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Title: Grace and Power : The Private World of the Kennedy White House by SALLY BEDELL SMITH ISBN: 0-375-50449-4 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 04 May, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating
Comment: Though I haven't read any other books about the Kennedy administration, and consequently cannot say if this one is better or worse than others on the same topic, this one caught my attention. The book appears to be well researched and documented and gives the reader a real feel for what the Kennedy White House must have been like, warts and all. I found the view to be balanced, presenting both the strengths and the personal foibles of the people involved.
The book is full of fascinating historical dichotomies; for example, it shows how the administration would deal with war with Russia over Cuba during the day, and then party at night. (One must maintain one's standards, even in the face of nuclear annihilation.) The reader also gets a real sense of tremendous responsibilities and burdens that go with living in the White House.
To digress a bit, what I really got from this book was a reminder of what politics in the USA used to be like, when politicians were more interested in doing what was best for the country, before the citizens of all political persuasions allowed it to become so bitterly and unproductively polarized. There used to be dialog between the political parties instead of ranting; there used to be pragmatic compromises and solutions instead of unyielding positions; and there used to be respect for the concept that reasonable minds can differ. Camelot, indeed.
That reminder alone makes this a worthwhile read.
Rating: 5
Summary: "Grace and Power" - A Great Read!
Comment: What a great read! Sally Bedell Smith did a wonderful job researching and writing about one of America's greatest fascinations - the Kennedy family. There have been countless numbers of articles, essays and books written about the Kennedys, most of which discuss the family from a political point of view from the outside looking in. What Sally Bedell Smith does masterfully and uniquely is discuss the private world of the Kennedys and their closest friends from the inside looking out. Reading the book, I felt like I was a fly on the wall for the entire time the Kennedys lived at the White House. I got to share in the excitement, the ambition, the sorrow and the wantoness of the Kennedys and their friends. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: "Camelot" re-revealed magnificently...
Comment: The essence of "Camelot" wasn't necessarily the inspiring leadership of John Kennedy (although this certainly doesn't hurt the Camelot mystique) or the seemingly serene picture of the youngest elected President and his equally youthful wife, rather it was a culture, indeed an attitude or mystique that many historians have tried to capture with heretofore moderate to little success. In this light, Sally Bedell Smith has presented her attempt at synthesizing the mystique with the well documented history of JFK's administration and has succeeded fabulously with "Grace and Power".
The perspective that Smith presents is one that many historians have missed...in a day when JFK administration books abound, Smith gives us a whole new view into the Kennedy family. Right from the beginning of this work, we delve into the personal and behavorial side of both the new President and his First Lady and see how they are in turn affected by the avalanche of the media and policy machine. JFK's full medical history (recently made public in Robert Dallek's magnificent work "An Unfinished Life") is further explained by Smith with many new nuances and she describes how these many maladies not only affected his work as President, but his family life as well. Indeed, we see JFK's covert doctor (Max Jacobson..."Dr. Feelgod") administering to Jackie as well (during periods of stress or depression) and it's this level of new information, presented not in a tawdry gossipy style, but in fair and elegant prose, that really made this work hard for me to put down. JFK's dalliances with many other women comes to be a main theme at the beginning of the story and we see how Jackie's attitude of benign acceptance at this behavior is formed over time in the White House. At the same time, Smith suceeds in presenting JFK as a loving Father and husband...further enhancing this mysterious component of JFK's behavior.
The social scene at the JFK White House is comprehensively descibed...at times offering a counter-balance with what is happening in the world and I thought this added a fullness to the Kennedy story that is usually missing from many otherwise excellent JFK works. For example we see the dinners and the guests who attended them given equal importance in the book while the emotion and stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis is distracting the President. How JFK reacts at these events (i.e. away from "work") is a fascinating new look at the Crisis and Administration as a whole and is this new information that I mentioned that should be the selling point for this work. Closing out the book, Smith eloquently descibes the before and after affects of the assasination on all the participants (old girlfriends as well as close family friends) and tries to philosophize on what the tragedy meant to each.
Historians may argue that the level of scholarship pertaining to Presidential history is lacking (although, I thought Smith did an admirable job describing the events that she did cover), but clearly the focus of this work was not a historical narrative but a genuine social/historical synthesis.
Supported by many new interviews and research, Sally Bedell Smith has added immensly to the monumental amount of literature surrounding the JFK administration and given us a unique perspective that should be used by all as an emotional target for that magnificent and tragic time. A fairly quick read (about 470 pages of readable text) and lively written, I would recommend this book very highly.
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Title: Farewell, Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days by Edward Klein ISBN: 0670033316 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis : A Portrait in Her Own Words (With a One-Hour DVD Insert from A&E Biography) by Bill Adler ISBN: 0060732822 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 13 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Tina Santi Flaherty ISBN: 0399529888 Publisher: Perigee Books Pub. Date: 06 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Sons of Camelot: The Fate of an American Dynasty by Laurence Leamer ISBN: 006620965X Publisher: William Morrow & Company Pub. Date: 16 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: A Royal Duty by Paul Burrell ISBN: 0399151729 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Pub. Date: 25 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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