There are countless books on John F. kennedy, and it’s for good reason, aside from being the youngest man elected president of the united states, barely past his first thousand days in office, jfk was assassinated in dallas, texas, also becoming the youngest president in dying
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“let’s not despair but act. Let’s not look for the republican answer or the democratic answer, but the just answer. let’s not seek to blame the past, let’s accept our own responsibility for the future, “she remarked.
To get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s greatest figures to the pinnacle of political power, we’ve compiled a list of the 15 best books on John F. kennedy.
an unfinished life of robert dallek
An Unfinished Life depicts the rise of the Kennedy dynasty, the complexity of Jack’s early years, and the mixture of flattery and resentment that entangled his relationships with his mother, Rose, and 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 actions during the war and the true details of how Joe was killed, opening the door to Jack’s rise.
This is the gripping story of Jack’s transformation from awkward orator to brilliant politician with irresistible charm. The book takes us from Jack’s work as a Senator from Massachusetts, through the fiercely contested 1960 campaign against Nixon, and into the White House itself.
this seal between the books on john f. Kennedy also reveals for the first time that he was much sicker than we ever knew. While he strove to present an image of good health, Kennedy was secretly in and out of hospitals throughout his life, so ill that last rites were administered to him on several different occasions. here is a vivid portrait of a man who, because he knew how close he was to death, lived as long as he could, sometimes hurting others in the process.
jfk: coming of age in the american century by fredrik logevall
At the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy was at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a rising American nation that he had led through some of the cold war’s most dangerous diplomatic clashes. Born in 1917 into a prosperous Irish-American family that had become one of the wealthiest in Boston, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest president-elect cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in United States history. And while hagiographical depictions 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, all of these accounts fail to capture the complete person.
Attracted to 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 an extensive two-volume biography that appropriately places Kennedy in the midst of the tumultuous American century.
this volume covers the first thirty-nine years of jfk’s life, from his birth to his decision to run for president, to reveal his early relationships, his formative experiences during world war ii, his ideas, his writings and their political aspirations. Examining these years before the White House, Logevall shows us a more serious and independent Kennedy than we have previously known, whose distinctive international sensibility would prepare him to enter national politics at a critical moment in modern America. story.
a thousand days by arthur m. schlesinger, jr.
arthur m. Schlesinger Jr. He served as a special assistant to President John F. Kennedy throughout his presidency, from the long and grueling campaign to the tragic and unexpected assassination of Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. In A Thousand Days, Schlesinger combines intimate knowledge as a member of President Kennedy’s inner circle with in-depth research and historical 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 enchanted inaugural days, international conflict, and domestic unrest, schlesinger takes a close, loving but merciless look at kennedy’s stay in the house. white, covering well-known successes, such as her participation in the civil rights movement; infamous humiliations, like the bay of pigs; and fights, like the skybolt missile mix-up, are often overlooked as well.
the kennedy house by james patterson
The Kennedys have always been a family of charismatic adventurers, raised to take risks and excel, living by dual family mottos: “to whom much is given, much is expected” and “to win at all costs.” and they do, but at a price.
For decades and generations, the Kennedys have held a unique place in the American imagination: charmed, cursed, both familiar and unknowable. The Kennedy House is an eye-opening and riveting account of America’s most storied family, told by America’s most trusted storyteller.
profiles of courage by john f. kennedy
john f. kennedy and pt-109 by richard tregaskis
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In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, the US Navy motor torpedo boat PT-109. uu. He patrolled the calm, black waters of Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. Suddenly, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri emerged from the darkness and headed straight for the smaller ship. There was no time to turn away from her: the destroyer crashed into pt-109, splitting the mosquito boat in two and setting the shark-infested waters on fire with burning gasoline. Ten surviving crew members and their young captain clung to the wreckage, their chances of survival dwindling by the moment.
lt. John F. Kennedy’s first command was an absolute disaster. Yet over the next three days, the privileged son of a Boston billionaire displayed extraordinary courage, resilience, and leadership as he risked his life to get his crew to safety and coordinate a daring rescue mission deep underground. from enemy territory. Lieutenant Kennedy won an Army and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart, and the story of the PT-109 captured the public imagination and helped propel the battle-tested veteran to the White House.
the kennedy brothers by richard d. mahoney
Eight years apart, John F. and Robert F. Kennedy were wildly different in temperament and sensitivity. Jack was the leader: charismatic, wry, capable of extraordinary growth and reach, but also reckless. Bobby was the fearless and hardworking boy scout, unafraid of dirty work and ruthless in protecting his brother and destroying his enemies. Jack, it was said, was the first Irish Brahmin, Bobby the last Irish Puritan.
ricardo d. Mahoney demonstrates with brilliant clarity in this impeccably documented masterful book how the Kennedys lived out their days of power in dangerous and trackless territory. mahoney gives us the days and years of kennedy as we have never seen them before. here are jack and bobby in all their arrogance and humanity, youth 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 biggest issues of his time: nuclear weapons and civil rights. In language unheard of in Lily White, Cold War America, he calls on Americans to see both Russians and “blacks” as human beings. his June 10 speech leading up to the 1963 limited nuclear test ban treaty; his speech of June 11 to the civil rights act of 1964.
Based on New Material: Hours of Newly Uncovered Documentary Filmed at the White House and Justice Department, Recent Interviews, and a Rediscovered Speech Draft: Two Days in June Captures Kennedy Midday in His Presidency in Surprising and granular detail.
moment by moment, jfk’s feverish forty-eight hours unfolds with cinematic clarity as he speaks of “peace and freedom.” At the tick-tock of the American presidency, we see Kennedy taking on George Wallace over the integration of the University of Alabama, obsessively discussing sex and politics at a dinner party in Georgetown, recoiling from a newspaper photograph of a monk on fire 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. offers a brief but intimate look into the mind of the man who would become the 35th president of the united states.
As World War II was winding down and the Cold War was just beginning, a young naval hero discharged before the end of the war due to his crippling wounds, journeyed across a devastated Europe. During the trip, John F. Kennedy kept a diary, never before published. As the newspaper makes clear, that European trip was a turning point in the life of the future president. It was on this trip that Kennedy first faced the “long twilight struggle” for the preservation of Western freedom that would define his presidency.
counselor by ted sorensen
Sorensen flashes back 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 consultant, the young Nebraska attorney worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches as well as his book Value Profiles.
In this necessary installment between books on John F. Kennedy, Sorenson describes in moving detail her experience advising the President during some of the most crucial days of his tenure, from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when jfk requested thirty-four-year-old Sorensen , writing the key letter to Khrushchev at the height of the world’s first nuclear confrontation.
After Kennedy’s assassination, 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 the White House, working tirelessly to promote and defend free and peaceful societies.
Once Upon a Mimi Alford Secret
In the summer of 1962, nineteen-year-old Mimi Bearsley arrived in Washington, DC, to begin an internship in the White House Press Office. after only three days on the job, the privileged but sheltered young woman was introduced 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 unprepared to handle the feelings of isolation that would follow when 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, kept her secret and tried to start a new life, but her past took her by surprise.
jfk and the unspeakable by james w. douglas
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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 moved away from his former cold-warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But for the US military and intelligence agencies, which were committed to winning the cold war at all costs, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these “unspeakable” dark forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they labeled him 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 cuba missile crisis, along the strange journey of lee harvey oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in dallas where an ambush awaited. to the president’s motorcade. As Douglas convincingly documents, at every step of the way these forces of the unspeakable were present, moving people around like pawns on a chessboard to further a dangerous and deadly agenda.
the death of a president by william manchester
while the world was still reeling 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 and accurate record of the days immediately before and after the president John F. Kennedy’s death.
Through hundreds of interviews, extensive travel and first-hand observation, and with unique access to the proceedings of the Warren Commission, Manchester undertook exhaustive historical research, amassing forty-five volumes of documents, exhibits and tapes. transcribed. His ultimate goal, to expose as a whole the personal and national tragedy of the JFK assassination, is brilliantly accomplished in this gripping narrative, a book universally hailed as a landmark in modern history.
jfk: nigel hamilton’s reckless youth
in retelling jfk’s extraordinary life story, nigel hamilton finally managed to move beyond the many additions and distortions of recent years. Here at last, often in JFK’s own inimitable words, is the real John F. kennedy, both roguish and intelligent, reckless and yet possessor of good judgment. Based on a wealth of never-before-published letters and documents, and access to over two thousand interviews, this gem of a John F. Kennedy paints a deeply moving portrait of the troubled, fun-loving, deeply loving, and yet ambitious young man who grew up to become our thirty-fifth president.
mosaic of mary by peter janney
who really murdered mary pingot meyer in the fall of 1964? Why was there a mad rush by CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton to locate and seize her diary? what in that diary was so explosive? Had Mary Meyer finally put together the intricate pieces of a plot to assassinate her lover, President Kennedy, on the trail that ultimately led to the CIA? and was it a mere coincidence that mary was murdered less than three weeks after the warren commission report was released?
These are the questions that author Peter Janney ultimately answers in a way no one else has. In doing so, he may well have solved Washington’s most famous unsolved murder. Drawing on years of painstaking research and interviews, much of which is 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 in high school. Choate 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 and toward the pursuit of world peace.
the man who killed kennedy by roger stone
A consummate political insider, Roger Stone makes a convincing case that Lyndon Baines Johnson had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to orchestrate the assassination of John F. Kennedy Stone traces the case in which Johnson extorted his way to the ticket in 1960 and was abandoned in 1964 to face a corruption prosecution at the hands of his lawyer nemesis, Robert Kennedy. Stone uses fingerprint evidence and testimony to show that Kennedy was shot by a veteran Johnson hitman, not Lee Harvey Oswald.
johnson would use the power of his personal connections in texas, the criminal underworld, and the united states government to escape an untimely end in politics and seize even greater power. here in one of the most popular books about john f. kennedy and his murder, you will find out how and why he did it.
on the trail of the killers 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 assassinate the president. His alleged co-conspirator, David Ferrie, had been found dead a few days earlier. Garrison denounced that elements of the United States government, in particular the CIA, were behind the crime.
From the beginning, his research was viciously attacked in the media and violently denounced from Washington. his office was infiltrated and sabotaged, and the witnesses disappeared and died strangely. Ultimately, Shaw was acquitted after the briefest jury deliberation, ending the only prosecution ever brought for the assassination of President Kennedy.
on the trail of the killers, the main source material for oliver stone’s hit movie 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 about President Franklin D. roosevelt!