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The Kennedys: An American Drama Paperback – January 1, 2002


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The Kennedys: An American Drama + The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family + America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 522 pages
  • Publisher: Encounter Books (January 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1893554317
  • ISBN-13: 978-1893554313
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #883,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is a hypnotically fascinating narrative that Peter Collier and David Horowitz have put together...An irresistible epic." -- New York Times

"It's a saga for sure, but between these covers, the mythology of the name is blown away." -- Forbes

"This epic eloquently and devastatingly chronicles the star-crossed dynasty..." -- Newsweek

About the Author

David Horowitz is the author of Radical Son, The Politics of Bad Faith, Left Illusions, and other books. He is the President of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture in Los Angeles, California.

Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful By Vincent Poirier on May 18, 2005
Format: Paperback
Well written and engaging, the book surveys three generations of Kennedys over four sections, beginning with how Joseph Patrick Kennedy shaped his family and gave his sons a calling (Architect of Their Lives) then moves on to how his sons Jack and Bobby developed their public careers following Joe, Jr.'s death in WWII (The Stand In) then moving to the peak Kennedy years of Jack's Presidency and Bobby's campaign (Brothers Within). The drama ends as both a sad farce describing Teddy's troubles and as a tragedy invading the lives of the lost generation of Kennedy children (The Lost Boys).

The book centers, as did the family, around the elder Joseph Kennedy and his wife, the queenly Rose Fitzgerald. JPK's generosity and his sincerity surprise the reader given his raw ambition, his selfishness, his manipulation of people, his womanizing, and his incompetence as a diplomat. All this was equaled only by his talent as a business man and in the end surpassed by his devotion as a father. On the other hand, Rose comes off rather dry and unappealing, which is a little difficult to believe given that she had nine children.

A disturbing revelation of the book was how high on drugs (usually prescribed) Jack was during his presidency. His awful health mandated pain killers and other drug therapies to allow him to function, but at the same time must have affected his judgment and his ability to work. Given the confrontational character of the Kennedys, one shudders to think of how badly the Cuban crisis could have turned out.

I have two strong criticism of the book.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful By A Customer on August 11, 2001
Format: Paperback
I disagree with what BOTH of the reviewers below have written about this book. In my opinion, "The Kennedys" doesn't fairly or unfairly "bash" the Kennedys - it just tells the story of this remarkable New England family as it really was - without the hype, romanticism, or nitpicking that their critics and admirers have done to them over the years. Relying upon extensive interviews (some of which had never been done until Collier and Horowitz did them) this book starts out by telling of the rise to fame and fortune of the "Founding Father", Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969). It was "old Joe" who ruthlessly yet cleverly built the family's vast fortune, and did so by bootlegging whiskey during Prohibition, making early Hollywood films (and having a not-so-secret extramarital affair with the actress Gloria Swanson, which his wife ignored), and other legal and not-so-legal methods. Horowitz and Collier were among the first biographers of the Kennedy family to point out Joe's almost-complete domination of his male children, and his relentless pressure on them to excel, to "win" at everything they did, even if it was just a "friendly" sailboat race. The Kennedys were never supposed to lose at anything, and Joe made his large family into a kind of tribal, "us-against-them" clan with its' own rules and traditions. The middle section of the book follows the Kennedy boys as they attempt to fulfill their father's expections. Some encounter tragedy, such as the family's "golden boy" Joe, Jr. who was killed in a suicidal mission over England in World War Two. JFK and Bobby then enter politics and the familiar "Camelot" story is exposed as the sometimes-successful, sometimes-not affair that it really was.Read more ›
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful By M. Buisman on April 8, 2005
Format: Paperback
One of the first things you will see are family-trees at the beginning of every part, where you can see all the members of the family, their children and their birth- and deathdates. Unfortunately for the Kennedy family many died prematurely, as is well recognized.

Most Kennedy books will be focused on John F and his brother Robert F who were both shot. But in this book they still play main parts, but not the only ones. The book starts when the Kennedy's, and Fitzgeralds, came to America and how they quickly rose in first Boston and later American society, even though they had one big disadvantage; they were Irish.

JFK's grandfather Honey Fitz became mayor of Boston by using the Irish vote. Joe Kennedy Sr. started out selling newspapers but was soon a movie producer, even having an alleged affair with movie star Gloria Swanson, something his sons would later copy with Marylin Monroe of course.

Then came the biggest move in Joe Kennedy's life; he became Ambassador in England under Roosevelt, with whom he had a somewhat strained relationship. He would ever since be referred to as the Ambassador, even in his own family.

Collier and Horowitz make it clear that the Ambassador is the most important member of the Kennedy family and that every child's actions are in some way related to him. The story is sometimes a little TV-movie sentimental, but whould would you do if you lose 4 children when you are still alive. The oldest son Joe dies in a WWII plane crash, his oldest daughter marries but loses her noble husband soon and dies herself in a plane crash a few months later.

And of course there are the deaths of JFK and RFK.

It's certainly not a hagiography telling how great the Kennedy's were.
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