This book is a personal memoir by the author who served in the White House during the Kennedy years. As stated, "this book deals largely with foreign afairs and only occasionally records President Kennedy's intense feeling about his own country and his deep desire to improve the quality of and opportunity in the United States".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Mr. Schlesinger treats the Kennedy Administration in a time before Kennedy bashing was fashionable. He is certainly biased in the other direction; however, with all the negative information coming out recently, this is a good counterweight. There is much information and much insight, despite a slant. The inner workings of the Administartion become clear, and we are spared the stifling obsession with the President's personal life we often face in more recent accounts. We hear from a man who was intimately involved with the events he describes. Mr. Schlesinger does tend to see the positive side of events, but this does not prevent him from admitting his and others' mistakes. This is the definitive Kennedy history.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The value of A Thousand Days is self-apparent to anyone who has ever attempted to seriously examine the Kennedy administration.
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., with an undeniably skilled pen and an exhaustive eye for detail, compiled one of the most thorough accounts of the Kennedy administration. I don't see how it could be that surprising, at this point in time, that participants in an administration generally tend to write books that view their president in a favorable light. Is anyone really that shocked?
Did he take an interest in JFK's love life or other prurient topics? No. Did he seek to write a definitive evaluation of the president? No. Schlesinger is honest - he is writing by and large as a participant and an observer and the value of this account is that it captures the outlook and motivations of the administration. He left it to other authors to write more critical accounts - the value his book holds comes from the personal observations he makes throughout it.
You don't have to like Kennedy to find this book valuable. Plenty of people critical of the Kennedy administration have studied this book carefully. Its value as a firsthand account of the administration is self-apparent. If it happens to challenge the Limbaugh right's view of JFK . . . well, oh well. The rest of us can approach this book with care and real interest, allow for natural instances of human bias, and still come away better informed for the effort.
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., with an undeniably skilled pen and an exhaustive eye for detail, compiled one of the most thorough accounts of the Kennedy administration. I don't see how it could be that surprising, at this point in time, that participants in an administration generally tend to write books that view their president in a favorable light. Is anyone really that shocked?
Did he take an interest in JFK's love life or other prurient topics? No. Did he seek to write a definitive evaluation of the president? No. Schlesinger is honest - he is writing by and large as a participant and an observer and the value of this account is that it captures the outlook and motivations of the administration. He left it to other authors to write more critical accounts - the value his book holds comes from the personal observations he makes throughout it.
You don't have to like Kennedy to find this book valuable. Plenty of people critical of the Kennedy administration have studied this book carefully. Its value as a firsthand account of the administration is self-apparent. If it happens to challenge the Limbaugh right's view of JFK . . . well, oh well. The rest of us can approach this book with care and real interest, allow for natural instances of human bias, and still come away better informed for the effort.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book has won a Pullitzer and National Book Award for good reason. Unlike most political biographers, Schlesinger provides a detailed and interesting analysis of his subject's policy decisions. We don't get a detailed accounting of what Kennedy has for breakfast, but we do get an understanding of Kennedy's decision making process and how it related to the numerous issues with which he was confronted.
Many of the customer reviewers criticized Schlesinger for his bias in Thousand Days. It is true that nothing that Kennedy does in Thousand Days is wrong, and nothing that Eisenhower did was right. In the 1030 pages of Thousand Days, the reader is hardpressed to find a single critical comment about Kennedy. There are certainly plenty of excuses, as well as repetitive references to the "seeds" of legislative programs sown by Kennedy that would inevitably (as implied by Schlesinger) revolutionized the US. However, Schlesinger did not attempt to hide this bias -- he was obviously star struck by the Kennedys and did not purport to give the Republican perspective on the Kennedy administration. In essence, the "bias" is so obvious it is easy to single it out and focus on what Schlesinger has to offer -- a studied and very inspiring first hand account of a presidential term from one of this country's leading historians.
I have read several dozen presidential biographies and can say that none have provided so much insight into presidential decision making. In a word, this book is "dense", full of ideas, theories and speculation about the workings of the executive branch when confronted with some of the greatest challenges of our time -- including the cold war, the Cuban missile crises, Bay of Pigs, civil rights and Vietnam. What's more, it was an absorbing and thought provoking read. A little more critical analysis of Kennedy may have been more illuminating, but this type of analysis may well have robbed Thousand Days of the passion that makes it so interesting and inspiring. Kennedy, after all, was an interesting and inspiring president. Perhaps the most effective way to portray the man, therefore, is with a biography that is interesting and inspiring.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Thousand Days
Even though Arthur Schlesinger won the Pulitzer Prize for his book on John F. Kennedy's time in the White House, he is often criticized as a `court historian'. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tammany Hall
Unimpressed
I know that this is a "classic" so I felt compelled to read it. In all, I thought it was lacking. First, it is rather dull and plodding. Read more
Published 11 months ago by N. Perz
The most informed "insider" view of the Kennedy years.
"A Thousand Days"A definitively a "five star" rated book of the Kennedy years in the Presidency. Most eloquent and lucid - no wonder it won a Pulitzer! Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ron Gornischeff
Great firsthand account of the Kennedy Years
This book is one of the most thorough firsthand accounts of the Kennedy administration and takes an almost exhaustive look at many of the things that occurred during the... Read more
Published on September 18, 2009 by Lehigh History Student
Good but could have been better
Schlesinger is a first-rate historian, and this book is not a compromise to his reputation. It contains great some great details about Kennedy's turmoils involving Cuba, the... Read more
Published on July 2, 2009 by J. V. Hennburg
A true historical classic.
I had taken an interest in Arthur Schlesinger when he passed away. I picked up a copy of his book, "A Thousand Days: John F. Read more
Published on June 3, 2009 by W. Hronis
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
History written by a participant in its making. This narrative is as objective as one could be given the close relationship the author had to President Kennedy. Read more
Published on May 4, 2009 by John Watson
Still the best
Still the definitive political biography of JFK. As more recent evidence has emerged of Kennedy's decisions and actions as president (as opposed to his private life), Schlesinger's... Read more
Published on March 15, 2009 by Anthony Bendall
Schlesingers judgment could be bettter
Arthur M. Schlesinger wrote in 1965 a detailed account of the Kennedy presidency, 'A Thousand Days'. During this administration Arthur M. Read more
Published on March 30, 2008 by L.. Oost
Boring and Overly Long
The only book by Arthur Schlesinger that I have read is his book about Robert Kennedy (Robert Kennedy and His Times). Now THAT book was good. Why? Read more
Published on November 7, 2006 by Jerry Wilt
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