An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "IN AUGUST 1947, John F. Kennedy traveled to Ireland..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this riveting tour de force, Boston University history professor Dallek (Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973) delivers what will most assuredly become the benchmark JFK biography for this generation. A master of the art of narrative history, Dallek is also the first biographer since Doris Kearns Goodwin to be granted unrestricted access to key Kennedy family papers (most importantly, the Joseph and Rose Kennedy Papers) in the JFK Library. This is a substantial and significant trove to which Dallek brings a refreshingly critical eye. He has also mined many nuggets of key information from the papers of JFK's colleagues, doctors and friends. Thus Dallek has significant new ground to break on a range of fronts including but not limited to Kennedy's health, politics, personal recklessness and love affairs. Dallek's revelations about JFK's health, based on previously unavailable medical files maintained by Kennedy's personal physician, have already received significant publicity from the Atlantic excerpt in December 2002. But here Dallek expands on that information and reveals (for the first time) the full extent of the medical coverup orchestrated by the Kennedy family: a coverup that involved the destruction of key medical records even after JFK was in his grave. On the political front, Dallek uses new inside information from a Kennedy associate to reveal the detailed mechanics (and enormous scope) of the use of Kennedy money to purchase the West Virginia primary in 1960. At the same time, Dallek has new evidence on both Jack's philandering and his recklessness. Example: During the same 1960 campaign on which his father spent millions, JFK risked it all by inviting an underage cheerleader to his hotel room. As is appropriate, close to two-thirds of this biography covers Kennedy's truncated presidency. In one of the book's most important sections, Dallek marshals new evidence that JFK did not view with favor the expansion of the war in Vietnam, and that he most likely would not have sanctioned such an expansion. Throughout the book, Dallek stops short of worshipping his subject. He is a Kennedy admirer, but he never allows this admiration to cloud either his focus or his truth telling. Dallek is to be thanked for providing the thoroughly researched, well-sourced, responsible and readable biography that has for so long been wanting in Kennedy scholarship. Illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker

It's hard to believe that someone could find anything new to say about John F. Kennedy, but Dallek succeeds in this riveting and well-documented biography. Despite plentiful revelations about Kennedy's private life, the book is very much a political biography, which keenly explores Kennedy's grasp of modern political campaigning. (The account of how the Kennedy machine managed the issue of his Catholicism in the 1960 West Virginia primary is particularly telling.) But he wasn't always sure what to do with power once he had it. His ideas on domestic policy were surprisingly conventional, and his foreign policy seems jingoistic. Kennedy, however, had the ability to change his mind—no small accomplishment for a President—and by the time he died he was a considerably more sophisticated leader. One need not accept Dallek's fanciful, if familiar, conclusion—that, had Kennedy lived, he might have pulled the United States out of Vietnam—to think that J.F.K.'s political career was a work in progress that was arrested too soon.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 848 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; F edition (May 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316172383
• ISBN-13: 978-0316172387
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,564 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spell-Binding Biography Of JFK's Life, June 27, 2003

By	Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

So much has been written about John F. Kennedy and his family that it perhaps hard to conceive of a book that could add much to a discussion about the meaning and purpose of his life. Yet that is exactly what this erudite and well-written new biography by acclaimed biographer and historian Robert Dallek accomplishes. For those of us steeped in the flood of Kennedy biographies that flowed after his assassination, this refreshing and revealing new look by famed historian Robert Dallek is a Godsend. It mines a lot of previously unavailable material only recently made available, and interprets this new information in a way that both questions and extends the Kennedy legend.

JFK has become so much a figure of legend that it is useful to see him in the way that he is masterfully portrayed here, as a much more ordinary human being than he is often pictured as being, a person more profoundly sidelined and marginalized by serious illness and physical handicaps than is generally known. Yet by revealing these aspects of John Kennedy's existential circumstances, JFK inevitably becomes a much more admirable public and private figure, as someone who was able, often through sheer force of will, to make the most of out of every single day. Kennedy was a great believer in the commonplace Zen notion of "being here now", on focusing on the immediate present and enjoying every moment by wringing it of all its intrinsic possibilities.

As a man in constant pain, for example, it brings new meaning to other aspects of his known personality, such as his admiration for Green Berets and active sports. As compromised as he was by his physical limitations, he did his damnedest to fully engage himself in life. It is revealing, too, in its relevance toward his admiration of Hemingway, and Hemingway's coda regarding what constitutes courage; grace under pressure. And Kennedy fits the definition of a courageous man along a number of dimensions.

On the other hand, new facts surrounding the way the Kennedy family hid such aspects of JFK's life from view are cause for consternation, as they show the extent to which Joe Kennedy, JFK's imperious and ambitious father, was willing to go to further his son's political ambitions en route to the White House. He twisted facts, withheld important medical reports, and paid off officials to guard against the truth regarding his son's medical condition becoming public. Moreover, the degree to which the elder Kennedy used corrupt political practices to further JFK's efforts to become the Democratic nominee, while long suspected and much discussed previously, are even more scandalous.

Finally, Dallek shows the ways in which JFK was a man living on the edge, a man willing to risk it all for an infantile sexual tryst with an under-aged cheerleader while on the campaign trail in 1960, a man who evidently got a kick out of sneaking hookers into the White House for pool parties while Jackie was away with the children. In sum, this is a biography bound to become the new standard bearer for Kennedy works precisely because he is so successful in showing all the many and often-contradictory strands of Kennedy's personality and life circumstances made him such a pivotal figure in contemporary American history. This is a great book I recommend for anyone as a good choice for an entertaining and informative summer read! Enjoy!

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new look at Kennedy, May 26, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

Who'd think that there would be another Kennedy book with something left to say? Well, there is. This book is done in a scholarly way, but mostly readable. We are getting far away enough now to have some perspective on Kennedy. For those of us who were there when he ran, and saw him as the breath of fresh air that he was - for all the failings we hear about now - this is a must read. A lot of new information, concentration on his political career and what he fought for, and a new look at all his physical problems, make this book interesting from cover to cover.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fully realized biography...wow!, May 16, 2003

By	A O Cazola (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

THere have been so many books written about the Kennedys (and JFK especially) so my reaction to the news that there was to be yet another JFK tell-all was a big yawn. But when I first read some of Robert Dallek's revelations in Atlantic Monthly last year, I felt compelled to check out An Unfinished Life.

I was not disappointed.

This is an extremely well-researched and complete look at a man who, considering his public profile, led a very private life. Without spoiling the book, I must say that the information about JFK's health in An Unfinished Life are reason enough to pick this one up.

Although the media has been making much hay about Kennedy's own "Monicagate," that revelation is not at all the backbone of the book. Without taking sides, Dallek has given us the first look at the man behind the image. It's refreshing to see JFK not as an icon, but merely as a man who happened to be President of the USA...and like everybody, his life was not perfect.

Kennedy fans will learn new things (both good and bad) and others will catch a glimpse of a man who became one of the prime newsmakers of the 20th century. A great read.