For the proud couple, he would be their bridge to both joining and mastering the WASP society from which they, as Roman Catholics in early twentieth-century America, were barred. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, she launched their substantial family when, nine months later, she presented her husband with his son and heir, Joseph P. The pious daughter of the colorful Boston mayor John F. Joseph Kennedy, a titan of finance, whose murky early connections helped bring him riches and power but never the fullest respect, had married in 1914, after a seven-year courtship, Rose Fitzgerald. They want him to be like them-or, more accurately and better yet, what they long to be. Realizing that notion early, he becomes their ally. The first son is expected to be what the parents are looking for. Jack Kennedy, born in 1917 in the spring of the next-to-last year of World War I, was the second son of nine children. WhiteĬertain things come with the territory. History made Jack, this little boy reading history.įrom notes scribbled by Theodore H. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. It’s an awesome and delightful book.” -Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

Chris Matthews shows the cunning and determination beneath that magic. “Filled with the vitality and spirit that made Jack Kennedy such a magical figure. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know.” As Matthews writes: “I found a fighting prince never free of pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father’s son.

Matthews’s extraordinary biography is based on personal interviews with those closest to JFK, oral histories by top political aide Kenneth O’Donnell and others, documents from his years as a student at Choate, and notes from Jacqueline Kennedy’s first interview after Dallas. We watch JFK as a young politician learning to play hardball and watch him grow into the leader who averts a nuclear war. We witness his bravery in war and selfless rescue of his PT boat crew. We watch him navigate his life from privileged, rebellious youth to gutsy American president.

We see and feel him close-up, having fun and giving off that restlessness of his. We see this most beloved president in the company of friends. What was he like, this man whose own wife called him “that elusive, unforgettable man?” In this New York Times bestselling biography, Chris Matthews answers that question with the verve of a novelist. Jack Kennedy said the reason people read biography is to answer that basic question. Kennedy, by Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball. The critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling biography of John F.

Jack kennedy by chris matthews