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The Kennedys: An American Drama
The Kennedys may well be the most photographed, written about, talked about, admired, hated, and controversial family in American history. But for all the words and pictures, the real story was not told until Peter Collier and David Horowitz spent years researching archives and interviewing both family members and hundreds of people close to the Kennedys. An immediate classic, "The Kennedys" combines intimate knowledge with a perspective free of obligations to family loyalties and myths, bringing the story of four generations of "America's family" fully into view. Collier and Horowitz capture the strain of ambition; the dynastic ebb and flow; the invention of a mythic identity; the corrosive underside of the dream of Camelot--developed over four generations--that led one young Kennedy to say, "We broke the rules and in turn we were broken by them." "The Kennedys: An American Drama" is a fascinating and brilliantly comprehensive history that brings together, for the first time, all the complex strains of the story of the Kennedys' rise and fall. The authors have added new material showing the effect of the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., and the other family tragedies of the last few years, on the Kennedys and their mythic role in American life.
522 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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666 people want to read
About the author
Peter Collier
105 books22 followersFounder of Encounter Books in California, Collier was publisher from 1998-2005. He co-founded the Center for the Study of Popular Culture with David Horowitz. Collier wrote many books and articles with Horowitz. Collier worked on the website FrontpageMag. He was an organizer of Second Thoughts conferences for leftists who have moved right.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
April 22, 2020
My edition was from the 1980s and was a pretty comprehensive history of three generations of the Kennedys.It read like a soap opera.
It starts with the parents of Joseph Kennedy and then moves on to the story of the patriarch himself.He and his wife,Rose had ten children.
He made his fortune,not necessarily through ethical methods and then became the US ambassador in London,as World War II was about to start.
War was to spell disaster for the clan.The eldest son,Joe Kennedy,who was being groomed for a political career became an air force pilot.He volunteered for a risky mission and was killed.If that had not happened,JFK would not have got his shot at the presidency.
The eldest daughter Kathleen was also killed in a plane crash.Another daughter,Rosemary was subjected to a lobotomy which left her in worse shape than before.
JFK was in the navy and saved his crew when his PT boat was sunk.He returned a war hero and became the focus of his father's political ambitions,replacing his dead older brother.
Then came the election of 1960,his presidency,its key moments and his assassination.Further tragedy followed with the assassination of RFK in 1968,himself running for president.
But both these assassinations are not given the space they deserve.It is all mentioned rather hastily.
Ted Kennedy,the youngest brother,had his own crisis at Chappaquadick.In 1969,his car had an accident and a young woman,his passenger was killed.
Just like his parents,RFK also left behind a large brood of ten.Tragedy dogged them too.His son,David would die of a drug overdose in the 1980s while still in his twenties.Another son of RFK,Michael would die some years later playing touch football on the ski slopes. He was in his 30s.
The Kennedy curse would follow JFK Junior,the son of the slain president.In 1999,flying his plane,he crashed and perished with his wife and sister in law.
It is a hefty book,over 700 pages.At times the detail is overdone but generally,the book remains interesting.Way too much space is however,given to the third generation and RFK's children.
Postscript : I recently read about a granddaughter of RFK,who drowned with her son a few days ago.Unnatural death continues to haunt the Kennedys.
It starts with the parents of Joseph Kennedy and then moves on to the story of the patriarch himself.He and his wife,Rose had ten children.
He made his fortune,not necessarily through ethical methods and then became the US ambassador in London,as World War II was about to start.
War was to spell disaster for the clan.The eldest son,Joe Kennedy,who was being groomed for a political career became an air force pilot.He volunteered for a risky mission and was killed.If that had not happened,JFK would not have got his shot at the presidency.
The eldest daughter Kathleen was also killed in a plane crash.Another daughter,Rosemary was subjected to a lobotomy which left her in worse shape than before.
JFK was in the navy and saved his crew when his PT boat was sunk.He returned a war hero and became the focus of his father's political ambitions,replacing his dead older brother.
Then came the election of 1960,his presidency,its key moments and his assassination.Further tragedy followed with the assassination of RFK in 1968,himself running for president.
But both these assassinations are not given the space they deserve.It is all mentioned rather hastily.
Ted Kennedy,the youngest brother,had his own crisis at Chappaquadick.In 1969,his car had an accident and a young woman,his passenger was killed.
Just like his parents,RFK also left behind a large brood of ten.Tragedy dogged them too.His son,David would die of a drug overdose in the 1980s while still in his twenties.Another son of RFK,Michael would die some years later playing touch football on the ski slopes. He was in his 30s.
The Kennedy curse would follow JFK Junior,the son of the slain president.In 1999,flying his plane,he crashed and perished with his wife and sister in law.
It is a hefty book,over 700 pages.At times the detail is overdone but generally,the book remains interesting.Way too much space is however,given to the third generation and RFK's children.
Postscript : I recently read about a granddaughter of RFK,who drowned with her son a few days ago.Unnatural death continues to haunt the Kennedys.
July 1, 2019
I just finished this book: "The Kennedys: An American Drama." It is one of the longest books I've read at 522 pages. LONG LONG LONG. The stories of each of the characters really is touched on, and with that many family members, really is handled in a story book fashion. They handled the
assinations of Jack and Bobby in half page each segments. i have very mixed thoughts on this book. My feelings vary, based on the 4 different sections within the book. In this review, I will explain my positive thoughts, and why I feel this way, and do the same for negative.
Positive: First of all, I liked how the book was structured. The structure goes according to time, and generation of Kennedy. This was the most appropriate way to structure a book that is intended to detail the history of the family. Another thing that I liked about the book is its lack of political insight from the authors. As you may know, and as the book explains, the Kennedy family, specifically earlier generations have had a profound influence on the Democratic party, especially in the East-Boston area of Massachusetts. The two authors of this book, One democratic and the other republican, left out any political bias, and focused on presenting the facts and stories as truthfully as possible. This really helps the reader understand what actually happened, while eliminating any preexisting bias from the author. It does explain politics, and why certain individuals felt the way they did, but they do this in a factual manner.
The last area that the authors exceeded in was who they described. This is a book about the entire Kennedy Family. It doesn't single out one person, and explain them in more depth than others, they really focus on the family in its entirety. This is done through 4 different sections, in which they write about each generation per se, of Kennedy, and cover almost everyone that had significance to the family. It explained who the character was, offered instances of their actions, cited important moments in their life, and related them to the family.
Negative: There is not much that was terrible about this book except the strict factual evidence. I felt like sometimes they were almost too factual, which often lead to boredom, and having to re-read an entire paragraph. Another thing that I disliked was the character introduction. The authors offer a family tree at the beginning of each section, but when introducing the characters into the section, especially in the beginning it was awfully confusing. Unfortunately, there is not a much easier way to do so, the authors did the best they could. Another area that truly concerned me was all the drugs the boys used during their time. Also, they talk and brag about the women that were a part of their lives, and to brag about it after their marriages. UGH!
I was introduced to the Kennedy's when I was 6-7 years old. I didn't know any of the history of Joe and Rose the older siblings, the Schrivers and many family members. As the kids started getting married, I slowly learned about them and was a lot older when they were a family to me. I've really enjoyed this book and it covers so many different areas than other Kennedy stories have covered. We learn about the starlets they date, who they all from Dad down to the grandkids who they sleep with. I didn't know how truly sick Jack was and all the medical problems he had. Was quite sad. I really felt for them and the problems they had. They were quite a mixed up group, both sons and daughters. Aside from the length, overall it was an okay book. Can be quite tedious, but I learned things I'd not heard before. I've read quite a few Kennedy books, and this one is probably more comprehensive, but not as detailed. They are an interesting read, that's for sure. Recommend.
assinations of Jack and Bobby in half page each segments. i have very mixed thoughts on this book. My feelings vary, based on the 4 different sections within the book. In this review, I will explain my positive thoughts, and why I feel this way, and do the same for negative.
Positive: First of all, I liked how the book was structured. The structure goes according to time, and generation of Kennedy. This was the most appropriate way to structure a book that is intended to detail the history of the family. Another thing that I liked about the book is its lack of political insight from the authors. As you may know, and as the book explains, the Kennedy family, specifically earlier generations have had a profound influence on the Democratic party, especially in the East-Boston area of Massachusetts. The two authors of this book, One democratic and the other republican, left out any political bias, and focused on presenting the facts and stories as truthfully as possible. This really helps the reader understand what actually happened, while eliminating any preexisting bias from the author. It does explain politics, and why certain individuals felt the way they did, but they do this in a factual manner.
The last area that the authors exceeded in was who they described. This is a book about the entire Kennedy Family. It doesn't single out one person, and explain them in more depth than others, they really focus on the family in its entirety. This is done through 4 different sections, in which they write about each generation per se, of Kennedy, and cover almost everyone that had significance to the family. It explained who the character was, offered instances of their actions, cited important moments in their life, and related them to the family.
Negative: There is not much that was terrible about this book except the strict factual evidence. I felt like sometimes they were almost too factual, which often lead to boredom, and having to re-read an entire paragraph. Another thing that I disliked was the character introduction. The authors offer a family tree at the beginning of each section, but when introducing the characters into the section, especially in the beginning it was awfully confusing. Unfortunately, there is not a much easier way to do so, the authors did the best they could. Another area that truly concerned me was all the drugs the boys used during their time. Also, they talk and brag about the women that were a part of their lives, and to brag about it after their marriages. UGH!
I was introduced to the Kennedy's when I was 6-7 years old. I didn't know any of the history of Joe and Rose the older siblings, the Schrivers and many family members. As the kids started getting married, I slowly learned about them and was a lot older when they were a family to me. I've really enjoyed this book and it covers so many different areas than other Kennedy stories have covered. We learn about the starlets they date, who they all from Dad down to the grandkids who they sleep with. I didn't know how truly sick Jack was and all the medical problems he had. Was quite sad. I really felt for them and the problems they had. They were quite a mixed up group, both sons and daughters. Aside from the length, overall it was an okay book. Can be quite tedious, but I learned things I'd not heard before. I've read quite a few Kennedy books, and this one is probably more comprehensive, but not as detailed. They are an interesting read, that's for sure. Recommend.
May 18, 2023
This is a multi-generational biography of the Kennedy family that produced an American president in 1960 and came close to establishing itself as a political dynasty. Although there is no shortage of books about President John F. Kennedy and other members of the family, this book is especially valuable because it provides a detailed look at the entire family and the relationships of the family members to one another. I found it to be very well-written, engrossing, and evenhanded in its treatment of the Kennedys.
The information presented in the book is voluminous. Rather than attempting to review the book in detail, I am highlighting a selection of points that stood out to me and quoting liberally from the book.
The book is organized chronologically in four sections. The first, entitled “Architect of Their Lives,” examines the early life and career of the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, born in East Boston, Massachusetts, in 1888. Joe’s father, “P.J.” Kennedy, was a businessman and politician. Joe’s 1914 marriage to Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of Boston mayor “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, laid the foundation for a potential political dynasty. Joe had political ambitions for himself and the couple’s nine children (or the four sons, anyway).
Joe made a fortune in banking, investing, Hollywood film production, and post-Prohibition liquor distribution. The wealthy and privileged family became a world unto itself. Although the children were sent off to boarding schools, the family spent time together in their Palm Beach and Hyannis Port homes—“two houses facing away from land toward the sea. Almost peninsular in their isolation, they were ideal locales for raising children who would grow up feeling that the only society that really counted was that of the Kennedys themselves.” As a family friend said of the Kennedys, “You watched these people go through their lives and just had a feeling that they existed outside the usual laws of nature; that there was no other group so handsome, so engaged.” The family was close and united by a sense of destiny.
Joe Kennedy was a paradox: he wanted acceptance, but he wanted it without giving up his identity as a (not particularly devout) Irish Catholic. He realized this ambition in the political realm in 1938 when FDR appointed him Ambassador to the Court of St. James. “Kennedy wanted the ambassadorship because it was the most prestigious job in the diplomatic service and the one most unexpected for an Irish Catholic to hold.”
Joe’s own political ambitions for elective office were not well served by his prickly personality, questionable business reputation, and especially his isolationist and pro-appeasement stance before World War II. But he did have four sons.
The second section, “The Stand-In,” focuses on the political career of John F. Kennedy. Much of this material is familiar from the numerous books written about JFK, but the book does a good job of describing the family context in which JFK’s career was launched and sustained. Joe Kennedy’s hopes and dreams had centered on his oldest son, Joe Jr., but after his death in World War II, the hopes and dreams were transferred to Jack, the second son, although at first he was a somewhat reluctant torch-bearer. Entering politics was his father’s ambition for him, not necessarily his own.
JFK was weighted down by his accurate perception that he was a substitute for his brother. His health was also fragile. “But the real problem continued to be his father. Although well into his sixties, a time when most men step back a little, Joe Kennedy had continued to occupy most of the family’s psychic space—creating obligations without relinquishing power, giving so much that nothing could be personally achieved, defining what the game was and how it must be played.”
At the beginning of JFK’s campaign for the Senate in 1952, Joe Kennedy was hands-on, but he caused so much turmoil that morale was disastrous. It only turned around when younger brother Bobby took over the campaign.“His motives, unlike his father’s, seemed so selfless and his energy was so contagious that within days after his arrival campaign workers were referring to what had happened as ‘before the revolution’ and what was now happening as ‘after the revolution.’”
Everyone in the family was involved in Jack’s career, but even Joe recognized Bobby’s importance to the family’s political enterprise. “Jack was the one they all worked for. But the central internal drama of the family was the way in which Bobby, once the least relevant member of the club, had emerged as its crucial figure—the one who, in his father’s words, would ‘keep the Kennedys together in the future.’”
The book’s third section, “Brothers Within,” explores the relationship between JFK and RFK during JFK’s presidency and Bobby’s subsequent political career between JFK’s assassination in 1963 and his own in 1968.
When he assumed the presidency, JFK had less of a political agenda than a personal agenda. “From the outset Jack was determined to furnish his presidency with acts that were original and authentic. In his desire to ‘keep all options open’ … he avoided committing himself to a specific political program. But his psychological agenda was always clear: to put a thumbprint on history, and, as he frankly (if somewhat ironically) admitted to Lem [his lifelong friend Lem Billings] and others, to achieve ‘greatness.’”
JFK also wanted his administration to have a distinctive style. His model was based on what he was most comfortable with: his family. “Trying to find an analogy for the distinctive ambiance of the new administration, [advisor Walt] Rostow had said that it was like an extended family. Lem Billings refined the concept even more by claiming that the new administration reminded him strongly of the Kennedy family into which he had been introduced thirty years earlier: a swirl of creative chaos, with everyone ignoring channels and competing for Jack’s attention as he and his brothers and sisters had once competed for the Ambassador’s.” It was not surprising, then, that JFK’s closest advisor would be his brother Bobby, whom he appointed Attorney General.
JFK’s assassination thrust Bobby into a new role, just as Joe Junior’s death had done for Jack. “Once again in the strange symmetry that organized the Kennedy family destiny, the death of one brother offered the survivor an unexpected and daunting opportunity for self-assertion, an opportunity he had never expected to have and, in a sense, didn’t want. As in the case of Joe Junior twenty years earlier, the price of selfhood was agreeing to shoulder the burden of a dead Kennedy’s unrealized promise. In Bobby’s interpretation this was the ‘unfinished work’ of Jack’s presidency, a ‘Legacy’ of programs initiated but not realized. It would probably have been a foreign conception for Jack, whose sense of the presidency as a personal destiny had (in an irony Bobby could not see) actually been achieved in the national apotheosis following Dallas which had made him the figure of historical romance he had secretly longed to be.”
Section four, “The Lost Boys,” focuses on the lone surviving Kennedy brother, Teddy, and on various members of the next generation.
After RFK’s assassination, Teddy inherited the family’s political mantle. Teddy had been a senator since 1962—family members had worked in his campaigns too—and it was universally assumed that he too would run for president. But Teddy had to contend not only with the shadows of three dead older brothers but also with his questionable behavior in the July 1969 Chappaquiddick tragedy that took the life of a young woman who had worked on Bobby’s 1968 campaign. The Chappaquiddick accident played into the “dark side” of the Kennedy legacy.
“It was one of the crucial moments of the Kennedy saga. All during the development of the Legacy a sort of shadow legacy of doubt and suspicion had moved along in lock step, waiting for an opening. If the Legacy held that Joseph Kennedy had been an eminent American who proved the vitality of the melting pot and the potential of the American dream, the shadow legacy insisted that he had been a bootlegger and semioutlaw who had risen by illegal leverage. If the legacy held that Jack’s life had been the remarkable triumph of disciplined grace over illness and pain, the shadow legacy said that he had been a libertine whose achievements were bought for him. If the Legacy held that Bobby had developed a moral passion that made him unlike any other politician in the history of the country, the shadow legacy claimed that he had always been a sinister force and that the apparent sea change of his last years had been a façade for the ruthless ambition that had always been his sole cause.”
Teddy did make several abortive runs for the presidency, most notably in 1980. But there was a ghoulish paradox at play. “In a sense the campaign had begun as a ‘death watch,’ in the term of the working press. Would the last Kennedy be killed too? … There was almost the feeling that Teddy had to become an assassin’s target in order to join his brothers’ demanding ghosts. … ‘Teddy was somehow judged adversely by the press as time went by and he didn’t get shot,’ one journalist said later on. It almost seemed to be another indication that he didn’t live up to the family ideal, that he was a failure.”
The book also takes a look at some of the younger Kennedys of the next generation. Many of them also felt the burden of the idea of the Kennedy “destiny.” Some tragically turned to drugs and other self-destructive behavior. Christopher Lawford, the son of Patricia Kennedy and her husband, actor Peter Lawford, was perceptive about the legacy. He said he was “increasingly coming to see the presidency as containing a sharp and dangerous paradox. It had made them what they were as a group; it also alienated each of them from what he or she might have been as an individual. … In his view it was an ideal that ultimately infantilized them rather than encouraging maturity; it gave a millenarian cast to their lives as they killed time awaiting the second coming; it made him and his cousins into lost boys living in a political never-never land whose inhabitants never grew up.”
The book was published in 1984, so it doesn’t conclude Teddy’s story or follow the next generation farther into the future. I happened to finish the book on April 20, 2023. Just the day before, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had announced his own candidacy for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president. According to this book, his appetite for the presidency had been whetted in the 1970s. A family friend asked him if running for president “was something he felt he actually should or could do. He looked at her intently for a moment before replying, ‘I feel that it is my destiny.’”
The information presented in the book is voluminous. Rather than attempting to review the book in detail, I am highlighting a selection of points that stood out to me and quoting liberally from the book.
The book is organized chronologically in four sections. The first, entitled “Architect of Their Lives,” examines the early life and career of the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, born in East Boston, Massachusetts, in 1888. Joe’s father, “P.J.” Kennedy, was a businessman and politician. Joe’s 1914 marriage to Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of Boston mayor “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, laid the foundation for a potential political dynasty. Joe had political ambitions for himself and the couple’s nine children (or the four sons, anyway).
Joe made a fortune in banking, investing, Hollywood film production, and post-Prohibition liquor distribution. The wealthy and privileged family became a world unto itself. Although the children were sent off to boarding schools, the family spent time together in their Palm Beach and Hyannis Port homes—“two houses facing away from land toward the sea. Almost peninsular in their isolation, they were ideal locales for raising children who would grow up feeling that the only society that really counted was that of the Kennedys themselves.” As a family friend said of the Kennedys, “You watched these people go through their lives and just had a feeling that they existed outside the usual laws of nature; that there was no other group so handsome, so engaged.” The family was close and united by a sense of destiny.
Joe Kennedy was a paradox: he wanted acceptance, but he wanted it without giving up his identity as a (not particularly devout) Irish Catholic. He realized this ambition in the political realm in 1938 when FDR appointed him Ambassador to the Court of St. James. “Kennedy wanted the ambassadorship because it was the most prestigious job in the diplomatic service and the one most unexpected for an Irish Catholic to hold.”
Joe’s own political ambitions for elective office were not well served by his prickly personality, questionable business reputation, and especially his isolationist and pro-appeasement stance before World War II. But he did have four sons.
The second section, “The Stand-In,” focuses on the political career of John F. Kennedy. Much of this material is familiar from the numerous books written about JFK, but the book does a good job of describing the family context in which JFK’s career was launched and sustained. Joe Kennedy’s hopes and dreams had centered on his oldest son, Joe Jr., but after his death in World War II, the hopes and dreams were transferred to Jack, the second son, although at first he was a somewhat reluctant torch-bearer. Entering politics was his father’s ambition for him, not necessarily his own.
JFK was weighted down by his accurate perception that he was a substitute for his brother. His health was also fragile. “But the real problem continued to be his father. Although well into his sixties, a time when most men step back a little, Joe Kennedy had continued to occupy most of the family’s psychic space—creating obligations without relinquishing power, giving so much that nothing could be personally achieved, defining what the game was and how it must be played.”
At the beginning of JFK’s campaign for the Senate in 1952, Joe Kennedy was hands-on, but he caused so much turmoil that morale was disastrous. It only turned around when younger brother Bobby took over the campaign.“His motives, unlike his father’s, seemed so selfless and his energy was so contagious that within days after his arrival campaign workers were referring to what had happened as ‘before the revolution’ and what was now happening as ‘after the revolution.’”
Everyone in the family was involved in Jack’s career, but even Joe recognized Bobby’s importance to the family’s political enterprise. “Jack was the one they all worked for. But the central internal drama of the family was the way in which Bobby, once the least relevant member of the club, had emerged as its crucial figure—the one who, in his father’s words, would ‘keep the Kennedys together in the future.’”
The book’s third section, “Brothers Within,” explores the relationship between JFK and RFK during JFK’s presidency and Bobby’s subsequent political career between JFK’s assassination in 1963 and his own in 1968.
When he assumed the presidency, JFK had less of a political agenda than a personal agenda. “From the outset Jack was determined to furnish his presidency with acts that were original and authentic. In his desire to ‘keep all options open’ … he avoided committing himself to a specific political program. But his psychological agenda was always clear: to put a thumbprint on history, and, as he frankly (if somewhat ironically) admitted to Lem [his lifelong friend Lem Billings] and others, to achieve ‘greatness.’”
JFK also wanted his administration to have a distinctive style. His model was based on what he was most comfortable with: his family. “Trying to find an analogy for the distinctive ambiance of the new administration, [advisor Walt] Rostow had said that it was like an extended family. Lem Billings refined the concept even more by claiming that the new administration reminded him strongly of the Kennedy family into which he had been introduced thirty years earlier: a swirl of creative chaos, with everyone ignoring channels and competing for Jack’s attention as he and his brothers and sisters had once competed for the Ambassador’s.” It was not surprising, then, that JFK’s closest advisor would be his brother Bobby, whom he appointed Attorney General.
JFK’s assassination thrust Bobby into a new role, just as Joe Junior’s death had done for Jack. “Once again in the strange symmetry that organized the Kennedy family destiny, the death of one brother offered the survivor an unexpected and daunting opportunity for self-assertion, an opportunity he had never expected to have and, in a sense, didn’t want. As in the case of Joe Junior twenty years earlier, the price of selfhood was agreeing to shoulder the burden of a dead Kennedy’s unrealized promise. In Bobby’s interpretation this was the ‘unfinished work’ of Jack’s presidency, a ‘Legacy’ of programs initiated but not realized. It would probably have been a foreign conception for Jack, whose sense of the presidency as a personal destiny had (in an irony Bobby could not see) actually been achieved in the national apotheosis following Dallas which had made him the figure of historical romance he had secretly longed to be.”
Section four, “The Lost Boys,” focuses on the lone surviving Kennedy brother, Teddy, and on various members of the next generation.
After RFK’s assassination, Teddy inherited the family’s political mantle. Teddy had been a senator since 1962—family members had worked in his campaigns too—and it was universally assumed that he too would run for president. But Teddy had to contend not only with the shadows of three dead older brothers but also with his questionable behavior in the July 1969 Chappaquiddick tragedy that took the life of a young woman who had worked on Bobby’s 1968 campaign. The Chappaquiddick accident played into the “dark side” of the Kennedy legacy.
“It was one of the crucial moments of the Kennedy saga. All during the development of the Legacy a sort of shadow legacy of doubt and suspicion had moved along in lock step, waiting for an opening. If the Legacy held that Joseph Kennedy had been an eminent American who proved the vitality of the melting pot and the potential of the American dream, the shadow legacy insisted that he had been a bootlegger and semioutlaw who had risen by illegal leverage. If the legacy held that Jack’s life had been the remarkable triumph of disciplined grace over illness and pain, the shadow legacy said that he had been a libertine whose achievements were bought for him. If the Legacy held that Bobby had developed a moral passion that made him unlike any other politician in the history of the country, the shadow legacy claimed that he had always been a sinister force and that the apparent sea change of his last years had been a façade for the ruthless ambition that had always been his sole cause.”
Teddy did make several abortive runs for the presidency, most notably in 1980. But there was a ghoulish paradox at play. “In a sense the campaign had begun as a ‘death watch,’ in the term of the working press. Would the last Kennedy be killed too? … There was almost the feeling that Teddy had to become an assassin’s target in order to join his brothers’ demanding ghosts. … ‘Teddy was somehow judged adversely by the press as time went by and he didn’t get shot,’ one journalist said later on. It almost seemed to be another indication that he didn’t live up to the family ideal, that he was a failure.”
The book also takes a look at some of the younger Kennedys of the next generation. Many of them also felt the burden of the idea of the Kennedy “destiny.” Some tragically turned to drugs and other self-destructive behavior. Christopher Lawford, the son of Patricia Kennedy and her husband, actor Peter Lawford, was perceptive about the legacy. He said he was “increasingly coming to see the presidency as containing a sharp and dangerous paradox. It had made them what they were as a group; it also alienated each of them from what he or she might have been as an individual. … In his view it was an ideal that ultimately infantilized them rather than encouraging maturity; it gave a millenarian cast to their lives as they killed time awaiting the second coming; it made him and his cousins into lost boys living in a political never-never land whose inhabitants never grew up.”
The book was published in 1984, so it doesn’t conclude Teddy’s story or follow the next generation farther into the future. I happened to finish the book on April 20, 2023. Just the day before, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had announced his own candidacy for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president. According to this book, his appetite for the presidency had been whetted in the 1970s. A family friend asked him if running for president “was something he felt he actually should or could do. He looked at her intently for a moment before replying, ‘I feel that it is my destiny.’”
March 18, 2010
This is a great overview of the Kennedy family in three generations. I was afraid that I would care nothing about the third generation, but that was a particularly intriguing section. Bobby's death devastated that family in so many ways.
Unfortunately for me, the women of the families are skimmed over and not really developed. The book should be entitled, "3 Generations of Some Kennedy Men". It has a pick and choose kind of feel; Steve Smith, husband of one of the Kennedys has a lot more coverage than his wife. The same is true for Sargent Shriver. Hmmm . . . maybe these authors couldn't find enough concrete info or documents about the ladies in the family.
Anyway, I felt the book was easy to read and had some great insights. If you are a sucker for political biography like me, pick it up!
Unfortunately for me, the women of the families are skimmed over and not really developed. The book should be entitled, "3 Generations of Some Kennedy Men". It has a pick and choose kind of feel; Steve Smith, husband of one of the Kennedys has a lot more coverage than his wife. The same is true for Sargent Shriver. Hmmm . . . maybe these authors couldn't find enough concrete info or documents about the ladies in the family.
Anyway, I felt the book was easy to read and had some great insights. If you are a sucker for political biography like me, pick it up!
September 6, 2013
Peter Collier and David Horowitz were comrades of the New Left--former radicals who over time moved to the right. This was written during the time they had absorbed some of the lessons of the sixties, but hadn't become active in trying to undo the damage. That is to say, I think they were by this time neither people trying to burnish the Kennedy image nor people who were trying to tear them down. I think this is a thoughtful, readable portrait of a family that doesn't pull its punches, but still manages to show empathy for their subject and evidently well-researched--they spent years researching this and interviewing members of the family and those involved with them. And it's engaging from beginning to end covering three generations from Joe Senior to his grandchildren up to the 1980s. All of which makes for a good biography.
May 22, 2017
The book was thoroughly researched and, for the most part, well presented. I would like to have seen more than a page or so devoted to the assassination (and aftermath) of JFK and RFK, and only a vague allusion (once sentence) to JFK Jr's tragic death. As other reviewers have noted, the authors seemed to focus on certain family members more than others, although I suppose with such a large family it would be hard to give each member equal time without making the book ponderously long. I certainly learned more about the family than the Camelot aura it has been given; for example, I did not know about Joe and Kick's deaths by airplane (and the ominous foreshadowing for JFK Jr), nor the depth of dysfunction from one generation to the next, and among the generations themselves. The level of competition, the depths of depravity (womanizing, drugs, and more) - the book almost reads like a soap opera. And along the way, I learned a lot of American history as each generation came of age - WWII, Korea, Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, and more.
What I found distracting - to the point of annoyance - was that in my particular edition, there were so many typos! Several in each chapter - sometimes several on one page. Constantly, a comma was used instead of the e-accent character. Names were misspelled ("Mim" Garrison instead of Jim); regular nouns were capitalized and sometimes proper nouns were not; paragraphs were broken in half mid-sentence; a 'b' instead of a 'd" in a word. It was hard to concentrate on the content of the book, when the form was disrupted. Where was the editing and proofreading? For that reason, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
What I found distracting - to the point of annoyance - was that in my particular edition, there were so many typos! Several in each chapter - sometimes several on one page. Constantly, a comma was used instead of the e-accent character. Names were misspelled ("Mim" Garrison instead of Jim); regular nouns were capitalized and sometimes proper nouns were not; paragraphs were broken in half mid-sentence; a 'b' instead of a 'd" in a word. It was hard to concentrate on the content of the book, when the form was disrupted. Where was the editing and proofreading? For that reason, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
June 14, 2017
Quite a detailed account of the family from the early one who came from Ireland, to Joe Kennedy who married Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of another Boston Irish politician, to JFK and Bobby, and Teddy and the others, down to the generation of the 1980s. Despite not getting help from the family directly, the authors did very well. Took a while to read and skimmed the last quarter of it. Extremely interesting if you want to know about them and "Camelot" and the dark side too.
March 10, 2019
Passionnante biographie sur le clan des Kennedys et leur obsession avec la présidence. On part de leurs origines, l'arrivée aux Etats-Unis, la main mise sur les régions et puis ces jeunes qui arrivent et qui sont parfaits pour rentrer en politique. Un âge d'or pour cette famille qui ensuite va s'effondrer après les assassinats. La pression de continuer cette tradition retombe sur la nouvelle génération qui se retrouve étouffée par ce bagage familial alors qu'ils ne sont pas du tout dans le même monde et sans rôle modèle pour les guider. On suit les destinés de chacun au fur et à mesure, elles se croisent et se lâchent, s'influencent ou s'empoisonnent. Le livre date des années 80 et s'arrête à cette période là. Il est dense mais très bien écrit, s'appuyant sur un énorme travail d'archives, de recherches pour recroiser les témoignages et donner sens à toutes ces informations.
November 18, 2020
Contrary to the appended review from the 'NY Times', this, like Seymour Hersch's subsequent 'The Dark Side of Camelot', is a titillating expose of the seamy side of the Kennedy family written by two right-wingers apparently interested in tarring liberalism along with some of its most prominent representatives. As such and politics aside, I enjoyed it quite a bit after the sycophantic treatments of the same people by Manchester and Sorenson.
April 9, 2022
El libro va aumentando en interés según avanza la historia familiar, desde el primer Kennedy en América, el patriarca Joseph, los hermanos Jack y Bobby…y a partir del asesinato de éste ,el resto de la historia es un drama, el de la generación perdida entre las drogas y el intento fallido de Ted de seguir la estela de sus hermanos.
Apasionante libro, más centrado en las personas que en la Historia.
Apasionante libro, más centrado en las personas que en la Historia.
July 8, 2020
Denne boka har stått i hylla i årevis, og eg tenkte nå var anledningen her. Eg har lest mykje om Kennedy dei siste åra fordi dei fascinerer meg ekstremt, så denne var ganske keisam.
February 18, 2022
it was okay
October 8, 2020
Fascinating in parts, slow and dragging in parts — it took me six months reading sections at a time to get through the whole thing. Several other books have mentioned the Kennedy claims the authors “tricked and abused” the late David Kennedy into participating with the book and have even blamed them for his death. However it’s very ibvious reading it he wasn’t the only Kennedy of his generation to have spoken to the authors although he was the one, as they point out in the epilogue of my version, that was blamed. It’s very interesting to compare their interpretation of Ethel’s parenting abilities to the way Tom Braden described them in his book Eight is Enough. History seems to indicate Ethel mothered her daughters and her younger sons better than she did her older sons. Or possibly they received parenting from people other than their mother. Mostly this book, at least the latter parts, deals with the Kennedy “grandchildren” in their teens and twenties, especially the ones who got into trouble — usually drug related. Most of these discussed are either grandparents themselves now, or dead. I’ve always wondered why someone doesn’t write a book about this generation of female descendants— Maria Shriver, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Caroline Kennedy — who tend to be more successful in their professional and personal lives, than another lengthy treatise on the failures of the “Camelot” male children
January 11, 2020
Brilliant book about the Kennedy family. Anybody who is interested in them, or even just American politics - especially 50s and 60s - should read this.
September 29, 2024
This comprehensive anthology chronicles the rise of America’s first family and serves as an apocalyptic reading that enlightens the reader on the fabric that upheld them for so long. Much is said about the famed generation of the Kennedy’s that produced the president and the attorney general turned senator, but this five part anthology begins in the 19th century and concludes on April 25, 1984, with yet another Kennedian tragedy. I appreciate the grit and vigor of the early generations of Kennedys that birthed the generation of Joseph and Rose’s children. It’s quite admirable, though, Joe’s dabbling in financial pursuits that were not so up and up.
Their rise to power was mumbled with much hardship and heartache with the 20th century Kennedys. From the challenges and taboos of mental illness with Rosemary, to the shocking and untimely deaths of Joe and Kick in the 1940s, the disintegration of the family following Joe Sr.s strike and the assassinations that changed America in the 1960s, to the self destruction of the younger Kennedys in the decades following, the Kennedys are an American staple and reminder of what used to be.
This review doesn’t encompass how much I learned about this family and my appreciation for how thorough of a project this is. The authors do not waste time running after conspiracy theories, rather, they exchange the temptation to run after ghosts with solid facts. The author understand we do not approach this book with a blank canvas; we know something about the Kennedys, if only the supposed “Kennedy curse.” The authors do not take for granted we bring baggage to the table and respects that by not undermining our intelligence with their own revisionist histories. This is something I admire.
The assassinations that occurred in the 1960s impacted this close-knit family in the worst ways—particularly the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. I had no idea how detrimental his death was to the family. After 1968, the family was never the same. They seemed to lose their way to the fear of a fate similar to the brothers befalling them. The story of Ted Kennedy is quite sad; what if he accepted the call and rose to the occasion to be what America needed in the aftermath of the deaths of Martin Luther Kjng, Jr. and his brother? How would America have fated if he accepted his duty in 1968 as opposed to the 1980s? His story is a stark reminder that neglected duty and failure to act when the time is right has generational impact. I truly feel Ted settled for security rather than pursuing destiny.
Lastly, I have to say I genuinely regret supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign for President. This book shines a new light on him that leaves disappointment in my thoughts about him. He’s nothing like his father and it’s a shame he even bears his name. This book is one to add to your library if you are a lover of history and especially the Kennedys, like I am. This book is highly recommended.
Their rise to power was mumbled with much hardship and heartache with the 20th century Kennedys. From the challenges and taboos of mental illness with Rosemary, to the shocking and untimely deaths of Joe and Kick in the 1940s, the disintegration of the family following Joe Sr.s strike and the assassinations that changed America in the 1960s, to the self destruction of the younger Kennedys in the decades following, the Kennedys are an American staple and reminder of what used to be.
This review doesn’t encompass how much I learned about this family and my appreciation for how thorough of a project this is. The authors do not waste time running after conspiracy theories, rather, they exchange the temptation to run after ghosts with solid facts. The author understand we do not approach this book with a blank canvas; we know something about the Kennedys, if only the supposed “Kennedy curse.” The authors do not take for granted we bring baggage to the table and respects that by not undermining our intelligence with their own revisionist histories. This is something I admire.
The assassinations that occurred in the 1960s impacted this close-knit family in the worst ways—particularly the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. I had no idea how detrimental his death was to the family. After 1968, the family was never the same. They seemed to lose their way to the fear of a fate similar to the brothers befalling them. The story of Ted Kennedy is quite sad; what if he accepted the call and rose to the occasion to be what America needed in the aftermath of the deaths of Martin Luther Kjng, Jr. and his brother? How would America have fated if he accepted his duty in 1968 as opposed to the 1980s? His story is a stark reminder that neglected duty and failure to act when the time is right has generational impact. I truly feel Ted settled for security rather than pursuing destiny.
Lastly, I have to say I genuinely regret supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign for President. This book shines a new light on him that leaves disappointment in my thoughts about him. He’s nothing like his father and it’s a shame he even bears his name. This book is one to add to your library if you are a lover of history and especially the Kennedys, like I am. This book is highly recommended.
November 6, 2022
Having read other reviews, I disagree with their criticism that the third generation are focused on too much and say that it is a good look into how the legacy frays as they go along their way. What detail is given about the previous generations is good as well. Some criticism:
* In spite of the book's framing of it as being drastic, life-ruining events, the actual assassinations of JFK and RFK felt very under-covered, with coverage only being about 1-2 pages each at most.
* Having read the 2001 edition, I think the authors go a bit too over-the-top with how much better John-John is than his cousins in the coda, especially since it was a bit of an act of idiocy that led to his fateful plane crash.
* Most of the coverage is very biased on about three to four of the Kennedy children at most, with the others only getting brief mentions. It's particularly bad with the women.
* Also, the copy I was looking at had some errors - stuff like the family tree erroneously claiming that Michael Jr (child of Michael Kennedy) died in 1997 - perhaps they're confusing him with his father, who did die that year.
It is a good book aside from that though.
* In spite of the book's framing of it as being drastic, life-ruining events, the actual assassinations of JFK and RFK felt very under-covered, with coverage only being about 1-2 pages each at most.
* Having read the 2001 edition, I think the authors go a bit too over-the-top with how much better John-John is than his cousins in the coda, especially since it was a bit of an act of idiocy that led to his fateful plane crash.
* Most of the coverage is very biased on about three to four of the Kennedy children at most, with the others only getting brief mentions. It's particularly bad with the women.
* Also, the copy I was looking at had some errors - stuff like the family tree erroneously claiming that Michael Jr (child of Michael Kennedy) died in 1997 - perhaps they're confusing him with his father, who did die that year.
It is a good book aside from that though.
August 13, 2022
This book is a good look at the making of the Kennedy dynasty. I learned things I did not know, and that's saying something considering this is the sixth book I've read about them. Jack finally seemed to be maturing following the tragic death of his son Patrick. A humorous story about Jack reading the Wall Street Journal while there were two naked women in his office is included.
Why only three stars? First, there are way too many notes added to the book. A few are fine, but they were into the thirties I think. Also, when the authors say "The surviving children" Kathleen is left out. Perhaps it's only fitting seeing as the family seemed to forget about her after her lobotomy. Too much time is spent on the grandchildren. Their terrible behavior (caused trouble, did drugs, caused more trouble, did more drugs) becomes repetitive, although I did learn RFK Jr. has been a detestable person for some time now.
All in all, the book's worth a read. But if you're like me, you'll start skipping through the final chapter.
Why only three stars? First, there are way too many notes added to the book. A few are fine, but they were into the thirties I think. Also, when the authors say "The surviving children" Kathleen is left out. Perhaps it's only fitting seeing as the family seemed to forget about her after her lobotomy. Too much time is spent on the grandchildren. Their terrible behavior (caused trouble, did drugs, caused more trouble, did more drugs) becomes repetitive, although I did learn RFK Jr. has been a detestable person for some time now.
All in all, the book's worth a read. But if you're like me, you'll start skipping through the final chapter.
June 16, 2024
Una biografía exhaustiva del Clan Kennedy que arranca con los abuelos del Presidente y culmina con "la generación perdida". Es muy detallada, organizada y presenta varios árboles genealógicos como referencia.. Es una descripción sin alma, como la que uno puede encontrar en Wikipedia pero de 600 páginas. Uno aprende datos de los kennedy pero no llega a “conocerlos”. Eventos que fueron un Tsunami en la vida de los Kennedy, como las enfermedades y muertes, son mencionadas de manera breve como si no hubieran tenido importancia. Curiosamente, lo que más me gustó fue la historia del padre del Presidente, Joseph Kennedy en esa América temprana en la que era increíblemente fácil amasar una fortuna.
December 8, 2017
Liked this book because the authors were not “in the pocket” of the Kennedys. They wrote the history of the family without political objectives nor furthering family myths.
The story is tragic, what a mess they made of each other’s lives and as a result they brought down those around them. One wonders what they could have achieved if they truly knew the gospel and they were not trying to prove something. I am left with the impression that most of their lives were focused upon what’s in it for the family legacy, my pleasure or my image. I wish their energy was truly in serving others.
The story is tragic, what a mess they made of each other’s lives and as a result they brought down those around them. One wonders what they could have achieved if they truly knew the gospel and they were not trying to prove something. I am left with the impression that most of their lives were focused upon what’s in it for the family legacy, my pleasure or my image. I wish their energy was truly in serving others.
November 13, 2021
Fascinating history of the Kennedy's. "... the Kennedy story is really about karma, about people who broke the rules and were ultimately broken."
This history is about the males of the family. Little tribute is paid to the women. Yes, short vignettes on Matriarch Rose, Rosemary, Kick, Jacquie, Ethel and Eunice, but no comparison to that of the men and boys. Their stories of courage and aging are missed in this treatment.
This history is about the males of the family. Little tribute is paid to the women. Yes, short vignettes on Matriarch Rose, Rosemary, Kick, Jacquie, Ethel and Eunice, but no comparison to that of the men and boys. Their stories of courage and aging are missed in this treatment.
February 19, 2022
So much we didn’t know
This was a fascinating and irritating book. JFK was my hero because I did not know all the corruption in his background, especially his father and his hypocritical mother and siblings. It is sad how dangerously low our 2-party system has descended. Everyone is bought and paid for in government and we are not a democracy nor a representative republic. The Kennedy corruption is just the tip of the iceberg. Where is hope?
This was a fascinating and irritating book. JFK was my hero because I did not know all the corruption in his background, especially his father and his hypocritical mother and siblings. It is sad how dangerously low our 2-party system has descended. Everyone is bought and paid for in government and we are not a democracy nor a representative republic. The Kennedy corruption is just the tip of the iceberg. Where is hope?
July 5, 2017
Good overview of the family and how they started in America. But lacking detail on the key historical moments. The book became boring after the assassination of Robert, of which surprisingly there was minimal information. So a useful reference book in parts but nothing like the full story is revealed.
October 3, 2017
A very thorough history of the Kennedy family. Would have liked for the authors to go into more detail on the women in the family, as I feel that their lives were often skimmed over for the more public lives of their brothers/husbands. Some events, such as the deaths of many of the family members, also seemed to be only mentioned briefly. Over all though, a lot of very interesting information.
April 22, 2021
As a Kennedy noob it seems very thorough and well presented, though I used it as the intro for a project I'm doing about Lem Billings and it's a absurd that they drop some coded hints about him being gay but try to imply he was somehow hetero. As they go into granular detail about pretty outrageous stuff, that seems like a ridiculous thing to lie about.
January 5, 2025
4.5 — Super insightful and read like a novel. Although a bit dense at times, I definitely learned a lot about the Kennedy dynasty and all the playmakers involved in making them the family they are. Highly recommend!
September 15, 2017
Great biographical book on one of America's great families.
December 14, 2017
Loved It.
March 29, 2018
Highly recommend if you are into the Kennedy family and history.
May 5, 2018
A little soap-opera-y and the book really made me not like the Kennedy's very much...
January 30, 2019
Well documented read.
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