Customer Reviews

John F. Kennedy: His Life and Legacy

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This is a well-written, child-focused account of the life and times of John F. Kennedy. It is an excellent starting point from which to launch the interest of young ones in recent history generally and the American presidency in particular.

I took a punt and purchased this book for my young son direct from Amazon (sans ANY customer reviews). Over the years he has become increasingly aware of my library of Kennedy books and has voiced some interest in obtaining a suitable biography (preferably less than 300+footnotes pages] from which to decide what all the fuss is about.

Three quarters of the way through reading this book the boy's view is that JFK's "life is like one huge adventure. You never know what's going to happen next."

And isn't that the sheer joy of history - discovering that real life is actually far more mesmorising than any fiction?

Ever since the boy started reading this book I've been peppered with questions ranging from (albeit less succinctly stated than here) how the American electoral process differs from Australia's, the historical effect of the Irish Catholic-Protestant divide in the US and how that played out in public life, to the reasons for World War II and why America (and the rest of us in the Western world) permitted the carving up of Europe in its wake (not at all easy to explain), the basis of the West's fear of communism and whether it was justified (particularly relevant in these post 9/11 days) - and these have been some of the easier queries I've faced so far. No doubt there are many more to come.

This is, of course, a book oriented towards children. It does not go into the gutter - although it certainly doesn't pretend that JFK was perfect (which is why I hadn't bothered giving my son some of the "young adult" biographies printed in the immediate days of JFK's death that were already in the library).

What this book does achieve is to provide what those truly interested in history hope for - an engaging tale of a real man (whom we follow from boyhood, youth to adult), with lots of interesting and relevant information for today's younger ones who so long for real life heroes, warts and all (as distinct from fictional creations) by which to measure themselves and their developing ideals and from whom to learn lessons (good and bad) from real life.