First published 2011
Jack Kennedy begins with a simple question: what was he really like? Chris Matthews answers by drawing on personal interviews with those who knew JFK best, plus oral histories from top aide Kenneth O'Donnell and notes from Jacqueline Kennedy's first post-assassination interview. The portrait that emerges shows a restless man who never wanted to be alone or bored. Matthews traces Kennedy's path from rebellious privileged youth to wartime hero who saved his PT boat crew, then to a young politician learning the brutal game of power. The book reveals the origins of his inaugural challenge to ask what you can do for your country, his role in creating the Peace Corps, his civil rights stance, and his push for moon exploration. Matthews presents both Kennedy's public triumphs in averting nuclear war and the troubling aspects of his private life. The result captures a fighting prince never free from pain or trouble, never accepting the world as he found it, and never wanting to follow his father's path.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, american, political-science, presidents
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-century
479 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster