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| robert dallek an unfinished life: An Unfinished Life Robert Dallek, 2003 An Unfinished Life is the first authoritative single-volume life of John F. Kennedy to be written in nearly four decades. Drawing upon firsthand sources, freshly unearthed documents, and never-before-opened archives, prizewinning historian Robert Dallek reveals more than we ever knew about Jack Kennedy, forever changing the way we think about his life, his presidency, and his legacy. In a tale that stretches back to Ireland, 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 -- including the machinations that got him into the war despite severe disabilities -- and the true details of how Joe was killed, opening the door to Jack's ascendancy. Here is the gripping story of Jack's first political campaigns and his transformation from an awkward speaker to a brilliant politician with irresistible charm. An Unfinished Life explores Jack's work as a senator from Massachusetts, carries us through the fiercely contested 1960 campaign against Nixon, and takes us on to the White House itself. We learn for the first time how and why Bobby was chosen to serve as attorney general, how JFK selected Lyndon Johnson to be vice president, and how they and the rest of Kennedy's team -- Bundy, McNamara, Schlesinger, Sorensen, Rusk, and others -- faced the Bay of Pigs, threats against civil rights activists in the South, the conflict in Laos, the Cuban missile crisis, the struggle for a test ban treaty, and the assassination of Diem. Dallek reveals fascinating new details about each of these challenges and many more, and gives us a picture of Kennedy as a man very much in command of his times -- able, soon after arriving in the Oval Office, to wage a secret war against his own generals when they advocated first use of atomic bombs in situations Kennedy felt certain would lead to an all-out nuclear war. An Unfinished Life also discloses for the very first time that Kennedy 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. Kennedy's ever-worsening health left him propped up by a secret combination of medications throughout his presidency, while behind closed doors he required assistance for even such basic acts as climbing stairs. The revelations about Kennedy's health throughout this biography force a complete reevaluation of Kennedy's reputation and provide a fuller look inside his life and his motivations than has ever before been possible. Robert Dallek has created 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. We meet a young Jackie, follow their courtship, and watch their marriage in public and private. Dallek explores Kennedy's many infidelities, revealing some for the first time ever. An Unfinished Life also gives us a brilliantly detailed portrait of the deep bond between Jack and Bobby, and of their enduringly complicated relationship with their father. Never shying away from Kennedy's weaknesses, Dallek also brilliantly explores his strengths. The result is a full portrait of a bold, brave, human Kennedy, once again a hero. An Unfinished Life is the book Americans have been waiting forty years to read. Now, at long last, we have the definitive biography of Jack Kennedy. Book jacket. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: An Unfinished Life Robert Dallek, 2003 Explores the life of John F Kennedy. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: John F. Kennedy Robert Dallek, 2011-01-04 Robert Dallek's masterful John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life was a number one national bestseller, and it remains the most widely read one-volume biography of the 35th President. Now, in this marvelous short biography of John F. Kennedy, Dallek achieves a miracle of compression, capturing in a small space the essence of his renowned full-length masterpiece. 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. Based upon the definitive biography, John F. Kennedy offers readers a concise, authoritative, and highly readable life of one of our best-loved presidents. Acclaim for John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life: One of the most engrossing biographies I have ever read.... Nothing less than a masterpiece. --David Herbert Donald, author of Lincoln It's hard to believe that someone could find anything new to say about John F. Kennedy, but Dallek succeeds in this riveting and well-documented biography. --The New Yorker An intimate portrait indeed...unexpected and important.... This is nothing if not a profile in courage. --New York Times Book Review |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: An Unfinished Life Robert Dallek, 2003-05-01 Drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives, An Unfinished Life is packed with revelations large and small -- about JFK's health, his love affairs, RFK's appointment as Attorney General, what Joseph Kennedy did to help his son win the White House, and the path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived. Robert 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. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Camelot's Court Robert Dallek, 2013-10-08 Fifty years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls “Kennedy’s leading biographer,” delivers a riveting new portrait of this president and his inner circle of advisors—their rivalries, personality clashes, and political battles. In Camelot’s Court, Dallek analyzes the brain trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy’s administration—including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam—were indelible. Kennedy purposefully put together a dynamic team of advisors noted for their brilliance and acumen, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, and trusted aides Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger. Yet the very traits these men shared also created sharp divisions. Far from being unified, this was an uneasy band of rivals whose ambitions and clashing beliefs ignited fiery internal debates. Robert Dallek illuminates a president deeply determined to surround himself with the best and the brightest, who often found himself disappointed with their recommendations. The result, Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House, is a striking portrait of a leader whose wise resistance to pressure and adherence to principle offers a cautionary tale for our own time. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Lone Star Rising Robert Dallek, 1991 Volume one of a two-volume biography follows Johnson's life from his childhood on the banks of the Pedernales to his election as vice president under Kennedy. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Flawed Giant Robert Dallek, 1998 Lone Star Rising, the first volume in Robert Dallek's biography of LBJ, was hailed as a triumphant portrait of Lyndon Johnson as rich and oversized and complex as the nation that shaped him. Now, in the final volume, Dallek takes us through Johnson's tumultuous years in the White House, hisunprecedented accomplishments there, and the tragic war that would be his downfall. In these pages Johnson emerges as a character of almost Shakespearean dimensions, a man riddled with contradictions, a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing,driven: A tornado in pants. Drawing on hundreds of newly released tapes and extensive interviews with those closest to LBJ--including fresh insights from Ladybird and his press secretary Bill Moyers--Dallek takes us behind the scenes to give us a portrait of Johnson that is at once even-handedand completely engrossing. We see Johnson as the visionary leader who worked his will on Congress like no president before or since, enacting a range of crucial legislation, from Medicare, environmental protection, and the establishment of the National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities to themost significant advances in civil rights for black Americans ever achieved. And we see for the first time the depth of Johnson's private anguish as he became increasingly ensnared in Vietnam, a war he did not want to expand and which destroyed his hopes for The Great Society and a second term. Exhaustively researched and gracefully written, Flawed Giant reveals both the greatness and the tangled complexities of one of the most extravagant characters ever to step onto the presidential stage. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Nixon and Kissinger Robert Dallek, 2009-10-13 The renowned scholar’s epic dual biography of the 37th president and his powerful secretary of state: “A classic work of contemporary American history” (The Los Angeles Times). Working side by side in the White House, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were two of the most compelling, contradictory, and powerful figures in the second half of the twentieth century. While their personalities could hardly have seemed more different, both were largely self-made men, brimming with ambition, driven by their own inner demons, and often ruthless in pursuit of their goals. Tapping into a wealth of recently declassified archives, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger’s tumultuous personal relationship and brilliantly analyzes their shared roles in monumental historical events—including the nightmare of Vietnam, the unprecedented opening to China, détente with the Soviet Union, the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East, the disastrous overthrow of Allende in Chile, and the scandal of Watergate. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Harry S. Truman Robert Dallek, 2008-09-02 The plainspoken man from Missouri who never expected to be president yet rose to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century In April 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the presidency fell to a former haberdasher and clubhouse politician from Independence, Missouri. Many believed he would be overmatched by the job, but Harry S. Truman would surprise them all. Few chief executives have had so lasting an impact. Truman ushered America into the nuclear age, established the alliances and principles that would define the cold war and the national security state, started the nation on the road to civil rights, and won the most dramatic election of the twentieth century—his 1948 whistlestop campaign against Thomas E. Dewey. Robert Dallek, the bestselling biographer of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, shows how this unassuming yet supremely confident man rose to the occasion. Truman clashed with Southerners over civil rights, with organized labor over the right to strike, and with General Douglas MacArthur over the conduct of the Korean War. He personified Thomas Jefferson's observation that the presidency is a splendid misery, but it was during his tenure that the United States truly came of age. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Franklin D. Roosevelt Robert Dallek, 2017-11-02 From the acclaimed author of John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life, the biography of one of America's greatest presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the only American president ever to serve four terms. He came from the highest echelons of American society, and though progressively incapacitated by polio from the age of thirty-nine, never showed the slightest self-pity, refusing to allow the disease to constrain his ambition or his place in public life. During the Depression of the 1930s he became the foremost presidential champion of the needy, instituted the famous New Deal and brought about revolutionary changes in America's social and political institutions. Two years into the Second World War he persuaded Americans that it was their unavoidable duty to fight, and brought about a profound reversal in the country's foreign policy. During that titanic conflict he formed a unique friendship with Winston Churchill, and became the central figure in the Western Alliance. Dallek attributes FDR's success to two remarkable political insights. First, more than any other president, he understood that effectiveness in American politics depended on building a national consensus and commanding stable long-term popular support. Second, he made the presidency the central, most influential institution in modern America's political system. In addressing the country's international and domestic problems, Roosevelt recognized the vital importance of remaining closely attentive to the full range of public sentiment around the decisions made by government-perhaps his most enduring lesson in effective leadership. In an era of national and international division, there could be no more timely biography of America's preeminent twentieth-century leader than one that demonstrates his unparalleled ability as a uniter and consensus maker. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The Lost Peace Robert Dallek, 2010-10-19 Robert Dallek brings to this majestic work a profound understanding of history, a deep engagement in foreign policy, and a lifetime of studying leadership. The story of what went wrong during the postwar period…has never been more intelligently explored. —Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team of Rivals Robert Dalleck follows his bestselling Nixon and Kissenger: Partners in Power and An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 with this masterful account of the crucial period that shaped the postwar world. As the Obama Administration struggles to define its strategy for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dallek's critical and compelling look at Truman, Churchill, Stalin, and other world leaders in the wake of World War II not only offers important historical perspective but provides timely insight on America's course into the future. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Let Every Nation Know Robert Dallek, Terry Golway, 2007-05 Let Every Nation Know is the first book of its kind-a historical biography in Kennedy's own words. Combining a remarkable audio CD of Kennedy's most famous speeches, debates and press conferences with the insights of two of America's preeminent historians, the result is a unique look at the world-changing words and presidency of John F. Kennedy. Robert Dallek, author of the #1 bestselling biography An Unfinished Life, and Terry Golway, author of Washington's General, bring to life the soaring oratory, marvelous wit and the intense drama of Kennedy's words and the events they evoke. I had forgotten just how powerful these speeches were but the CD brings them to life once more and Dallek and Golway have done a masterful job of putting them into context.-Bob Schieffer, CBS News |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Lyndon B. Johnson Robert Dallek, 2004-01-08 Robert Dallek's brilliant two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has received an avalanche of praise. Michael Beschloss, in The Los Angeles Times, said that it succeeds brilliantly. The New York Times called it rock solid and The Washington Post hailed it as invaluable. And Sidney Blumenthal in The Boston Globe wrote that it was dense with astonishing incidents. Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available. Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the human dynamo, from the Texas hill country to the White House. We see LBJ, in the House and the Senate, whirl his way through sixteen- and eighteen-hour days, talking, urging, demanding, reaching for influence and power, in an uncommonly successful congressional career. Then, in the White House, we see Johnson as the visionary leader who worked his will on Congress like no president before or since, enacting a range of crucial legislation, from Medicare and environmental protection to the most significant advances in civil rights for black Americans ever achieved. And we see the depth of Johnson's private anguish as he became increasingly ensnared in Vietnam. In these pages Johnson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven: A tornado in pants. Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: John F. Kennedy Michael O'Brien, 2006-05-16 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. There are many specialized books on Kennedy's career, but no first-class modern biography--one that takes advantage of the huge volume of recent books and articles and new material released by the JFK library. Ten years in the making, this is a balanced and judicious profile that goes beyond the clash of interpretations and offers a fresh, nuanced perspective. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye" Kenneth P. O'Donnell, David F. Powers, 2013-10-01 This classic New York Times bestseller is an illuminating portrait of JFK—from his thrilling rise to his tragic fall—by two of the men who knew him best. As a politician, John Fitzgerald Kennedy crafted a persona that fascinated and inspired millions—and left an outsize legacy in the wake of his murder on November 22, 1963. But only a select few were privy to the complicated man behind the Camelot image. Two such confidants were Kenneth P. O’Donnell, Kennedy’s top political aide, and David F. Powers, a special assistant in the White House. They were among the president’s closest friends, part of an exclusive inner circle that came to be known as the “Irish Mafia.” In Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, O’Donnell and Powers share memories of Kennedy, his extraordinary political career, and his iconic family—memories that could come only from intimate access to the man himself. As they recount the full scope of Kennedy’s journey—from his charismatic first campaign for Congress to his rapid rise to national standing, culminating on that haunting day in Dallas—O’Donnell and Powers lay bare the inner workings of a leader who is cherished and mourned to this day, in a memoir that spent over five months on the New York Times bestseller list. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Jack Kennedy Chris Matthews, 2011 Based on interviews with some of his closest associates, a portrait of the thirty-fifth president discusses his privileged childhood, military service, struggles with a life-threatening disease, and career in politics. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: JFK Fredrik Logevall, 2020-09-08 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. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: A Thousand Days Arthur Meier Schlesinger (Jr.), 1965 The Special Assistant to President Kennedy describes the historic events in which John F. Kennedy participated during his three years in the White House. -- |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image David Greenberg, 2004-10-17 How an image-obsessed president transformed the way we think about politics and politicians. To his conservative supporters in 1940s southern California, Richard Nixon was a populist everyman; to liberal intellectuals of the 1950s, he was Tricky Dick, a devious manipulator; to 1960s radicals, a shadowy conspirator; to the Washington press corps, a pioneering spin doctor; to his loyal Middle Americans, a victim of liberal hatred; to recent historians, an unlikely liberal. Nixon's Shadow rediscovers these competing images of the protean Nixon, showing how each was created and disseminated in American culture and how Nixon's tinkering with his own image often backfired. During Nixon's long tenure on the national stage—and through the succession of new Nixons so brilliantly described here—Americans came to realize how thoroughly politics relies on manipulation. Since Nixon, it has become impossible to discuss politics without asking: What is the politician's real character? How authentic or inauthentic is he? What image is he trying to project? More than what Nixon did, this fascinating book reveals what Nixon meant. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Robert Kennedy Evan Thomas, 2013-02-05 He was Good Bobby, who, as his brother Ted eulogized him, saw wrong and tried to right it . . . saw suffering and tried to heal it. And Bad Bobby, the ruthless and manipulative bully of countless conspiracy theories. Thomas's unvarnished but sympathetic and fair-minded portrayal is packed with new details about Kennedy's early life and his behind-the-scenes machinations, including new revelations about the 1960 and 1968 presidential campaigns, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his long struggles with J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The Kennedy Half-Century Larry J. Sabato, 2014-10-14 An original and illuminating narrative revealing John F. Kennedy's lasting influence on America, by the acclaimed political analyst Larry J. Sabato. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Rendezvous with Destiny Michael Fullilove, 2013-07-03 The remarkable untold story of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the five extraordinary men he used to pull America into World War II In the dark days between Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt sent five remarkable men on dramatic and dangerous missions to Europe. The missions were highly unorthodox and they confounded and infuriated diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic. Their importance is little understood to this day. In fact, they were crucial to the course of the Second World War. The envoys were magnificent, unforgettable characters. First off the mark was Sumner Welles, the chilly, patrician under secretary of state, later ruined by his sexual misdemeanors, who was dispatched by FDR on a tour of European capitals in the spring of 1940. In summer of that year, after the fall of France, William “Wild Bill” Donovan—war hero and future spymaster—visited a lonely United Kingdom at the president’s behest to determine whether she could hold out against the Nazis. Donovan’s report helped convince FDR that Britain was worth backing. After he won an unprecedented third term in November 1940, Roosevelt threw a lifeline to the United Kingdom in the form of Lend-Lease and dispatched three men to help secure it. Harry Hopkins, the frail social worker and presidential confidant, was sent to explain Lend-Lease to Winston Churchill. Averell Harriman, a handsome, ambitious railroad heir, served as FDR’s man in London, expediting Lend-Lease aid and romancing Churchill’s daughter-in-law. Roosevelt even put to work his rumpled, charismatic opponent in the 1940 presidential election, Wendell Willkie, whose visit lifted British morale and won wary Americans over to the cause. Finally, in the aftermath of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Hopkins returned to London to confer with Churchill and traveled to Moscow to meet with Joseph Stalin. This final mission gave Roosevelt the confidence to bet on the Soviet Union. The envoys’ missions took them into the middle of the war and exposed them to the leading figures of the age. Taken together, they plot the arc of America’s trans¬formation from a divided and hesitant middle power into the global leader. At the center of everything, of course, was FDR himself, who moved his envoys around the globe with skill and élan. We often think of Harry S. Truman, George Marshall, Dean Acheson, and George F. Kennan as the authors of America’s global primacy in the second half of the twentieth century. But all their achievements were enabled by the earlier work of Roosevelt and his representatives, who took the United States into the war and, by defeating domestic isolationists and foreign enemies, into the world. In these two years, America turned. FDR and his envoys were responsible for the turn. Drawing on vast archival research, Rendezvous with Destiny is narrative history at its most delightful, stirring, and important. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The Kennedys Richard Avedon, Shannon Thomas Perich, 2007-10-23 An intimate look at the young Kennedy family through photographs taken by the world renowned photographer in the weeks leading up to JFK's 1961 inauguration offers insight into the expectations placed on the family and their interpersonal relationships. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: How Did We Get Here? Robert Dallek, 2020 A veteran American historian looks back at previous presidencies to see how we arrived at our current one. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The Search for JFK Joan Blair, Clay Blair, 1976 |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: JFK in the Senate: Pathway to the Presidency John Shaw, 2013-10-15 Based on newly opened archives, congressional historian and political insider John T. Shaw sheds new light on JFK's term in the Senate |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: JFK's Last Hundred Days Thurston Clarke, 2013-07-16 A Kirkus Best Book of 2013 A revelatory, minute-by-minute account of JFK’s last hundred days that asks what might have been 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. Kennedy’s last hundred days began just after the death of two-day-old Patrick Kennedy, and during this time, the president made strides in the Cold War, civil rights, Vietnam, and his personal life. While Jackie was recuperating, the premature infant and his father were flown to Boston for Patrick’s treatment. Kennedy was holding his son’s hand when Patrick died on August 9, 1963. The loss of his son convinced Kennedy to work harder as a husband and father, and there is ample evidence that he suspended his notorious philandering during these last months of his life. Also in these months Kennedy finally came to view civil rights as a moral as well as a political issue, and after the March on Washington, he appreciated the power of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., for the first time. Though he is often depicted as a devout cold warrior, Kennedy pushed through his proudest legislative achievement in this period, the Limited Test Ban Treaty. This success, combined with his warming relations with Nikita Khrushchev in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, led to a détente that British foreign secretary Sir Alec Douglas- Home hailed as the “beginning of the end of the Cold War.” Throughout his presidency, Kennedy challenged demands from his advisers and the Pentagon to escalate America’s involvement in Vietnam. Kennedy began a reappraisal in the last hundred days that would have led to the withdrawal of all sixteen thousand U.S. military advisers by 1965. JFK’s Last Hundred Days is a gripping account that weaves together Kennedy’s public and private lives, explains why the grief following his assassination has endured so long, and solves the most tantalizing Kennedy mystery of all—not who killed him but who he was when he was killed, and where he would have led us. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Incomparable Grace Mark K. Updegrove, 2022-04-26 An illuminating account of John F. Kennedy’s brief but transformative tenure in the White House, from acclaimed author and historian Mark K. Updegrove, head of the LBJ Foundation and presidential historian for ABC News “Tremendously absorbing and inviting… An important book.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin • “Elegant, concise, [and] knowing.”—Michael Beschloss • “Rescues JFK from Camelot mythology.”—Richard Norton Smith Nearly sixty years after his death, JFK still holds an outsize place in the American imagination. While Baby Boomers remember his dazzling presence as president, millennials more likely know him from advertisements for Omega watches or Ray Ban sunglasses. Yet his years in office were marked by more than his style and elegance. His presidency is a story of a fledgling leader forced to meet unprecedented challenges, and to rise above missteps to lead his nation into a new and hopeful era. Kennedy entered office inexperienced but alluring, his reputation more given by an enamored public than earned through achievement. In this gripping new assessment of his time in the Oval Office, Updegrove reveals how JFK’s first months were marred by setbacks: the botched Bay of Pigs invasions, a disastrous summit with the Soviet premier, and a mismanaged approach to the Civil Rights movement. But the young president soon proved that behind the glamour was a leader of uncommon fortitude and vision. A humbled Kennedy conceded his mistakes, and, importantly for our times, drew important lessons from his failures that he used to right wrongs and move forward undaunted. Indeed, Kennedy grew as president, radiating greater possibility as he coolly faced a steady stream of crises before his tragic end. Incomparable Grace compellingly reexamines the dramatic, consequential White House years of a flawed but gifted leader too often defined by the Camelot myth that came after his untimely death. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Hail to the Chief Robert Dallek, 2001 Dallek offers an engaging and instructive analysis of the presidency, the personalities, and the strategies that led to their triumphs and defeats. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Millard Fillmore: Biography Of A President Robert J. Rayback, 2015-11-06 Professor Robert J. Rayback’s history of Millard Fillmore is still the best biography of the 13th President of the United States. In one of the many unexplained, unfortunate quirks of history, most of the official papers of Fillmore’s administration were destroyed by his son. Scholars have consequently been denied the source material which is so essential to examining and gaining insight into the underlying truth of a Presidency. Regarding Fillmore, the few records that do survive can only be compiled piecemeal, a laborious task which few have had the stamina to undertake. Thus is the historical importance of Robert J. Rayback’s authoritative biography, which gives documented substance to Fillmore and his three years in office. Thoughtful and objective, Rayback’s balanced portrayal lauds Fillmore’s astuteness, as in sending Matthew Perry to open Japan to trade, and assays his faults, such as agreeing to run on the “Know Nothing” ticket in 1856. We see, as John Lord O’Brian, former regent of the University of the State of New York noted, “a devoted patriot who in all activities sought guidance from his own conscience during the critical events of the mid-nineteenth century.” Julius Pratt of the University of Buffalo concludes from the book that “without Fillmore there could have been no Lincoln.”-Print ed. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The Matriarch Susan Page, 2019-04-02 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER [The] rare biography of a public figure that's not only beautifully written, but also shockingly revelatory. -- The Atlantic A vivid biography of former First Lady Barbara Bush, one of the most influential and under-appreciated women in American political history. Barbara Pierce Bush was one of the country's most popular and powerful figures, yet her full story has never been told. THE MATRIARCH tells the riveting tale of a woman who helped define two American presidencies and an entire political era. Written by USA TODAY's Washington Bureau chief Susan Page, this biography is informed by more than one hundred interviews with Bush friends and family members, hours of conversation with Mrs. Bush herself in the final six months of her life, and access to her diaries that spanned decades. THE MATRIARCH examines not only her public persona but also less well-known aspects of her remarkable life. As a girl in Rye, New York, Barbara Bush weathered criticism of her weight from her mother, barbs that left lifelong scars. As a young wife, she coped with the death of her three-year-old daughter from leukemia, a loss that changed her forever. In middle age, she grappled with depression so serious that she contemplated suicide. And as first the wife and then the mother of American presidents, she made history as the only woman to see -- and advise -- both her husband and son in the Oval Office. As with many women of her era, Barbara Bush was routinely underestimated, her contributions often neither recognized nor acknowledged. But she became an astute and trusted political campaign strategist and a beloved First Lady. She invested herself deeply in expanding literacy programs in America, played a critical role in the end of the Cold War, and led the way in demonstrating love and compassion to those with HIV/AIDS. With her cooperation, this book offers Barbara Bush's last words for history -- on the evolution of her party, on the role of women, on Donald Trump, and on her family's legacy. Barbara Bush's accomplishments, struggles, and contributions are many. Now, Susan Page explores them all in THE MATRIARCH, a groundbreaking book certain to cement Barbara Bush as one of the most unique and influential women in American history. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: John F. Kennedy on Leadership John A. Barnes, 2007 Today's business leaders have much in common with President Kennedy. They face monumental decisions in unpredictable times; their actions have implications far beyond their own organizations; and they are judged mercilessly and incessantly by both their constituents and the media. Professionals, then, would do well to study the leadership traits that made Kennedy one of the most respected, beloved, and influential world leaders in modern history. John F. Kennedy on Leadership analyzes what made Kennedy, both before and during his Presidency, a unique and dominant force who would serve as the standard by which future leaders would be judged. Readers will learn the value of: * Planning and decision making: Consult widely, then act. * Crisis management: Don't let events manage you. * Building a team: Find your own Bobby. * Independence: Don't follow the crowd. * Mistakes: Learn from them and move on. This timely (and timeless) book will be of interest to anyone involved in leadership. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Building the Great Society Joshua Zeitz, 2019-01-29 The author of Lincoln's Boys takes us inside Lyndon Johnson's White House to show how the legendary Great Society programs were actually put into practice: Team of Rivals for LBJ. The personalities behind every burst of 1960s liberal reform - from civil rights and immigration reform, to Medicare and Head Start. Absorbing, and astoundingly well-researched -- all good historians do their homework, but Zeitz goes above and beyond. It's a more than worthwhile addition to the canon of books about Johnson.--NPR Beautifully written...a riveting portrait of LBJ... Every officeholder in Washington would profit from reading this book. --Robert Dallek, Author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 and Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life LBJ's towering political skills and his ambitious slate of liberal legislation are the stuff of legend: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and environmental reform. But what happened after the bills passed? One man could not and did not go it alone. Joshua Zeitz reanimates the creative and contentious atmosphere inside Johnson's White House as a talented and energetic group of advisers made LBJ's vision a reality. They desegregated public and private institutions throughout one third of the United States; built Medicare and Medicaid from the ground up in one year; launched federal funding for public education; provided food support for millions of poor children and adults; and launched public television and radio, all in the space of five years, even as Vietnam strained the administration's credibility and budget. Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Joe Califano, Harry McPherson and the other staff members who comprised LBJ's inner circle were men as pragmatic and ambitious as Johnson, equally skilled in the art of accumulating power or throwing a sharp elbow. Building the Great Society is the story of how one of the most competent White House staffs in American history - serving one of the most complicated presidents ever to occupy the Oval Office - fundamentally changed everyday life for millions of citizens and forged a legacy of compassionate and interventionist government. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Bill Clinton Nigel Hamilton, 2011-06-08 Nigel Hamilton brings all the magisterial authority he brought to his Whitbread-winning biography of Monty, and all the talent for tracking down and verifying hidden, controversial material that he showed in JFK: Reckless Youth, which topped the American bestseller charts for months, in this new biography of Bill Clinton. Born into a 'white trash' family in backwoods, racially segregated Arkansas, he suffered under an alcoholic, violent stepfather, on one occasion having to fight him physically in order to protect his mother. As a youth he would become inspired by the civil rights movement, particularly Martin Luther King, and as a student became a long-haired hippy musician, involved in radical politics and also discovering free love. Hamilton tells the story of how Clinton's sexual and political career developed hand in hand. This is a book about sexual politics on many levels, showing how Clinton's life was formed by changing attitudes. Here is a man who, far from being a sexual predator or exploiter of his position - like JFK - was swept to power because women adored him, whether Democratic party helpers, the women of the American electorate - or indeed Hilary Clinton, whose powerfully manipulative personality is shown to have been vital to his success,. Clinton has been polygamous throughout his adult life, and Hamilton's fascinating portrait of a marriage examines Hilary's relationship with his quite astonishing number of girlfriends. The book also covers his time at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, his political apprenticeship and his rise to power, culminating in his election as President in '92. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The Irish Brotherhood Helen O'Donnell, Kenneth O'Donnell, Sr., 2016-03-15 The Irish Brotherhood is the history of Jack Kennedy's original political inner circle. Led by Bobby Kennedy, Kenny O'Donnell, Larry O'Brien, and Dave Powers they were tough minded, Irish–Catholic guys who were joined together by a common ambition to see Jack Kennedy through to the White House. War veterans who were young, ambitious, and they wanted their country back. Jack Kennedy was their man, their leader. No matter that he was Irish, Catholic, and his Old Man had made as many enemies as friends—Jack had ambition, brains, a special charisma. To win the White House would be a victory not only for Jack Kennedy, but for the downtrodden. They collectively decided that if the political powers would not let them in willingly then they would kick the door down. At the center of the story is Kenny O'Donnell, Jack Kennedy's tough talking, no–bullshit, top political aide. Jack recognized he needed Kenny's blue collar, political genius and Kenny recognized something special in Jack. The Irish Brotherhood describes what it was like to be inside the Kennedy inner circle. With Bobby, who was determined to make his own mark apart from his famous family, his life–long struggle, never won, never lost. With Joe, as Kenny and Larry prove to him that their outsider approach was going to work after Jack's crushing victory in '58, which sets the stage for the Presidential campaign to come. This book is a missing piece of the story of the improbable rise to power of John F. Kennedy and further fills out the picture of the man revealing that Jack Kennedy was at heart a politician. He enjoyed the rough and tumble and despite his personal issues, or perhaps because of them, he became determined to succeed beyond anybody's expectations. It is intriguing an indelible portrait of the son, brother, friend, Congressman, Senator and President. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: The American Presidency Robert Dallek, 2003-01-01 Looks at the strengths and weaknesses of each president as well as at the times in which they served. Examines the office of the president, how it has developed, and how it has shaped the America and the modern world. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945 Robert Dallek, 1981 Studie over de door de Amerikaanse president gevoerde buitenlandse politiek vóór en tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Blind over Cuba David M. Barrett, Max Holland, 2012-09-01 In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, questions persisted about how the potential cataclysm had been allowed to develop. A subsequent congressional investigation focused on what came to be known as the “photo gap”: five weeks during which intelligence-gathering flights over Cuba had been attenuated. In Blind over Cuba, David M. Barrett and Max Holland challenge the popular perception of the Kennedy administration’s handling of the Soviet Union’s surreptitious deployment of missiles in the Western Hemisphere. Rather than epitomizing it as a masterpiece of crisis management by policy makers and the administration, Barrett and Holland make the case that the affair was, in fact, a close call stemming directly from decisions made in a climate of deep distrust between key administration officials and the intelligence community. Because of White House and State Department fears of “another U-2 incident” (the infamous 1960 Soviet downing of an American U-2 spy plane), the CIA was not permitted to send surveillance aircraft on prolonged flights over Cuban airspace for many weeks, from late August through early October. Events proved that this was precisely the time when the Soviets were secretly deploying missiles in Cuba. When Director of Central Intelligence John McCone forcefully pointed out that this decision had led to a dangerous void in intelligence collection, the president authorized one U-2 flight directly over western Cuba—thereby averting disaster, as the surveillance detected the Soviet missiles shortly before they became operational. The Kennedy administration recognized that their failure to gather intelligence was politically explosive, and their subsequent efforts to influence the perception of events form the focus for this study. Using recently declassified documents, secondary materials, and interviews with several key participants, Barrett and Holland weave a story of intra-agency conflict, suspicion, and discord that undermined intelligence-gathering, adversely affected internal postmortems conducted after the crisis peaked, and resulted in keeping Congress and the public in the dark about what really happened. Fifty years after the crisis that brought the superpowers to the brink, Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis offers a new chapter in our understanding of that pivotal event, the tensions inside the US government during the cold war, and the obstacles Congress faces when conducting an investigation of the executive branch. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: American Moonshot Douglas Brinkley, 2019-04-02 Instant New York Times Bestseller As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit. |
| robert dallek an unfinished life: Hanging Captain Gordon Ron Soodalter, 2010-05-11 On a frosty day in February 1862, hundreds gathered to watch the execution of Nathaniel Gordon. Two years earlier, Gordon had taken Africans in chains from the Congo -- a hanging offense for more than forty years that no one had ever enforced. But with the country embroiled in a civil war and Abraham Lincoln at the helm, a sea change was taking place. Gordon, in the wrong place at the wrong time, got caught up in the wave. For the first time, Hanging Captain Gordon chronicles the trial and execution of the only man in history to face conviction for slave trading -- exploring the many compelling issues and circumstances that led to one man paying the price for a crime committed by many. Filled with sharply drawn characters, Soodalter's vivid account sheds light on one of the more shameful aspects of our history and provides a link to similar crimes against humanity still practiced today. |
Robert - Wikipedia
Robert I of Normandy a.k.a. Robert the Magnificent The name Robert was a royal name in France, Germany, Scotland and England during the medieval period, and was the name of …
Meaning, origin and history of the name Robert
Oct 6, 2024 · From the Germanic name Hrodebert meaning "bright fame", derived from the elements hruod "fame" and beraht "bright". The Normans introduced this name to Britain, …
Robert: Name Meaning, Origin, Popularity - Parents
May 28, 2024 · Robert is an old German name that means “bright fame.” It’s taken from the old German name Hrodebert. The name is made up of two elements: hrod which means "fame" …
Robert Name: Origin, Popularity, Hebrew, Biblical, & Spiritual …
Nov 15, 2023 · Robert offers a compelling combination of historical significance, distinguished origins, and widespread recognition. Its meaning of “bright fame” speaks to the potential for …
Robert Name Meaning, Origin, History, And Popularity
Aug 26, 2024 · The name Robert is associated with a rich history and enduring popularity that spans centuries and several cultures. It is a masculine given name that derives its origin from …
Robert - Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity
Jun 5, 2025 · The name Robert is a boy's name of German, English origin meaning "bright fame". Robert was the Number 1 boys' name in the US in both 1925 and 1950, and in fact was in the …
Robert: Name Meaning, Origin, & Popularity - FamilyEducation
Jan 21, 2025 · What does Robert mean and stand for? Meaning: English: Bright fame; Germanic: Famed, bright, shining; Gender: Male. Syllables: 2. Pronunciation: The name Robert is …
Robert: meaning, origin, and significance explained
Meaning: The name Robert is of English origin and carries the meaning of “Bright Fame.” It is a classic and timeless name that has been popular for centuries. Those named Robert are often …
Robert - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
May 12, 2025 · From Anglo-Norman Robert, from the Old Frankish cognate of Old High German Hrodperht (normalised form: Ruodberht), from Proto-West Germanic *Hrōþiberht, from Proto …
Robert: Name Meaning, Popularity and Info on BabyNames.com
6 days ago · What is the meaning of the name Robert? The name Robert is primarily a male name of English origin that means Bright Fame. Robert Redford, actor/director. Robert …
Robert - Wikipedia
Robert I of Normandy a.k.a. Robert the Magnificent The name Robert was a royal name in France, Germany, Scotland and England during the medieval period, and was the name of …
Meaning, origin and history of the name Robert
Oct 6, 2024 · From the Germanic name Hrodebert meaning "bright fame", derived from the elements hruod "fame" and beraht "bright". The Normans introduced this name to Britain, …
Robert: Name Meaning, Origin, Popularity - Parents
May 28, 2024 · Robert is an old German name that means “bright fame.” It’s taken from the old German name Hrodebert. The name is made up of two elements: hrod which means "fame" …
Robert Name: Origin, Popularity, Hebrew, Biblical, & Spiritual …
Nov 15, 2023 · Robert offers a compelling combination of historical significance, distinguished origins, and widespread recognition. Its meaning of “bright fame” speaks to the potential for …
Robert Name Meaning, Origin, History, And Popularity
Aug 26, 2024 · The name Robert is associated with a rich history and enduring popularity that spans centuries and several cultures. It is a masculine given name that derives its origin from …
Robert - Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity
Jun 5, 2025 · The name Robert is a boy's name of German, English origin meaning "bright fame". Robert was the Number 1 boys' name in the US in both 1925 and 1950, and in fact was in the …
Robert: Name Meaning, Origin, & Popularity - FamilyEducation
Jan 21, 2025 · What does Robert mean and stand for? Meaning: English: Bright fame; Germanic: Famed, bright, shining; Gender: Male. Syllables: 2. Pronunciation: The name Robert is …
Robert: meaning, origin, and significance explained
Meaning: The name Robert is of English origin and carries the meaning of “Bright Fame.” It is a classic and timeless name that has been popular for centuries. Those named Robert are often …
Robert - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
May 12, 2025 · From Anglo-Norman Robert, from the Old Frankish cognate of Old High German Hrodperht (normalised form: Ruodberht), from Proto-West Germanic *Hrōþiberht, from Proto …
Robert: Name Meaning, Popularity and Info on BabyNames.com
6 days ago · What is the meaning of the name Robert? The name Robert is primarily a male name of English origin that means Bright Fame. Robert Redford, actor/director. Robert …
