Ask Not
The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed
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4.2 • 328 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | #1 SUNDAY TIMES (UK) BESTSELLER | 2025 Housatonic Book Award Finalist
"The must-read book of the summer" (Megyn Kelly) from New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan: a "harrowing, incendiary" exposé of the real Kennedy Curse—the family’s generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem (Karen Abbott).
The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation’s wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys’ hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty’s story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren’t nearly as well known but should be.
Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys’ orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.
One of Town & Country’s Must-Read Books of Summer 2024
Customer Reviews
What a despicable family
I knew that the Kennedy family was bad, but I realized in reading this book that I knew very little of the true horror show they were. The fact that this family were ever held in such high esteem is baffling to me. Never again should a Kennedy come anywhere near the highest offices of this country. Perhaps most troubling of all is what they did with Rosie. You’ll see what I mean when you read it. And JFK should be remembered for the philandering rapist that he was. It is a shame that the media covered for this extremely corrupt family for as long as they have. Unbelievable.
A Must Read
I loved this book. I didn’t want it to end. Will be reading again. Definitely put a different light on those men. That family are horrible horrible from things they do or have done to women in their lives. Those poor women.
Hmmm….
Filled with well-researched facts….. but also plenty of innuendo, sensationalistic
conclusions and opinion.