The Letters of John F. Kennedy
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
John Fitzgerald Kennedy led his nation for little more than a thousand days, yet his presidency is intensely remembered, not merely as a byproduct of his tragic fate. Kennedy steered the nation away from the brink of nuclear war, initiated the first nuclear test ban treaty, created the Peace Corps, and launched American on its mission to the moon and beyond. JFK inspired a nation, particularly the massive generation of baby boomers, injecting hope and revitalizing faith in the American project.
2013 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Kennedy's untimely death, a milestone to be marked by an avalanche of new books on his life and importance. Martin Sandler's The Letters of John F. Kennedy will stand out among them, as the only book that draws on letters from and to Kennedy, as collected at the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Drawn from more than two million letters on file at the library--many never before published--this project presents readers with a portrait of both Kennedy the politician and Kennedy the man, as well as the times he lived in.
Letters to and from the likes of Martin Luther King Jr, Clare Booth Luce, Pearl Buck, John Wayne, Albert Schweitzer, Linus Pauling, Willy Brandt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nikita Khruschev, Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover, a young John Kerry, and Ngo Dinh Diem are complemented by letters from ordinary citizens, schoolchildren, and concerned Americans. Each letter will accompanied by lively and informative contextualization. Facsimiles of many letters will appear, along with photographs and other visual ephemera from the Kennedy Library and Museum.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schooled by Eleanor Roosevelt and questioned by frantic Baptists, the young Catholic senator's candidacy and fast-paced presidency are documented by a diverse collection of letters, including those from unabashed schoolchildren, leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham, world leaders like Winston Churchill, and the Japanese captain who rammed into his PT-109 patrol boat during WWII. Sandler (Kennedy Through the Lens) primarily focuses on the positive, and on correspondence illuminating Kennedy's positions on controversial matters sidestepping his extramarital activities but contributing to conspiracy theories while framing the dialogue with concise, informative descriptions to provide context. While Harry Truman's plainspoken support still entertains, it's Kennedy's replies to numerous school children that reveal both heart and humor even as he deals with civil rights, space missions, nuclear proliferation, and Vietnam. Most substantive are the increasingly relaxed communications between Kennedy and Krushchev until the sudden, tense missives spanning the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sandler humanizes the near-mythical president through his own eloquent words in a way that both academics and casual readers will appreciate. B&w illus.
