succeeding days to try to save his crew were really quite extraordinary. We might note here as well that he came back from the war, as many of the servicemen did, with a seriousness of purpose evinced to some degree before but deepened as a result of seeing combat. He was convinced that the U.S. would need to play a leading role in world affairs, even as he also had a skepticism about the use of the military’s power that he would carry with him for the rest of his days.

GAZETTE: His coming out against Joseph McCarthy seems to be a bit of a political turning point.

LOGEVALL: Well, he never fully came out in stark opposition, which was a problem. The relationship with McCarthy was complicated, partly because of family ties. He never felt the kind of personal connection to McCarthy that Joe Sr. felt and that Bobby felt. And there were a lot of aspects of McCarthy’s political persona that he found off-putting — the disdain for senatorial good manners, the disregard for facts, for reasoning from evidence. That said, liberals at the time had good reason to be frustrated by JFK’s reluctance to really condemn McCarthy. Even in 1954, when McCarthy’s influence was in decline and the Senate held a censure vote, JFK, recovering in the hospital following a serious surgery, did not instruct his aide Ted Sorensen to register his position on the vote. He could have done so, but he didn’t, and that caused a lot of grief for him with liberals later on. He preferred to sidestep the issue, aware that there were an awful lot of Irish Catholic voters in Massachusetts who still backed McCarthy. He didn’t want to get on their bad side.

A page in Kennedy’s diary from fall 1951. The first part reads: “Oct. 3 — Paris — I talked with General Eisenhower Biddle and MacArthur at SHAEF Headquarters. Eisenhower looking very fit — seemed disturbed at news of last few days.” Lt. Kennedy on board PT 109, July 1943.

Photo by Joel Benjamin (left), courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

GAZETTE: The book deals a lot with the influence of World War II on his character development. Do you think he took a lot from other aspects of American life at the time, including popular culture?

LOGEVALL: To a degree, certainly. When he returned from the war and was figuring out what he wanted to do, he had a fascinating stint as a journalist. He showed good reporting instincts and could have made it a career. In this period he also liked to pal around in Hollywood, where his father had been a movie mogul in the 1920s and still had connections. Jack dated actresses like Gene Tierney and liked to be on the set, liked to go to movies. Popular music I think interested him less, and until Jackie came along he evinced little interest in art. He did like poetry, and he memorized a lot of it starting already in prep school at Choate. But the Hollywood connection is interesting to me, and probably plays some role in his later skill at using images and film to advance his political career. He was among the first politicians to see that images matter, that the right use of film can make a powerful difference. Television was a huge emerging thing as his career builds, and he had that savvy understanding of the medium and how he could use it to his advantage, kind of like FDR used radio so effectively.

GAZETTE: Many of the reviews I’ve read have focused on his womanizing, which we already knew about. Do you think that’s ultimately that important a part of his character?

LOGEVALL: Yes, the womanizing is an important part of who he is. His father led by example, carrying on with innumerable women in the 1920s and 1930s, and the older kids knew very well what was going on. Joe Sr. made clear he expected his sons to follow his ways. But I can’t have it both ways: If I’m going to argue that JFK was able to resist his father’s pressure and be his own man when it came to politics and career choices, I have to maintain that he could have broken with him on this issue too. Here he was his father’s son, with a tendency to see women as objects to be conquered. But there are paradoxes here, among them the fact that his administration took important progressive steps, establishing, for example, the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair. In 1962, at the urging of the commission, Kennedy ordered federal agencies to cease sex discrimination in hiring.

Sen. John Kennedy and his then-fiancée Jacqueline Bouvier in Hyannis Port, Mass.

Photo courtesy of Harvard Fine Arts Library, Digital Images & Slides Collection

GAZETTE: In the second volume you’ll have to unravel the mystery around the assassination. Do you have a sense of how you will approach that?

LOGEVALL: There is certainly a fascination, and it shows few signs of fading. It is a vexing issue to any biographer of JFK, and it has spawned a whole cottage industry of its own. I haven’t yet written Volume 2 so I haven’t fully decided how I will proceed on this. But certainly I will talk about Lee Harvey Oswald’s background, about what led him to take this action, and will give the reader a full sense of how it all culminated in this terrible moment. And I think I will owe the reader my assessment of what I believe happened. So I will provide it. I don’t think I will get heavily into the deliberations of the Warren Commission or the various conspiracy theories that have sprouted up over the years. That’s another book, not to mention a potential morass.

GAZETTE: What do you think happened?

LOGEVALL: My reading of the evidence we have indicates pretty clearly to me that Oswald was the lone gunman. Claims to the contrary all come up short. Oswald’s associations and meetings in the weeks leading up to the assassination are worthy of investigation, however, and have been examined in recent studies. I will delve into that material and be interested to see what I find.

Interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.

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John F. Kennedy

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 13, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Close-up of American Senator (and future US President) John F Kennedy (1917 - 1963) as he listens to testimony during McClellan Committee's investigation of the Teamsters Union, Washington DC, February 26, 1957.

Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became one of the youngest U.S. presidents, as well as the first Roman Catholic to hold the office. Born into one of America’s wealthiest families, he parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952.

As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history.

John F. Kennedy’s Early Life

Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy (known as Jack) was the second of nine children. His parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy, hailed from two of Boston’s most prominent Irish Catholic political families. Despite persistent health problems throughout his childhood and teenage years (he would later be diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Addison’s disease), Jack led a privileged youth. He attended private schools such as Canterbury and Choate and spent summers in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod.

Joe Kennedy, a hugely successful businessman and an early supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt , was appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934 and named U.S. ambassador to Great Britain in 1937. As a student at Harvard University, Jack traveled in Europe as his father’s secretary. His senior thesis about Britain’s unpreparedness for war was later published as an acclaimed book, Why England Slept (1940).

Watch the three-episode documentary event, Kennedy . Available to stream now.

Did you know? John F. Kennedy's Senate career got off to a rocky start when he refused to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy, a personal friend of the Kennedy family whom the Senate voted to censure in 1954 for his relentless pursuit of suspected communists. In the end, though he planned to vote against McCarthy, Kennedy missed the vote when he was hospitalized after back surgery.

Jack joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years later was sent to the South Pacific, where he was given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to safety and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. His older brother, Joe Jr., was not so fortunate: He was killed in August 1944 when his Navy airplane exploded on a secret mission against a German rocket-launching site. A grieving Joe Sr. told Jack it was his duty to fulfill the destiny once intended for Joe Jr.—to become the first Catholic president of the United States.

JFK’s Beginnings in Politics

Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Jack left the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year later, he returned to Boston, preparing a run for Congress in 1946. As a moderately conservative Democrat, and backed by his father’s fortune, Jack won his party’s nomination handily and carried the mostly working-class Eleventh District by nearly three to one over his Republican opponent in the general election. He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention (as well as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style.

Kennedy won reelection to the House of Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married the beautiful socialite and journalist Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back. While recovering from the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling book, Profiles in Courage , which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. (The book was later revealed to be mostly the work of Kennedy’s longtime aide, Theodore Sorenson.)

Kennedy’s Road to Presidency

After nearly earning his party’s nomination for vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, as his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower .

Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the first-ever televised presidential debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin—fewer than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast—becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States.

With his beautiful young wife and their two small children (Caroline, born in 1957, and John Jr., born just weeks after the election), Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and glamour to the White House . In his inaugural address, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty, but also in the battle to win the ongoing Cold War against communism around the world. Kennedy’s famous closing words expressed the need for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Challenges

An early crisis in the foreign affairs arena occurred in April 1961, when Kennedy approved the plan to send 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Intended to spur a rebellion that would overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro , the mission ended in failure, with nearly all of the exiles captured or killed.

That June, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city of Berlin, which had been divided after World War II between Allied and Soviet control. Two months later, East German troops began erecting a wall to divide the city. Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and would deliver one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963.

Kennedy clashed again with Khrushchev in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis . After learning that the Soviet Union was constructing a number of nuclear and long-range missile sites in Cuba that could pose a threat to the continental United States, Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba.

The tense standoff lasted nearly two weeks before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet missile sites in Cuba in return for America’s promise not to invade the island and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and other sites close to Soviet borders. In July 1963, Kennedy won his greatest foreign affairs victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him and Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in signing a nuclear test ban treaty. In Southeast Asia, however, Kennedy’s desire to curb the spread of communism led him to escalate U.S. involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, even as privately he expressed his dismay over the situation.

Kennedy’s Leadership at Home

During his first year in office, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would send young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world. Otherwise, he was unable to achieve much of his proposed legislation during his lifetime, including two of his biggest priorities: income tax cuts and a civil rights bill. Slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, events forced Kennedy into action, spurring him to send federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured. The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive civil rights bill and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that August.

Kennedy held enormous popularity, both at home and abroad, and his family drew famous comparisons to King Arthur’s court at Camelot. His brother Bobby served as his attorney general, while the youngest Kennedy son, Edward (Ted), was elected to Jack’s former Senate seat in 1962. Jackie Kennedy became an international icon of style, beauty and sophistication, though stories of her husband’s numerous marital infidelities (and his personal association with members of organized crime) would later emerge to complicate the Kennedys’ idyllic image.

JFK’s Assassination

On November 22, 1963, the president and his wife landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the day before. From the airfield, the party then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Jack’s next speaking engagement. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., as the motorcade passed through downtown Dallas, shots rang out . Bullets struck Kennedy twice, in the neck and head; he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.

Authorities arrested 24-old Lee Harvey Oswald, known to have Communist sympathies, for the killing. But he was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being led to jail. Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy’s assassination emerged—including conspiracies allegedly run by the KGB , the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others. A presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination have persisted.

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JFK: Volume 1: 1917-1956 Hardcover – September 10, 2020

'The most compelling biography I have read in years . . . There has been a host of JFK biographies, but this one excels for its narrative drive, fine judgments and meticulous research . . . makes the story seem a cliffhanger even though we know what is coming' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 'In his utterly absorbing JFK , Fred Logevall reconstructs not only a great man, but also his entire age' Brendan Simms, author of Hitler: A Global Biography The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president. ________________ By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston's wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in modern history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the full person. Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Harvard professor Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade combing through material unseen or unused by previous biographers, searching for and piecing together the 'real' John F. Kennedy. The result of this prodigious effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that for the first time properly contextualizes Kennedy's role in the international events of the twentieth century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK's life - from birth through his decision to run for president - to reveal his early relationships, his formative and heroic experiences during World War II, his ideas, his bestselling writings, his political aspirations, and the role of his father, wartime ambassador to Britain. In examining these pre-White House years, Logevall shows us a more serious, independently minded Kennedy than we've previously known. In chronicling Kennedy's extraordinary life and times, with authority and novelistic sensibility, putting the reader in every room where it happened, this landmark work offers the clearest portrait we have of a remarkable figure who still inspires individuals around the world. ________________ 'A riveting study of young JFK. Logevall has written a superb book.' David Runciman, Guardian 'A brisk, authoritative, and candid biography, and a wonderfully compelling history of America's heady and troubled mid-century rise' Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States '[Fredrik Logevall] makes JFK as alive and compelling as if you were reading about him for the first time' George Packer, author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America 'A powerful, provocative, and above all compelling book ' Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of The Soul of America 'In this first volume of Fredrik Logevall's definitive biography, JFK is all too engagingly and amiably human . . . I hope Logevall's second volume will follow soon' Peter Conrad, Observer

Print length 512 pages
Language English
Publisher Viking
Publication date September 10, 2020
Dimensions 6.38 x 2.52 x 9.45 inches
ISBN-10 0241185890
ISBN-13 978-0241185896
See all details

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking (September 10, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241185890
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241185896
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.62 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 2.52 x 9.45 inches
#5,063 in US Presidents
#13,346 in Communication & Media Studies
#15,353 in Political Leader Biographies

About the author

Fredrik logevall.

Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of ten books, most recently JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century (Random House, 2020). His book Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (Random House, 2012), won the Pulitzer Prize for History as well as the Francis Parkman Prize, the Arthur Ross Award, and other prizes. Logevall's essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The London Review of Books, and Foreign Affairs, among other publications. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Presidential Libraries

JFK Biography

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, a few miles outside of Boston. His parents were Joseph Kennedy, a successful businessman, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was the second of nine children. While Jack grew up with every material advantage, he suffered from a series of medical ailments but learned to underplay the effects of his illnesses.

President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy pose for a portrait with their children, Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, Jr., on a porch in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. August 4, 1962. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum Local Identifier: ST-C22-1-62

World War II changed Kennedy in many ways. He joined the Navy and served in the Pacific, where his PT boat was sunk by a Japanese destroyer. He never forgot his own war experience and the bravery of his Navy crew.

After the war, JFK decided to run for office. In 1946 he won election as congressman for Massachusetts and served for six years. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952. In 1953 he married Jacqueline Bouvier, and their daughter, Caroline, was born in 1957, and their son, John Jr., was born in 1960.

At 43 years old, he became the youngest man elected President of the United States, defeating Richard Nixon in 1960.

One of his first actions after taking office was creating the Peace Corps, which today still sends volunteers on two-year missions to live and work with people around the globe.

The Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962 threatened the world with possible nuclear war. The United States confronted the Soviet Union over the placement of nuclear weapons on Cuba, and in secret negotiations, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles.

Kennedy challenged the U.S. to be the first country to send a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s. The United States reached President Kennedy’s goal on July 20, 1969, when the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the lunar surface.

At home, Kennedy urged an end to racial segregation and asked Congress for a civil rights bill. Before the bill could get through Congress, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

People remember John F. Kennedy as a President who was young and energetic. But he is also remembered as a leader who made a difference. His words and actions made people want to help others and serve their country.

The Best 10 Biographies by Women to Add to Your Reading List

From former first ladies to famous actors and standup comedians.

biographies of women, crying in h mart, leah remini, know my name, demi moore inside out, finding me, wild cheryl strayed, becoming michelle

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The books on this list include incredible true stories about remarkable women who overcame great adversity, from Hollywood heavyweights sharing their personal stories for the first time to women journeying through grief, love, heartbreak, and hardship. While some of these books explore what it means to move forward after a violent crime, others explain the influence a person's upbringing had on their identity. Here, we round up 10 of the best biographies of women to add to your reading list in 2024.

'Becoming' by Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama needs no introduction following her eight-year tenure as first lady in the White House, but that doesn't make her story any less remarkable. Becoming covers everything from Michelle's youth in Chicago to her relationship with husband and former president Barack Obama and the way she's learned to juggle working on a world stage alongside raising her family. Rather than shying away from her mistakes, Michelle reflects on her life to date, offering every ounce of wisdom she's gathered, making her memoir an essential read.

'I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban' by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb

When Malala Yousafzai was just 15 years old, she was shot in the head after standing up to the Taliban regarding her right to an education. Seemingly against all odds, Yousafzai survived the attack, and was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her advocacy on behalf of children and young people. Since then, she has continued her activism by supporting young women to receive an education, while opposing extremism. I Am Malala is Yousafzai's incredible story , told in her own words.

'Inside Out: A Memoir' by Demi Moore

As an award-winning actor and the ex-wife of Bruce Willis , Demi Moore is no stranger to the spotlight. In Inside Out: A Memoir, Moore uses her wit and candor to discuss her unlikely rise to fame, the difficulties she encountered as a Hollywood star, and aspects of her personal life even the most dedicated fan wouldn't know. From her very real battles with sexism to the disintegration of multiple relationships, Moore doesn't hold anything back in her emotional autobiography.

'Know My Name' by Chanel Miller

With Know My Name, Chanel Miller gave up her anonymity as Emily Doe to tell her story. In 2016, Brock Turner was found guilty of three counts of felony sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to six months in county jail, although he would only serve three. Following the trial, Miller's victim impact statement went viral online, in which she revealed the devastating impact the crime had on every aspect of her life. Know My Name is an intimate portrayal of what it's like to survive a life-changing event and find a new forward.

'Finding Me' by Viola Davis

Viola Davis' biography , Finding Me, elevated the actor to EGOT status when she took home a Grammy for her performance of the audiobook, and it's easy to see why. Discussing her humble upbringing on Rhode Island and her quest to forge a career as an actor, Davis encourages honesty and self-reflection when readers look back on their own stories. While Davis' talent is undeniable, her journey to stardom has been anything but simple, making Finding Me an important and timeless read.

'Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology' by Leah Remini: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

After leaving Scientology in July 2013, Leah Remini was forced to rebuild her life from the ground up. Despite being a famous actor, Remini was seemingly adrift in the world without her former religion and allegedly faced harassment and stalking by the organization for fleeing. Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology tracks Remini's upbringing in the church, the reasons she finally decided to leave, and the ways in which her life changed after she walked away.

'Survival of the Thickest' by Michelle Buteau

Comedian Michelle Buteau has continually proven herself with roles in Netflix movies, such as Someone Great and Always Be My Maybe, and on TV shows like Russian Doll and First Wives Club. In Survival of the Thickest, Buteau provides readers with an insight into her life growing up in New Jersey with Caribbean parents and why she made the move to Miami for college. Both hilarious and intimate, Buteau gets candid about her chaotic life as a standup comedian, starting a family with her Dutch husband, and the difficult decisions she faced when becoming a mother.

'Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail' by Cheryl Strayed

Brought to the big screen in a movie starring Reese Witherspoon , Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a story of resilience, heartbreak, grief, and an 1100-mile solo hike. Leaving behind a difficult romantic relationship and personal demons and still reeling from the death of her mother, Strayed navigates the challenging walk with very little hiking experience. In spite of her shortcomings, the journey changes the course of her life forever.

'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner in H Mart: A Memoir

Known as the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast , Michelle Zauner's biography is an exploration of family, food, identity, loss, and the journey to discovering oneself. From her childhood in Oregon to her experiences staying in Seoul, South Korea, with her grandmother, Zauner examines the strands that form her identity as a Korean American. In addition to tracking her career as a rock musician, Zauner opens up about the devastating family diagnosis that changed her outlook on life and heritage.

'I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home' by Jami Attenberg

Author Jami Attenberg is known for her novels The Middlesteins and The Melting Season, and for short story collections such as Instant Love . In I Came All This Way to Meet You, Attenberg shares the experiences that shaped her worldview, including following her father's occupation as a traveling salesman. As Attenberg discovered her own creative identity, she also found the less glamorous aspects of writing, such as the cross-country book tours and the lack of stable housing. Despite the challenges, Attenberg's memoir provides the encouragement needed to never quit, whatever the project.

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Books You Love

'carrie' turns 50 here are the best stephen king novels — chosen by you.

Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, turns 50 years old on Friday, and in honor of her birthday we asked you to share your favorite King stories with us. Above, Sissy Spacek stars in the 1976 film adaptation. Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo hide caption

Stephen King's first novel, Carrie — the story of a bullied telekinetic teenager who gets viciously pranked at prom — turns 50 on April 5. In honor of Carrie's 50th birthday (we sure hope menopause is going better for her than puberty did!), we asked you to tell us about your favorite Stephen King story.

We heard from more than 1,200 of you in just a few days. Many of you told us that Stephen King helped you become readers. Stephanie Larson of Cleveland, Ohio, wrote "no matter where I am — from an academic conference to a busy bus — I'm likely to find a fellow 'Constant Reader' whose reading life, like mine, has been transformed for the better by King."

Many of you balked at the idea of choosing just one favorite Stephen King story — after all, he's written nearly 100 novels and novellas since Carrie was published. "This is an unfair and impossible question," Michelle Smith of Mantua, Ohio, told us. "SO HARD!!!" said Bill Cobabe of Ogden, Utah.

But ultimately you each settled on a favorite (though some of you just couldn't stop at one), and this is what you told us. ( Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.):

Hundreds of readers wrote in to say this 1978 novel — about a super-flu that has the capacity to wipe out nearly everyone on Earth — was the best King they'd ever read. At 1,000+ pages you said it was very long, but very worth it, and you appreciated how the book balanced horror and hope. Also, you'll never see the Lincoln Tunnel the same way again.

Many of you read or re-read The Stand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meghan Balough, an epidemiologist in Salt Lake City, said this novel "has never been more relevant than it is today." Marc Wright, of Monona, Wis., said The Stand (which he re-read every summer for 20 years) helped him decide to become an epidemiologist.

"There were many parallels between how the world reacted in The Stand and what we saw play out in real life during the pandemic," said Peter Szeltner of Montello, Wis. "At least we didn't have to fight the devil himself while rebuilding society."

Courtney Nichols of Lawrence, Kan., noted that "The evil in the book is not just the disease that destroys the world, but it's also extremism and selfishness, it's radical leaders who use fear to control." David Yaffie of Sugar Land, Texas, said The Stand takes readers on an American Odyssey, blending "biowarfare, apocalypse, religion, horror, adventure, and the intensities of human relationships into a page-turning, eyeball burner of a book."

The Coronavirus Crisis

Stephen king is sorry you feel like you're stuck in a stephen king novel.

About a month into the COVID pandemic, Stephen King spoke with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. "I keep having people say, 'Gee, it's like we're living in a Stephen King story,' " he told her. "And my only response to that is, 'I'm sorry.' "

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This genre-spanning time-travel book tells the story of an English teacher who finds a portal to the past and attempts to prevent the JFK assassination. "As a history teacher, I often reflect on how the story of the world could have diverged from its current reality if certain events had unfolded differently," writes Kate Jacobsen, from Brooklyn Park, Minn. "This was a well crafted tale and a reminder that history must remain the same, but we need to learn from it."

King is known best for his horror, but readers said they loved the romance in 11/22/63. "It's odd not to choose a horror book when talking about King ... but I think 11/22/63 was a perfect combination of a little bit of everything," said Gabriela Teixeira of Kenmore, Wash. For self-described scaredy-cat Emily Wise, of Lexington, Ky., 11/22/63 was an opportunity to finally read one the horror master's books: "I've always heard wonderful things about King's writing ... I was thrilled to be able to read 11/22/63 and still sleep at night!"

Readers appreciated the ending of the book as well as the Easter eggs and references to other King works sprinkled throughout. They also felt like they got to travel back in time thanks to King's historical details. "I wanted to find that diner and test the portal myself," wrote Robin Smith of Hilliard, Ohio.

Author Interviews

Stephen king plots to save jfk in '11/22/63'.

King told NPR that he first tried to write this book in 1971, but that he wasn't ready as a writer — and the wounds of the assassination were still too fresh. For Baby Boomers, "11/22/63 was our 9/11," King said. "I'm glad that I waited."

The Dark Tower Series

OK, we'll allow it: Lots of you wrote in to say that the entire Dark Tower series was your favorite King work. This "magnum opus" released over three decades follows a "gunslinger" named Roland. "Sci-fi Western epic with a killer train, a profound coming of age, and the ultimate David and Goliath gun fight. No John Wayne needed. What could be better?" asked Shawnice Shankle, of London, Ohio.

Readers relished the series' memorable moments — even the heartbreaking ones — and many (though not all!) of you loved the ending. With its many references and Easter eggs, Doug Kuriger, of Colona, Ill., said the series felt like King's "love letter to his Faithful Reader."

Two titles within the series were nominated more than any others: The Gunslinger , the first in the series, hooked you with its incredible first line: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." And the fourth in the series, Wizard and Glass, illuminates Roland's backstory.

"The series is a great adventure that fluidly moves through space and time," wrote Stephanie Aberle of St. Paul, Minn. "The characters are perfectly flawed and the story lines are eternally engaging. Call it an adventure or obsession; it is a well written literary journey that I did not want to end!"

Dozens of you wrote in to share that It "scared the bejeezus" out of you as teenagers. The 1986 novel follows a group of friends who return to their small town decades after they fought off evil there when they were kids. (A lot of you are grownups who are still scared of clowns.)

Kat Jordan, in Kansas City, Kan., said she loves the book because it works on so many different levels: "There is the fictional horror of a killer clown, but there's also true world horror of racism, sexism, and homophobia to contend with."

"It's an exploration of childhood, both its joys and its traumas, and how they shape the people which we become," said Lynn McKenzie, of Baltimore, Md. "The sections about the children are nostalgic and wistful, but they also recapture the terrors which children have of the thing under the bed or the creature which lurks in the night. It also doesn't shy away from the real abuses of childhood: parental neglect, verbal, emotional and physical abuse, and how it affects children throughout their lives."

Kathleen James of DeKalb, Ill., acknowledged that some scenes from the book "have aged like milk on a summer day." Several readers called out one particularly disturbing and problematic sewer scene.

But for many of you, It is the quintessential King novel. Deirdre Murphy of Cleveland, Ohio, said the book "perfectly encapsulates everything that Stephen King is known for: a small town Maine setting, childhood fear, the trauma of everyday life, and a supernatural threat invading otherwise normal lives."

The Shining

Karen Waelder of Syracuse, N.Y., first read The Shining when her son was a newborn: "I would read it sitting next to his crib as he slept because I was too scared to be alone," she recalled. "Somehow his little presence gave me the courage to go on to the next page!"

The 1977 novel follows the Torrance family — Jack, Wendy, and their son Danny — as Jack takes a job as caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel. Only young Danny can sense the sinister nature of the place. Jack is struggling to stay sober and many readers connected to the book through its themes of alcoholism and domestic violence.

"I love how this book gets into the head of every character," said Sarah Margeson of Montrose, Colo. "I am an addictions counselor and I appreciated how the book portrays Jack's battle with alcohol use disorder."

Many readers felt Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation starring Jack Nicholson didn't do the book justice. (And a lot of you also developed a lifelong aversion to topiary animals.)

Salem's Lot

This 1975 vampire novel terrified you. That undead child scratching at the window!

It's been decades since she read it, but to this day, Melissa Farrow of Holden, Mass., cannot sleep with her neck exposed. Marianne Calilhanna of Phoenixville, Pa., slept under the covers with her Raggedy Ann doll's head poking out — "so the vampires would go for her first." Dirk Beuth, of McGrann, Pa., admitted he took the book off of his parents' shelf without their permission and then "borrowed" one of his grandmother's rosaries to keep himself safe. Diana Carson of Auburn, Maine, shared the book with her friend who was so scared that she put the book in her freezer — they still laugh about that 40 years later.

Many of King's books take place in small town Maine, and readers particularly appreciated the uniquely New England setting of this novel. "I love that Jerusalem's Lot, this small town full of flawed real human beings and history, feels like a character itself in the novel," said Maggie Jones of Tucson, Ariz. "Stephen King's characters always feel whole, the sum of their personalities and experiences adding up to a fully drawn creature. And I love that not all of his characters are people, sometimes they are houses, objects, or places."

And a few honorable mentions

More than 1,200 of you recommended more than 40 titles and we have to stop somewhere, but we did want to shout out a couple more books we kept seeing over and over:

Book covers of Stephen King's books: Pet Sematary, The Long Walk, The Talisman and Misery.

Pet Sematary , 1983 : "The book is about cats and kids. Very scary combo," wrote Julie Luker, of Eagan, Minn.

The Long Walk, 1979 (published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman): "Maybe it's a metaphor for the long walk of life or just a heartbreaking little dystopian gem, but in The Long Walk, there are no monsters per se, just the twisted rules of a race with only one winner and lone survivor," said Robert Winship, of Washington, D.C.

The Talisman, 1984 (co-authored with Peter Straub): Two of you wrote in to say you named your children after Jack, the protagonist in this story! "When I first read it, I was the same age as Jack, the hero, so I identified strongly with him," wrote Dawn Martinez, of Albuquerque, N.M." I felt like I was cheering on a friend. Sometimes I still wonder what he's up to."

Misery, 1987: This book, as one reader put it, is "a game of chess" between a romance novelist Paul Sheldon and his unhinged "No. 1 fan" Annie Wilkes. " Misery shines because of how claustrophobic it is," wrote Hayden Dunlap, of Raleigh, N.C., "The protagonist is entirely dependent on his captor for survival, a horror made worse as the novel unfolds and reveals the depths of her unbalanced mind."

Covers of the Stephen King books: The Eyes of the Dragon, Needful Things, Different Seasons and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

The Eyes of the Dragon, 1984: Joy Starke, of Seattle, Wash., says her father introduced her to this book when she was young. She wrote: "I remember being touched that King wrote it for his daughter and in doing so, he had toned down the gore. It was a wonderful fantasy tale — full of unexpected twists, memorable character flaws, and strategic, personal triumphs. I loved it!! And my dad did too! It was one of the first books we bonded over."

Needful Things, 1991: "Who would think that a new man moving into a town and opening a thrift store could create such a bone-chilling and terribly frightening story? King would and that's what makes him the Master of Horror," said Samantha Elwood, of Louisville, Ky.

Different Seasons, 1982: The films The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Apt Pupil (1998) and Stand By Me (1986) all have their origins in this collection. "Four novellas — each of them extraordinary" wrote Julie Slater of Jacksonville, Ill. "This is great starter King for anyone who is not sure King is for them."

Finally, anyone who has read this far will appreciate Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Readers praised the book for its practical and pragmatic how-to approach to writing and the behind the scenes glimpse it offered into King's process.

Thanks to all of you who wrote in to share your love of Stephen King with us. And happy birthday, Carrie!

This story was edited by Meghan Collins Sullivan .

Stephen King

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JFK Airport named one of the best in the world for its food and drink options

John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York has been recognized as one of the best airports globally for food by a Global Tastemakers panel of culinary and travel experts.

JFK was ranked as the seventh-best airport for dining in the world by Food & Wine magazine.

The magazine said its food selection is as diverse as the airport itself, offering iconic tastes of New York at spots like The Palm Bar & Grille, in Terminal 4, "which brings New York steakhouse energy to the airport." Additionally, it said, travelers can savor global flavors at establishments like Soy and Sake for ramen in Terminal 1 and Mi Casa Cantina and Restaurant in Terminal 4.

The panel chose Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore as the best for food and drinks. "With more than 100 food vendors, you're bound to find something to delight your taste buds," the magazine said. It was followed in the rankings by Tokyo-Narita International Airport in Japan and Dubai International Airport.

At Tokyo-Narita, the panel said, guests can get spectacular sushi at Sushi Kyotatsu, which has locations in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. And Dubai Airport, known for luxury, offers rich culinary experiences and plenty of Middle Eastern flavors, the magazine said.

According to Food & Wine , the list was created after 180 food and travel journalists voted on their favorite experiences, in terms of restaurants, airports, cities, hotels, etc. "We then entrusted those results to an expert panel of judges to determine each category’s winners," the magazine said.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: JFK Airport food options ranked highly by Food and Wine

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What to Know About R.F.K. Jr. and His Threat to Biden and Trump

Mr. Kennedy has become the most prominent independent or third-party presence in the 2024 race.

Share full article

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking at a lectern with a sign that says Kennedy 24. He is wearing a black sport coat and a skinny tie.

By Rebecca Davis O’Brien

The independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emerged as a wild card of the 2024 election, attracting a motley mix of ideologically diverse supporters, raising piles of cash and drawing legal attacks from Democrats and verbal barrages from former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Kennedy, 70, the son of Robert F. Kennedy and an heir to an American political dynasty, had a troubled youth and young adulthood marked by drug abuse. He became an environmental lawyer, most famous for suing corporate polluters in an effort to clean up the Hudson Valley watershed.

In the past decade, he has become a prominent voice in the anti-vaccine movement, promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the risks of childhood vaccinations and other public health measures. That work gave him a large platform during the coronavirus pandemic, when he questioned the safety of Covid vaccines and the official narratives of the virus’s origins.

With the centrist group No Labels announcing on April 4 that it would not run a presidential ticket, Mr. Kennedy is the most prominent independent or third-party presence in the 2024 race. Here’s what to know about him, his supporters and how President Biden’s and Mr. Trump’s campaigns are approaching him.

What party is R.F.K. Jr. affiliated with?

Mr. Kennedy is running as an independent , so he is not affiliated with an established political party — he is not even, technically speaking, a “third-party candidate.” In keeping with his family’s political legacy, Mr. Kennedy was a lifelong Democrat, and when he entered the race in April 2023 , he sought to challenge Mr. Biden for the party’s nomination. Six months later, he announced that he would run as an independent , saying the Democrats had corruptly blocked his efforts.

He has flirted with the Libertarian Party , which is on the ballot in about three dozen states. If he were to join its ticket, his efforts to get on states’ ballots would become much simpler.

His supporters have created a new party, We the People, to help him secure ballot access in a few states: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi and North Carolina.

Does R.F.K. Jr. pose a bigger threat to Biden or to Trump?

That this is such a common question — and that both sides are concerned about it — reflects what a political enigma Mr. Kennedy has become and the range of people who have been drawn to his candidacy. Still, it is hard to discern whether he would draw more voters in a general election from Mr. Trump or from Mr. Biden.

A February Fox News national poll put Mr. Kennedy’s support at around 13 percent, drawing about equally from both candidates. In Georgia, considered a swing state in national elections, he averages about 6 percent in recent polls, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages .

How worried is the Biden campaign about R.F.K. Jr.? The Trump campaign?

Democrats have been haunted by third-party candidates since 2000, when Ralph Nader, running with the Green Party, was partly blamed for costing Al Gore the election. In 2016, Jill Stein — also with the Green Party — won more than 30,000 votes in Wisconsin, more than Mr. Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in that state.

Fears among Democrats are particularly acute this year, with polls suggesting that Mr. Trump’s base of enthusiastic support is sturdier than Mr. Biden’s. Conventional wisdom within the party is that any vote not for Mr. Biden benefits Mr. Trump, and there are concerns that giving people more choices on the ballot — especially one with the last name Kennedy — is more likely to hurt Mr. Biden, especially in critical swing states. The party is taking aggressive measures to counter his candidacy.

Where is Kennedy on the ballot?

As of early April, Mr. Kennedy is officially on the ballot in one state: Utah. His campaign says he has enough signatures to get on the ballot in Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina, but he still has to submit those signatures in applications to state officials.

His campaign is gathering signatures in most other states. The time frame to do so in some places, like Colorado and Louisiana, is narrower and has not started yet.

Each state has different rules for ballot access, and they vary depending on whether a candidate is an independent or with a third party. Almost all of the rules revolve, ultimately, around signatures: Candidates and parties have a certain window of time to gather tens of thousands of signatures, which must be submitted for approval by state authorities. And signatures take time, labor and money — tens of millions of dollars, by most estimates, including the cost of litigating challenges to ballot applications.

Who is his running mate?

Mr. Kennedy has named Nicole Shanahan , a Bay Area lawyer and investor, as his running mate. Ms. Shanahan, who was once married to the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is a political newcomer, having never sought or held public office.

Ms. Shanahan, 38, does have a history of political giving — she gave to Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign. And she has already shown her willingness to provide financial support to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign: She has given more than $4.5 million to super PACs backing him, including the bulk of the funding for a Super Bowl ad that one of the PACs bought.

Ms. Shanahan has aligned herself with issues and positions that are important to Mr. Kennedy, and which have animated his campaign and his core followers, including skepticism of vaccines, concerns about chronic disease, disaffection with the Democratic Party and environmental stewardship.

Who is R.F.K. Jr. popular with?

Mr. Kennedy’s supporters fall into a few overlapping categories. First, there are people who have supported his work with Children’s Health Defense — an activist group primarily known for spreading anti-vaccine disinformation.

More broadly, he has ardent, longtime supporters in the so-called medical freedom movement, which draws a cross section of political beliefs (including those of Libertarians and people who are distrustful of mainstream medicine) through its opposition to vaccination requirements and public health measures.

More recently, his outspoken criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic — including skepticism about the Covid vaccines, broadsides against top public health officials like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and his protests of lockdowns and monitoring of disinformation — has drawn new supporters from across the political spectrum.

Some of his supporters are longtime Democrats drawn to the Kennedy luster — Mr. Kennedy has anchored his campaign in a mythmaking nostalgia for his family, even though most members of his family have publicly disavowed his candidacy.

Mr. Kennedy has also drawn support from libertarians and independents who are broadly distrustful of the federal government — he expresses views that align with those of many Trump supporters, including an isolationist foreign policy and outrage over purported censorship in the news media and on tech platforms. He has become known for confrontational, provocative interviews on right-leaning podcasts, and has a kind of iconoclastic anti-establishment vibe that has appealed to disaffected Democrats and Republicans.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien covers campaign finance and money in U.S. elections. She previously covered federal law enforcement, courts and criminal justice. More about Rebecca Davis O’Brien

Our Coverage of the 2024 Presidential Election

News and Analysis

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emerged as a wild card in the 2024 election , attracting a motley mix of ideologically diverse supporters, raising piles of cash and drawing legal attacks from Democrats and verbal barrages from former President Donald Trump.

Melania Trump, who has been mostly absent from public view while her husband campaigns for president, will appear at a fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago , marking a return of sorts to the political arena.

The centrist group No Labels has abandoned its plans to run a presidential ticket in the 2024 election, having failed to recruit a candidate. The group had suffered a string of rejections recently as prominent Republicans and Democrats declined to run on its ticket.

Florida court rulings on abortion have all but guaranteed that voters will have the issue on their minds in November, bringing potential risks for two anti-abortion Republicans in the state whose districts aren’t solidly red.

Trump’s falsehoods about mail voting have created a strategic disadvantage for Republicans, who must rely on Election Day turnout . The group Turning Point Action has a $100 million plan to change voters’ habits to encourage early voting.

The focus of Trump’s hotel business is shifting from big cities to his golf resorts, after a deal to host tournaments for LIV Golf , the upstart league sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, another example of the ties between the Saudis and the Trump family.

Biden and Trump are the oldest people ever to seek the presidency , challenging norms about what the public should know about candidates’ health.

Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist and consultant, has spent the past two years telling Democrats they need to calm down. His Biden-will-win prediction is his next big test .

IMAGES

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COMMENTS

The Best Biographies of John F. Kennedy
The Best Biographies of John F. Kennedy. I spent the past 24 weeks reading a dozen biographies of John F. Kennedy totaling just under 8,000 pages: six " conventional" biographies, a two-volume series and four narrowly-focused studies of Kennedy's presidency. In the end, JFK proved to be everything I hoped for - and more!
The Best Books on JFK
5 The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam. A lthough 40,000 books have been published about the Kennedys, according to the estimate of Jill Abramson, there are few serious efforts, prior to yours, to take comprehensive look at the life and times of JFK, America's famous 35th president. There are many books, as you say, that deal with ...
The 11 Best Books About John F. Kennedy
Vincent T. Bugliosi, the prosecutor who tried cult leader Charles Manson, turns his attention to the assassination of JFK in Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy ...
The 15 Best Books on President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy and PT-109 by Richard Tregaskis. In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, US Navy motor torpedo boat PT-109 patrolled the still, black waters of Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. Suddenly, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri loomed out of the darkness, bearing directly down on the smaller ship. There was no time to get out of the way - the destroyer crashed into PT-109 ...
JFK Books: 5 to Read in Honor of Kennedy's Centennial
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963. By Robert Dallek. Dallek essentially rewrote the story of JFK, surprising readers with revelations about his poor health, love affairs and ...
Life of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Born Brookline, Mass. (83 Beals Street) May 29, 1917. In all, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy would have nine children, four boys and five girls. She kept notecards for each of them in a small wooden file box and made a point of writing down everything from a doctor's visit to the shoe size they had at a particular age.
Best Books about JFK (76 books)
i've read a fair amount of books on this subject, ranging, subjectively, in quality, from 'changed the way i thought about everything, not just the assassination' (p.d. scott's deep politics & the death of jfk), to special (thompson's six seconds in dallas), to excellent (marr's crossfire, prouty's jfk, weissburg's whitewash, others), to 'why do i have to finish every book i start this is ...
The Best Books to Read on the Presidency of John F. Kennedy
With the exception of Lincoln and Washington, more pages have been written about John F. Kennedy than any other president. Kennedy was the 35 th president, and perhaps the most charismatic political leaders in modern history. In addition to biographies, authors have zoomed in on almost everything about Kennedy, from his famed Anglophilia to his influence on the Vietnam war.
JFK anniversary: the best Kennedy books of all time
November 8, 2013. John F. Kennedy books are at flood tide this year, the 50th anniversary of his assassination in Dallas. To name a few, there are good new volumes about his years in Congress ...
Kennedy: The Classic Biography (Harper Perennial Political Classics
The classic, intimate, and #1 national bestselling biography of JFK by his great advisor Ted Sorensen. In January 1953, freshman senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts hired a twenty-four-year-old from Nebraska as his Number Two legislative assistant―on a trial basis.
JFK by Fredrik Logevall: 9780812987027
About JFK. A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president. "An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century."—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A ...
The Best Books To Learn About President John F. Kennedy
The first in a multi-volume new biography of John F. Kennedy encompasses the early years of Kennedy's career, his youth and Harvard education, the story of PT-109, his affair with a suspected Nazi spy, and more. Learn More About Book. President Kennedy: Profile of Power by Richard Reeves. Lists It Appears On: Best Presidential Bios; Library ...
New JFK biography aims to chronicle a complex life
New biography aims to chronicle a complex life amid a pivotal time for a nation. One of the revelations about John F. Kennedy in Fredrik Logevall's new biography, "JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917‒1956," is that the man was an excellent letter-writer and diarist. The Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs ...
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy (born May 29, 1917, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.—died November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas) was the 35th president of the United States (1961-63), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress.
John F. Kennedy: Biography, 35th U.S. President, Political Leader
John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States on January 20, 1961. Delivering his legendary inaugural address on January 20, 1961, Kennedy sought to inspire all Americans ...
JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
JFK is biography at its very best." — The Spectator "It is the singular achievement of this magnificent new biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy that it has taken one of the most scrutinized lives of the twentieth century and made it feel fresh. Harvard historian Fredrik Logevall scrapes away the encrusted layers of myth, rumour and ...
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963), often referred to as JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba.
John F. Kennedy
Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. Learn about his personal and ...
JFK: Volume 1: 1917-1956
An absolutely incredible first volume of biography on John F. Kennedy from his birth in 1917 until just after the Democratic National Convention in 1956, where he came extremely close to winning the Vice Presidential nomination. ... this book is by far one of the best biographies not only on John F. Kennedy, but one of the best biographies ever ...
JFK
PC 94 Ensign John F. Kennedy, USN, in South Carolina. January 1, 1942. Courtesy: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Life of Pain. John F. Kennedy, known as Jack, lived his life in ...
Jfk Biographies Books
avg rating 3.98 — 12,059 ratings — published 2011. Books shelved as jfk-biographies: Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency by Mark K. Updegrove, First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) Peo...
The most recommended JFK books (picked by 77 authors)
Meet our 77 experts. Natalie Conyer Author. Alan McDermott Author. William Kuhn Author. Christopher Beauregard Emery Author. Michelle Brafman Author. Andrew Hook Author. +71. 77 authors created a book list connected to JFK, and here are their favorite JFK books.
JFK Biography
JFK Biography. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, a few miles outside of Boston. His parents were Joseph Kennedy, a successful businessman, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was the second of nine children. While Jack grew up with every material advantage, he suffered from a series of medical ailments ...
The Best Biographies by Women 2024
Here, we round up 10 of the best biographies of women to add to your reading list in 2024. 1 #1 New York Times Bestseller 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama. 1 #1 New York Times Bestseller
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CNN —. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named Silicon Valley attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential pick at a campaign rally Tuesday in her ...
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Books You Love. 'Carrie' turns 50! Here are the best Stephen King novels — chosen by you. Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, turns 50 years old on Friday, and in honor of her birthday we asked ...
Book Review: 'Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar,' by Cynthia Carr
As a child, "Jimmy," as Candy was known then, was shunned socially and bullied terribly, once ushered onto a box and into a noose by two teenagers in a neighbor's backyard. Understandably ...
JFK Airport named one of the best in the world for its food and drink
Manahil Ahmad, NorthJersey.com. Wed, April 3, 2024, 9:59 AM EDT · 1 min read. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York has been recognized as one of the best airports globally for food by a panel of Global Tastemakers of culinary and travel experts. JFK was ranked as the seventh-best airport for dining in the world by Food and Wine.
What to Know About R.F.K. Jr. and His Threat to Biden and Trump
April 5, 2024, 9:48 a.m. ET. The independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emerged as a wild card of the 2024 election, attracting a motley mix of ideologically diverse ...

My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies

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History Books » American History » Books on American Presidents

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall

Prelude to Leadership: The Postwar Diary of John F. Kennedy by John F Kennedy

Profiles in Courage by John F Kennedy

Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Ted Sorensen

The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

1 JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall

The 11 Best Books About John F. Kennedy

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President

PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy

The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

John Kennedy: A Political Profile

Five Days in November: In Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination

Profiles in Courage

The 15 Best Books on President John F. Kennedy

An Unfinished Life by Robert Dallek

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century by Fredrik Logevall

A Thousand Days by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The House of Kennedy by James Patterson

Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy and PT-109 by Richard Tregaskis

The Kennedy Brothers by Richard D. Mahoney

Two Days in June by Andrew Cohen

Prelude to Leadership by John F. Kennedy

Counselor by Ted Sorensen

Once Upon A Secret by Mimi Alford

JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglass

The Death of a President by William Manchester

JFK: Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton

Mary’s Mosaic by Peter Janney

The Man Who Killed Kennedy by Roger Stone

On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison

5 Books to Read in Honor of JFK’s Centennial

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

Profiles in Courage

The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963

JFK: A Vision for America

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1. An Unfinished Life by Robert Dallek

2. Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

3. A Thousand Days by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

4. The Death of a President by William Manchester

5. Case Closed by Gerald Posner

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5 STUNNING PHOTOS THAT CHRONICLE JOHN KENNEDY’S PRESIDENCY AND ASSASSINATION

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