Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy

by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

First published 2011

In January 1964, just weeks after President Kennedy's assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy makes a decision that will shape how history remembers her husband. Despite her famous privacy and deep personal grief, she sits down with historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. to record her memories of life with JFK. Over eight and a half hours of interviews, she reveals unguarded details about the man behind the presidency. She shares his private thoughts on his brothers Robert and Ted, his assessments of world leaders, and the intimate moments that defined their marriage and his political career. These conversations, sealed for decades in the Kennedy Presidential Library, capture a grieving widow's determination to preserve truth over myth. Jackie's wit, candor, and sophisticated perspective illuminate both the president she knew and the remarkable woman she was. The recordings offer an unfiltered portrait of power, family, and loss during one of America's most turbulent eras.

Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history

Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking

Tropes: unreliable-narrator

Period: 1964

368 pages · Illustrated Book and CD Set · Hyperion

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