Michael Napoli’s Reviews > The Kennedys: An American Drama > Status Update

"She tried to be 'scientific' in her child-rearing techniques... She kept a card index for each child on which she noted certain data - immunizations, shoe sizes, childhood diseases, growth rates, and so on."

People use the term science too loosely, often referring to sharing subtasks and aesthetics that scientists have as being scientific. Science is instead an empiricist philosophy formalizing discovery.

In Chapter 2, Mary AH Kennedy’s emphasizing to Joseph Patrick Kennedy to emphasize his Anglo-passing first name to wealthy patrons illustrates the theme of Irish (and Italian) parents self-enforcing American integration. The story brings up questions to what extent should immigrants evolutionarily diverge from their motherland for the sake of integration. What are the tradeoffs between integration vs tradition?

Patrick Kennedy and Patrick J Kennedy section is interesting for its discussion on Irish immigration in the 1800s in Boston and how the Kennedys fit into the broader picture. The chapter provides starling and morbid immigration statistics. Discussion of the Boston’s “Boss” system that resembles (yet is distinct from) NYC’s Tammany hall illustrates how immigrants often need to organize to survive