As always, let me know what you’re reading!įor the reader who doesn’t know a whole lot about Kennedy or why he continues to have such allure in American culture, Incomparable Grace is the perfect book. So, how do these two new Kennedy titles featured today stack up to the rest? Let’s take a look.

‘Historians see him more as a celebrity who didn’t accomplish very much.’ Dallek also pointed to a second inhibiting factor, the commercial pressure authors feel to come up with sensational new material.”įascinating! (At least for me.) The presidential publishing industry is nearly as interesting as the books themselves. ‘The mass audience has turned Kennedy into a celebrity, so historians are not really impressed by him,’ Dallek told me. “ suggests that the cultish atmosphere surrounding, and perhaps smothering, the actual man may be the reason for the deficit of good writing about him. That same article points to a theory from author and historian Robert Dallek (whose An Unfinished Life is possibly the best JFK book):

“There is such fascination in the country about the anniversary, but there is no great book about Kennedy.” Legendary biographer Robert Caro said as much a few years ago in a New York Times article which explored this phenomenon: Which means that great books about him are in surprisingly short supply. Though JFK has been the subject of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of published books, he remains an elusive character. A committee of three Kennedy associates refused to provide his medical records for decades, but they decided to give Dallek access to them although the book does not have a complete record of his medical history.There are a few presidents whose stories seem to hold our collective American imagination more than others: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and, without fail, John F. He sometimes took up to eight medications a day. He used painkillers for his chronic back pain and other medication to treat his Addison's disease. ĭallek recounted Kennedy's medical problems which were controlled by drugs including antispasmodics and antibiotics.

Senator, he was one step closer to becoming president. In the mid-1950s, after defeating Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., leaving the United States House of Representatives, and getting elected as a U.S. Other family members, particularly his brother Robert helped in early campaign efforts. Kennedy was heavily involved in his political career, and both helped to finance his campaigns, and arrange effective public relations efforts through his contacts in the press and other media. during World War II eventually paved the way for his political career. The death of JFK's older brother Joseph P. JFK was part of a prominent Boston family that would acquire great wealth and had held political office for two prior generations.

An unfinished life book jfk