John F. Kennedy: A Biography

A massive book - 905 pages. An interesting man- not especially idealistic, but very pragmatic. The sections about his youth and war experiences were enlightening, but I was turned off by the chapters on his womanizing and medical problems. Because he was cut down tragically in the apogee of his life he has become a martyred icon of liberalism, but I think if he had lived longer he would have been brought down by his feet of clay!

https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...

“John F. Kennedy: A Biography” by Michael O’Brien was published in 2005 after a decade of research which included access to recently-released material from the Kennedy Library. O’Brien is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin (Fox Valley) and the author of several books including “McCarthy and McCarthyism in Wisconsin” and “Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi.”

The book’s publisher claims this to be the first modern biography of Kennedy to take advantage of a vast array of newly-released materials. But they seem to have overlooked Robert Dallek’s “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy” published two years earlier with arguably superior access to fresh materials – and which the author himself cites in this book’s extensive bibliography.

Both a key strength and a notable weakness, O’Brien’s biography is nothing short of encyclopedic. This 905 page behemoth seems to cover every aspect of JFK’s life – often in daunting detail – and to thoroughly examine every controversy, large and small, with admirable balance and objectivity.

Several of the book’s chapters are particularly engaging. O’Brien’s discussion of Kennedy’s efforts to gain the Democratic presidential nomination is excellent (and not unexpectedly thorough). A later chapter on Kennedy’s personality, strengths, interests and style of engaging with colleagues was also fascinating. But the chapter covering Kennedy’s White House, his decision-making style and his limited reliance on his Cabinet is perhaps the most compelling.

But while the book contains a significant amount of wisdom, its most valuable insights are buried beneath a great mass of less compelling material. A basic rule-of-thumb is that if something can be covered in a paragraph, O’Brien takes a page; if it requires a page, O’Brien gives it a chapter. This verbosity apparently left the publisher unable to find room for the book’s end notes; they were once available online but now seem to have vanished.

The author’s approach to most “controversial” topics is to offer multiple perspectives on an issue, referencing previous biographers and their conclusions. After weighing the evidence O’Brien generally renders his own verdict before moving onto the next topic. The author’s conclusions are consistently thoughtful (and generally convincing) but this approach interrupts the flow of the narrative and leaves the book feeling far more like a literature review than a biography.

The book ends swiftly with Kennedy’s assassination and funeral…and without consideration of his legacy or impact on the country. Throughout the book’s forty-four chapters the author takes care to avoid siding with ardent fans of Kennedy but also to avoid castigating him for his most conspicuous faults. And in the end, rather than evaluate the Kennedy legacy, he leaves final consideration of this inspirational but flawed president to the reader.

Overall, Michael O’Brien’s “John F. Kennedy: A Biography” is impressive in both size and scope but it offers little of Kennedy which is truly unique…other than its style of arbitrating controversies related to Kennedy’s life. Some readers will find this book a valuable reference on JFK – it is hard to imagine a more thorough and extensive collection of the circumstances surrounding his life. But most readers will find the book’s size intimidating, its detail burdensome and its most valuable wisdom and insights spread far too thin.

Overall rating: 3½ stars

It is surprisingly difficult to find a one-volume biography of John F Kennedy, as O'Brien himself notes as part of the reasoning behind writing this book. While there are gaggles of titles to choose from on specific points of his life, his presidency, or his death, rare is the author who follows Kennedy from beginning to end. O'Brien's narrative style is quite interesting -- up until the presidency, the narrative is essentially chronological, but when the reader gets to the presidency, the chapters become framed around specific subjects/topics with a loose chronology (the first half of the presidential chapters focus primarily on the early presidency while the latter half bring the reader up to late 1962-1963). It does not provide a great deal of information about the assassination, a decision of O'Brien's that I highly agree with as I think there are other sources that do a good job of covering that series of events. However, it places it in the greater context of Kennedy's life and does a good job of wrapping up the story of a complex individual. My one complaint was the lack of end notes - due to the length, the decision was made to post them on the publisher's website. However, the publishing company has since been taken over by another publishing company, so the endnotes are no longer available on the website. For the casual reader, there will be little lost by this lacking, but for anyone with a scholarly interest in the world, it does complicate things a bit. Overall, though, a very insightful, well-written biography.

My favorite biography on JFK

a very good read spanning the life of JFK. It goes into more detail for the more important life events. Though I could sense an author bias for JFK he was very even handed and times critical JFK. You got the sense of a very charismatic man, that could be focused and driven while at the same time reckless and juvenile. His presidency was one of huge failure and successes and many of these were determined by decisions he made. A brilliant man who after making a mistake would try to never make it again in his professional life but took unnecessary risks in his personal life. He could be very kind and generous and mean and vindictive to those around him.

Es la biografía de Marcel Duval, no este(no me dejan subir ahora libros porque han de ser aceptados por el "librarians group").

Buena biografía, corta pero sustancial.


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Very informational and inspiring. Nice read to get a book done quickly and still learn something new.

An excellent, clear summary of the life of a significant person.