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Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America
A close-up on one of American history's most magical events, JFK's inaugural week, and the creation of the speech that inspired a generation and brought hope to a nation
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." On the January morning when John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency and stood to speak those words, America was divided, its citizens torn by fears of war. Kennedy's speech-called the finest since Lincoln at Gettysburg and the most memorable of any twentieth-century American politician-did more than it changed lives, marking the start of a brief, optimistic era of struggle against "tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself."
Ask Not is a beautifully detailed account of the week leading up to the inaugural which stands as one of the most moving spectacles in the history of American politics. At the heart of the narrative is Kennedy's quest to create a speech that would distill American dreams and empower a new generation. Thurston Clarke's portrait of JFK during what intimates called his happiest days is balanced, revealing the President at his most dazzlingly charismatic-and cunningly pragmatic. As the snow covers Washington in a blanket of white, as statesmen and celebrities arrive for candlelit festivities, the perfectionist Kennedy pushes himself to the limit, to find the words that would capture what he most truly believed and which would far outlast his own life. For everyone who seeks to understand the fascination with all things Kennedy, the answer can be found in Ask Not .
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." On the January morning when John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency and stood to speak those words, America was divided, its citizens torn by fears of war. Kennedy's speech-called the finest since Lincoln at Gettysburg and the most memorable of any twentieth-century American politician-did more than it changed lives, marking the start of a brief, optimistic era of struggle against "tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself."
Ask Not is a beautifully detailed account of the week leading up to the inaugural which stands as one of the most moving spectacles in the history of American politics. At the heart of the narrative is Kennedy's quest to create a speech that would distill American dreams and empower a new generation. Thurston Clarke's portrait of JFK during what intimates called his happiest days is balanced, revealing the President at his most dazzlingly charismatic-and cunningly pragmatic. As the snow covers Washington in a blanket of white, as statesmen and celebrities arrive for candlelit festivities, the perfectionist Kennedy pushes himself to the limit, to find the words that would capture what he most truly believed and which would far outlast his own life. For everyone who seeks to understand the fascination with all things Kennedy, the answer can be found in Ask Not .
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
10 people are currently reading
447 people want to read
About the author
Thurston Clarke
15 books67 followersThurston Clarke has written eleven widely acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including three New York Times Notable Books. His 'Pearl Harbor Ghosts' was the basis for a CBS documentary, and his bestselling 'Lost Hero', a biography of Raoul Wallenberg, was made into an award-winning NBC miniseries.
Clarke's articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and other awards, he lives with his wife and three daughters in upstate New York.
Clarke's articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and other awards, he lives with his wife and three daughters in upstate New York.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 15, 2008
This is the most creative biography I've ever read. It's a story told through the writing of an inaugural address. The stories told around Kennedy's inauguration are a must for any Kennedy buff.
January 14, 2024
Definitely a little too horny for JFK but it was a really good read and perfectly evokes the bygone era of America Thurston is trying to conjure.
January 21, 2019
Returned to my copy on a cold yesterday. Returned to it for the fifteenth or so time. A work about a magical time and a time of promise. Politics and governing were about hope. Presidential oratory soared to the heights, and government celebrated the arts as a leader welcomed the artistic community. This is about the crafting of our last memorable inaugural address. It is played out against Georgetown inaugural parties held amid a building snowfall, as wit and culture mingled before flickering fireplaces. People celebrated leadership and the political system. Sure it wasn't perfect, and we know that they did not know what the 1960's would bring. But these beautifully written pages celebrate a time of hope and generational change.
November 14, 2007
"Ask Not" shows how John F. Kennedy's entire life up until January of 1961 culminated in the genesis of his inauguration address. It was a revolutionary speech - Kennedy called for the resolution of differences between America and the Soviet Union so that "both sides" could explore solutions to the world's greater problems ("tyranny,poverty, disease, and war itself"). Moreover, he instilled Americans with a sense of responsibility, calling upon them to sacrifice for these greater causes ("the trumpet summons us once again"). The book is a fascinating look at the creation of the address and at the days leading up to the inauguration. The author picks the speech apart line by line and shows how the ideas of Lincoln and Churchill influenced Kennedy's visions. Of the books I've read on JFK this one is my favorite. While the author details the creation of one of the most beautiful speeches in American history, he also effectively communicates the aura and mystique of JFK's inauguration while shedding light on the character of the man himself. Both newcomers to JFK and seasoned Kennedy historians will enjoy it.
March 9, 2008
Any history buff, fan of JFK, and political junkie should own this book.
Subtitled “The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech that changed America”, this book uses the inauguration and the speech as the focal points for the time period between and including January 10 through January 21, 1961.
And what Thurston Clarke does is quite remarkable. He ha culled all kinds of research to put you there. With perspectives and opinions from just about everyone involved, you feel the tension the president-elect is under trying to get off memorable speech after delivering a book full of them during the campaign. You can just about see the Kennedy family trying to put their best foot forward while an open war wages between Rose Kennedy and Jackie.
You get the press looking for evidence that the president-elect is actually writing a speech in-between tanning sessions and not handing the whole thing off to Ted Sorenson. You get the bitterness that Mamie Eisenhower has at the new administration.
In short, you get all the gossip, all the stories, and all of the play-by-play action in a fabulous narrative that doesn’t read like a schedule.
June 26, 2009
More of a social history of the week leading to Kennedy's inaugural than a textual analysis. Clarke seems to go out of his way to mentions Kennedy's indiscretions, as if mentioning them will give him latitude to exult the text. An interesting look into those surrounding Kennedy during this week-long period, as well as into what drove him to perform the of writing the inaugural address, while remaining secretive about its contents.
I still can't quite place my finger on that which impedes my admiration of Clarke's work, but I do know that at the conclusion of both his books I found myself somewhat dissatisfied. Perhaps it's the unhappy wedding of adulation and self-conscious over-critique of his subjects.
I still can't quite place my finger on that which impedes my admiration of Clarke's work, but I do know that at the conclusion of both his books I found myself somewhat dissatisfied. Perhaps it's the unhappy wedding of adulation and self-conscious over-critique of his subjects.
January 26, 2013
I have read this book 3 times. It is as beautifully written as was the inaugural speech of President Kennedy.
April 25, 2020
Clarke reminds us that at one time in our history, we had presidents who knew how to give speeches. But the book opens with a prologue set in Arlington National Cemetery.
Prologue at Arlington National Cemetery it is the sadist place in America aside form the Vietnam Memorial (p. 5) and a quote from William Pitt the 1700’s: “:It is not merely the thing that is said but the man who says it that counts, the character that breathes through the sentences.” (8).
Author says that with so many books about JFK, the speech he delivered goes to the heart as well as the mind ....and that has an impact of people of now and then (9). Early in the book, Clarke addresses the question of who wrote the speech: It was JFK’s words put together by several writers (13) but it was 99% JFK (17).
The final copy was typed (not computers in those days, re-typing the whole speech) two hours before JFK spoke (18). We get a short list of who was on the platform. Marian Anderson was the only African American. Richard Nixon gets his only reference in the book. (20). in the early pages, we also get a lesson in how great speeches were often written in a short time. And, we learn that the speech had only 413 words, fewer than most speeches up to that time.
The action of the book begins in chapter 2 when the Kennedy family and especially his staff are in Florida working frantically to prepare JFK to speak. Jackie gets some attention as she wanted to watch, not listen, him prepare for the event of his life. We read a little about how the Kennedy family worked. This is where Lyndon gets his one reference in the book. Clarke says that LBJ had an ability to bring out the worst of JFK and RFK. (48). And we get a few chapters about the infidelities of JFK and his father.
The theme of the rest of the book is JFK’s need to have everything right in his speeches. “He fussed over every word, dictating, re-dictating, and edits king until moments before delivering it, then making feather chances as he spoke.” (52 – 61) Later he finds that that the use of “ask not” words was perfect, a “master sentence.” (75)
Quick reference to Vietnam p. 85
His “…most delivered the most controversial and courageous speech of his Senate career, on the most controversial and courageous speech of his Senate career, on the subject of Algeria, where France was fight another brutal colonial war.” (880 “Kennedy was impatient, and antitheses are the enemy of ambiguity, rhetorical shorthand that saves time by reducing a complicated problem to its fundamentals.” P. 91
Chapter 6 shows us how TV impacted the way the speech was understood and opened up a new means for politicians to impact the nation. (116-117)
Our author takes JFK’s thinking about the people have to sacrifice and commitment, a stance very different from the words of Ike. (119). the author says that a connection grew between the leaving and the entering presidents. (145). Even the 8 inches of snow in DC the day takes a page of the book as does Robert Frost’s 8 minutes long poem. (139) And, yes, Marilyn Monroe gets a note. (153)
JFK was considered a mediocre publish speaker. “Progress came slowly to Kennedy because he was not simply trying to eliminate bad public speaking habits, but to overcome some basic character traits such as his impatience, restlessness and unwillingness to do anything slightly undignified.:” p. 163
We get lots of comments about the speech and the day. In the final pages, he says that the inauguration and the assassination “haunt each other.” (212) the people who were on the platform on the inauguration day were at the funeral in 1963.
Last sentence of the book may be a shot to Trump. “….as the Kennedy presidency grows more distant, many will read these sentences and mourn a time when a speech could move a nation and launch an era of idealism, optimism, and joy.”
As someone who watched the 1960 inauguration and went on to have a career of teaching the power of effective communication, I enjoyed the book very much.
Prologue at Arlington National Cemetery it is the sadist place in America aside form the Vietnam Memorial (p. 5) and a quote from William Pitt the 1700’s: “:It is not merely the thing that is said but the man who says it that counts, the character that breathes through the sentences.” (8).
Author says that with so many books about JFK, the speech he delivered goes to the heart as well as the mind ....and that has an impact of people of now and then (9). Early in the book, Clarke addresses the question of who wrote the speech: It was JFK’s words put together by several writers (13) but it was 99% JFK (17).
The final copy was typed (not computers in those days, re-typing the whole speech) two hours before JFK spoke (18). We get a short list of who was on the platform. Marian Anderson was the only African American. Richard Nixon gets his only reference in the book. (20). in the early pages, we also get a lesson in how great speeches were often written in a short time. And, we learn that the speech had only 413 words, fewer than most speeches up to that time.
The action of the book begins in chapter 2 when the Kennedy family and especially his staff are in Florida working frantically to prepare JFK to speak. Jackie gets some attention as she wanted to watch, not listen, him prepare for the event of his life. We read a little about how the Kennedy family worked. This is where Lyndon gets his one reference in the book. Clarke says that LBJ had an ability to bring out the worst of JFK and RFK. (48). And we get a few chapters about the infidelities of JFK and his father.
The theme of the rest of the book is JFK’s need to have everything right in his speeches. “He fussed over every word, dictating, re-dictating, and edits king until moments before delivering it, then making feather chances as he spoke.” (52 – 61) Later he finds that that the use of “ask not” words was perfect, a “master sentence.” (75)
Quick reference to Vietnam p. 85
His “…most delivered the most controversial and courageous speech of his Senate career, on the most controversial and courageous speech of his Senate career, on the subject of Algeria, where France was fight another brutal colonial war.” (880 “Kennedy was impatient, and antitheses are the enemy of ambiguity, rhetorical shorthand that saves time by reducing a complicated problem to its fundamentals.” P. 91
Chapter 6 shows us how TV impacted the way the speech was understood and opened up a new means for politicians to impact the nation. (116-117)
Our author takes JFK’s thinking about the people have to sacrifice and commitment, a stance very different from the words of Ike. (119). the author says that a connection grew between the leaving and the entering presidents. (145). Even the 8 inches of snow in DC the day takes a page of the book as does Robert Frost’s 8 minutes long poem. (139) And, yes, Marilyn Monroe gets a note. (153)
JFK was considered a mediocre publish speaker. “Progress came slowly to Kennedy because he was not simply trying to eliminate bad public speaking habits, but to overcome some basic character traits such as his impatience, restlessness and unwillingness to do anything slightly undignified.:” p. 163
We get lots of comments about the speech and the day. In the final pages, he says that the inauguration and the assassination “haunt each other.” (212) the people who were on the platform on the inauguration day were at the funeral in 1963.
Last sentence of the book may be a shot to Trump. “….as the Kennedy presidency grows more distant, many will read these sentences and mourn a time when a speech could move a nation and launch an era of idealism, optimism, and joy.”
As someone who watched the 1960 inauguration and went on to have a career of teaching the power of effective communication, I enjoyed the book very much.
August 7, 2016
I never before knew there was such a hubbub about Kennedy's speech and how much Sorenson wrote. Am also currently reading Profiles in Courage and didn't know there was controversy about how much of that he wrote either. People seem to forget he was one of the most highly educated presidents we've had, why couldn't he have written either?
Full review to come.
+++++++++++
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Rating: 4 Stars
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Perhaps among the most recognized speeches in history, Kennedy's inaugural words were viewed by many as the dawn of a new era filled with optimism, with a stunning young family now living at one of the most famous addresses in the world.
This book details the week prior to Kennedy speaking those very words, and we are given of glimpse of how his mind worked as he wrote and re-wrote, added to and changed his speech. This was all-consuming for him and Kennedy was determined to make it the best of his career. Papa Joe did not help matters much, constantly telling Jack that he had already wasted his best speech prior to this - but Jack never took the bait and would keep his inaugural address a secret even from the family patriarch. Kennedy wanted his words to reflect the changing of the times and usher in an era of hope in the bleak Cold War landscape. I think we might consider him a success, seeing as how this speech and the Gettysburg Address are the most well-known speeches in the history of American politics.
Before the prologue we are treated to Kennedy's address in its entirety and even 56 years on they hold their own weight. I can read the words and hear them inside my head with JFK's voice. I have seen footage of the address, but never in its entirety. It is not a long speech, but it is powerful. Reading about all the work that went into it makes the speech even grander. I never knew before that there was such hubbub over the speech to begin with, or arguments/misremembering about how much Kennedy wrote himself vs how much his speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, contributed. The author makes a very important point early on, that "...The issue of whether Kennedy composed his own inaugural address, or simply delivered Sorensen's beautiful words, is not some arcane historical footnote. The speech is generally acknowledged to have been the greatest oration of any twentieth-century American politician" (page 9). This speech was a big deal, and still is. It marked the moment in time when America was moving forward into this state of being, and the myth Kennedy was creating was a big part of that. If it were to turn out that Kennedy did not write it, one can only imagine how devastating that would be. Luckily, it would seem that according to the author and evidence we have in the form of Kennedy's secretary's shorthand notes, Kennedy did in fact dictate to her, "...the most immortal and poetic passages of his inaugural address" (page 13).
(As a side note, I am also currently reading Kennedy's 'Profiles in Courage' and I never knew there was also controversy as to how much of that book he wrote himself as well. People seem to forget that Kennedy was one of the most highly educated presidents we'd had up to that point, so why couldn't he have written it himself?)
Beyond the prologue and debate over who wrote which parts and whether the most important and memorable passages were from Kennedy's brain or Sorensen's, the book is broken up into chapters that detail every day leading up to his delivery of the address. We see not only Kennedy's work on the speech, but the physical work he put into his own appearance (I firmly believe he would have eventually died of skin cancer had he not been assassinated). This was key to pushing the myth of the Kennedy mystique - to always appear youthful and carefree - especially following the administration of Eisenhower. Despite the fact that we now know of the myriad of health problems that Kennedy suffered from nearly all his adult life, on that blustery, cold day in January, he looked to be a picture of perfect health. despite the cold, Kennedy did not even wear an overcoat, though much later it would be reported that he stayed warm due to the long underwear he wore beneath his clothing. Image was everything to the Kennedys.
As with most other Kennedy books, this one too touches on some of the Kennedy/Johnson friction. I do not know enough yet about the two men and their politics to understand why there was such aggravation or why Bobby and LBJ especially did not get along. I guess I don't yet understand why LBJ was the VP if the Kennedys could not stand him, or if that was even true, and so on. Every other book I have read about Kennedy so far as mentioned this at least in specific situations and there is much I have yet to understand about this dynamic between the president and vice president.
I was mildly creeped out by the extent of Evelyn Lincoln's devotion to Kennedy, though perhaps it is not entirely fair based on one author's assertions - or maybe it is, who knows. But she kept many of his papers and such, some of which could only have been retrieved from the garbage after he had tossed them out. So, kind of creepy. But at the same time, anything a president wrote could have been historical so perhaps we should also thank her for preserving what she did.
Overall, as with many books about the Kennedy family, I really like this one. It was not sensational, as some books about the family tend to be, and stays focused on the speech and Kennedy's preparations for it in those final ten days before addressing the nation. Definitely recommended for anyone with an interest in Kennedy, the speech, or US history in general.
Two quotes that amused me:
Page 142: "Neither Evelyn Lincoln's appointment book nor the newspapers tell us how long Kennedy stayed at Mahoney's party. We only now he woke up at 6:45 AM on January 19th to the roar of a motorcycle, threw open his second-floor bedroom window, and shouted down, "How about a little more quiet on my last day as a private citizen!"
Page 182: "Grudged and politics go together. Still, so many of the VIPs at the Kennedy inauguration had such a long and contentious history of slights and rivalries that had their thoughts been vocalized, the air would have crackled with a Babel of competing voices, like dozens of broadcasts jammed onto a single shortwave radio band."
Full review to come.
+++++++++++
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www.twitter.com/SarahsBookNook
Rating: 4 Stars
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Perhaps among the most recognized speeches in history, Kennedy's inaugural words were viewed by many as the dawn of a new era filled with optimism, with a stunning young family now living at one of the most famous addresses in the world.
This book details the week prior to Kennedy speaking those very words, and we are given of glimpse of how his mind worked as he wrote and re-wrote, added to and changed his speech. This was all-consuming for him and Kennedy was determined to make it the best of his career. Papa Joe did not help matters much, constantly telling Jack that he had already wasted his best speech prior to this - but Jack never took the bait and would keep his inaugural address a secret even from the family patriarch. Kennedy wanted his words to reflect the changing of the times and usher in an era of hope in the bleak Cold War landscape. I think we might consider him a success, seeing as how this speech and the Gettysburg Address are the most well-known speeches in the history of American politics.
Before the prologue we are treated to Kennedy's address in its entirety and even 56 years on they hold their own weight. I can read the words and hear them inside my head with JFK's voice. I have seen footage of the address, but never in its entirety. It is not a long speech, but it is powerful. Reading about all the work that went into it makes the speech even grander. I never knew before that there was such hubbub over the speech to begin with, or arguments/misremembering about how much Kennedy wrote himself vs how much his speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, contributed. The author makes a very important point early on, that "...The issue of whether Kennedy composed his own inaugural address, or simply delivered Sorensen's beautiful words, is not some arcane historical footnote. The speech is generally acknowledged to have been the greatest oration of any twentieth-century American politician" (page 9). This speech was a big deal, and still is. It marked the moment in time when America was moving forward into this state of being, and the myth Kennedy was creating was a big part of that. If it were to turn out that Kennedy did not write it, one can only imagine how devastating that would be. Luckily, it would seem that according to the author and evidence we have in the form of Kennedy's secretary's shorthand notes, Kennedy did in fact dictate to her, "...the most immortal and poetic passages of his inaugural address" (page 13).
(As a side note, I am also currently reading Kennedy's 'Profiles in Courage' and I never knew there was also controversy as to how much of that book he wrote himself as well. People seem to forget that Kennedy was one of the most highly educated presidents we'd had up to that point, so why couldn't he have written it himself?)
Beyond the prologue and debate over who wrote which parts and whether the most important and memorable passages were from Kennedy's brain or Sorensen's, the book is broken up into chapters that detail every day leading up to his delivery of the address. We see not only Kennedy's work on the speech, but the physical work he put into his own appearance (I firmly believe he would have eventually died of skin cancer had he not been assassinated). This was key to pushing the myth of the Kennedy mystique - to always appear youthful and carefree - especially following the administration of Eisenhower. Despite the fact that we now know of the myriad of health problems that Kennedy suffered from nearly all his adult life, on that blustery, cold day in January, he looked to be a picture of perfect health. despite the cold, Kennedy did not even wear an overcoat, though much later it would be reported that he stayed warm due to the long underwear he wore beneath his clothing. Image was everything to the Kennedys.
As with most other Kennedy books, this one too touches on some of the Kennedy/Johnson friction. I do not know enough yet about the two men and their politics to understand why there was such aggravation or why Bobby and LBJ especially did not get along. I guess I don't yet understand why LBJ was the VP if the Kennedys could not stand him, or if that was even true, and so on. Every other book I have read about Kennedy so far as mentioned this at least in specific situations and there is much I have yet to understand about this dynamic between the president and vice president.
I was mildly creeped out by the extent of Evelyn Lincoln's devotion to Kennedy, though perhaps it is not entirely fair based on one author's assertions - or maybe it is, who knows. But she kept many of his papers and such, some of which could only have been retrieved from the garbage after he had tossed them out. So, kind of creepy. But at the same time, anything a president wrote could have been historical so perhaps we should also thank her for preserving what she did.
Overall, as with many books about the Kennedy family, I really like this one. It was not sensational, as some books about the family tend to be, and stays focused on the speech and Kennedy's preparations for it in those final ten days before addressing the nation. Definitely recommended for anyone with an interest in Kennedy, the speech, or US history in general.
Two quotes that amused me:
Page 142: "Neither Evelyn Lincoln's appointment book nor the newspapers tell us how long Kennedy stayed at Mahoney's party. We only now he woke up at 6:45 AM on January 19th to the roar of a motorcycle, threw open his second-floor bedroom window, and shouted down, "How about a little more quiet on my last day as a private citizen!"
Page 182: "Grudged and politics go together. Still, so many of the VIPs at the Kennedy inauguration had such a long and contentious history of slights and rivalries that had their thoughts been vocalized, the air would have crackled with a Babel of competing voices, like dozens of broadcasts jammed onto a single shortwave radio band."
March 6, 2021
Although the book is about the writing, development, history, and justification of authorship (a big part of the book; perhaps too much) of Kennedy's inaugaural address, it's emotional value is in bringing together the promise, energy, and cause to service and good and the pain and loss of those few years of hope in the mid-60's.
It's well worth reading. The ironies of the "characters" and the events of the times are not well known (at least they were not to me though I remember watching the address, feeling the purpose of those ideals for the first time in my life and then the absolute emptiness of the tragedy).
It's well worth reading. The ironies of the "characters" and the events of the times are not well known (at least they were not to me though I remember watching the address, feeling the purpose of those ideals for the first time in my life and then the absolute emptiness of the tragedy).
January 12, 2023
This has been on my shelf for years now. Glad it survived my periodic pruning, because it is a beautifully written account of the writing of JFK's 1961 inagural speech, the man himself, his family and friends, and his times. I was a kid then but clearly remember the hope and glamour. Thanks to Clarke, I felt it all again. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the wonderful Edward Herrmann.
December 12, 2017
This analysis of the inaugural address offers a rich depth of understanding of the man and his times. An excellent addition to our understandings about Kennedy, his family, and his friends.
April 18, 2022
Good book. But let’s talk about my favorite narrator: Edward Herrmann. What a lovely surprise.
July 25, 2022
I was skeptical going into this book but Clarke wrote a masterpiece. Reckon I’ll look for other books he wrote.
November 30, 2012
I read this book for a class on the presidency. Clarke paints a great picture of the drafting of the address by Kennedy. He provides more than adequate evidence that the address was composed primarily by Kennedy also. The book as a whole is extremely interesting and filled with how Kennedy was inspired by the people he looked up to and the events he experienced. It also outlines the effects and impacts of such a rousing inaugural address. As an admirer of Kennedy, this book only helped to solidify his place in my mind as one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen. The book also includes various anecdotes and stories of Kennedy's lifestyle in general, talking about his affairs, his quirks, and his habits. Quite an interesting guy. Sadly, and SPOILER ALERT, Kennedy is assassinated. I can't imagine how the people around him must have felt. What potential he had. It's a shame how all the great ones aren't allowed to live out their legacy.
Read
February 5, 2009Clarke has two purposes in Ask Not: to examine the Kennedy Inauguration in precise detail and to determine J.F.K.'s role in writing the speech. Clarke uses newly discovered primary source material to make his case for the ex-President's authorship over speechwriter Ted Sorenson. Critics disagree about the efficacy of his argument, but in the end, it veers in his favor. Does this event deserve the intense scrutiny of an entire book? The Washington Post calls Ask Not padded (how much, really, do you want to read about Jackie's dresses?); The San Francisco Chronicle relishes the personalities and small details that set the stage for Camelot.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
July 31, 2011
The author draws the interesting analogy between the impact of JFK's "ask not" and the his funeral some 1038 days later. Clarke brilliantly describes both as a passage from which the American people travel through, a sort of historic membrane, delineating one age from another. JFK's inaugural deliverance ushered the country into an era of optimism and hopefulness, in the realm of world peace, nuclear disarmament, space exploration and economic prosperity. His tragic and premature death brought the realization of the end of Camelot, the death of youth in our leadership, and somehow the cold reality that perhaps dark forces inside our governing body had been unleashed...never to be controlled, and the country since has never been the same.
May 4, 2014
Surely one of the most creative and extraordinary ideas for a memoir I've read so far. This book is based on JFK's iconic inaugural address and the events surrounding the speech and the inauguration itself: How the speech was written and edited again and again and then some by JFK and Ted Sorensen; how JFK and those surrounding him (family and close friends) spent those final days before the inauguration (tanning, partying, editing, worrying) and what happened on inauguration day (and who sat next to whom and what they were really thinking about each other - best part of a really good book overall, hands down).
The way Clarke tells all this is so entertaining and fun, such a perfect mix of serious analysis, light gossip and wonderful snark here and there made his book a real treat.
The way Clarke tells all this is so entertaining and fun, such a perfect mix of serious analysis, light gossip and wonderful snark here and there made his book a real treat.
Read
July 1, 2020This was one of the more interesting history books I have read. In this book, Thurston Clarke focuses on JFK's inauguration speech and the moments that lead to it. It chronicles everything from January 10, 1961 to January 21st of that year, but also dives deep into John F. Kennedy's life and every moment or influence that may have lead to what appeared in the final draft of his famous speech.
What I enjoyed most about this book was it's honesty. Thurston Clarke is not afraid to highlight Kennedy's personal transgressions despite the fact that this book is very much a flattering portrayal of the man overall. I think any history buff, especially those fond of the Kennedy era (such as myself), should read this book.
What I enjoyed most about this book was it's honesty. Thurston Clarke is not afraid to highlight Kennedy's personal transgressions despite the fact that this book is very much a flattering portrayal of the man overall. I think any history buff, especially those fond of the Kennedy era (such as myself), should read this book.
May 17, 2016
"Ask not, what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country" and "I have a dream" defined that time. This book is an excellent account of how JFK's speech took its literary shape as one of the greatest of American speeches. And it offers a wealth of context about the America of 1961. I especially liked the anecdote about James Meredith taking inspiration from this speech as he submitted his application for admission to the University of Mississippi.
February 1, 2011
I listened to this in audio tape and for any John F Kennedy lover, it's wonderful. Mr. Clark give the background and history of the time around President Kennedy's inauguration and what went into writing his historic speech. The portions with his voice as he is giving this speech, again, brought me to tears. What a waste his assassination was!!!
Want to read
May 16, 2008M. Brown to M. Wilhelm and S. Edwin
January 13, 2009
Xmas present from future wife at our first Xmas together :)
January 18, 2010
Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America by Thurston Clarke (2004)
March 31, 2011
This is a great historical book among other things. Highly recommended
October 19, 2012
A true snapshot of the time before the Presidency of JFK.
April 8, 2017
I been savoring this short book, less than 250 pages, including introductory material, for 5 days. I have been savoring the political (social) conditions of the 1960 election and the 1961 inaguaral challenges, including many more focusing on JFK's speech. The speech defined a generation, one including my parents, both still in their 20s in 1961. I have glimpse into their world, our American experience, our world experience to some extent, and a glimpse into my own idealistic thinking.
I found this book on a last-chance cart at my local library branch. This is the 2nd book I have picked off that cart, I must make sure to check it everytime.
I found this book on a last-chance cart at my local library branch. This is the 2nd book I have picked off that cart, I must make sure to check it everytime.
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