JFK

I’ve been interested in John F. Kennedy since I was a boy and have studied his career ever since with deep interest. My first book about him, JFK in the Senate, was inspired when I came across an archive that detailed Kennedy’s extraordinary work as the chairman of a prestigious Senate panel to determine the five most consequential senators in American history. This led me to a broader examination of JFK’s eight-year Senate career which is often overlooked by both experts and casual students of Kennedy.

My second book about JFK, Rising Star, Setting Sun, was prompted by the random browsing through an anthology of the greatest political speeches in American history. I was fascinated to notice that two speeches occurred just days apart—President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address on January 17, 1961 and President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961. This compelled me to study the intriguing transition between Kennedy’s election in early November 1960 and his inauguration ten weeks later. Eisenhower and Kennedy conducted the transition of power with a wary professionalism that was always mindful of the national interest. The two men reminded me of great Shakespearean figures—Eisenhower, the aged king, who is ushered off center stage and Kennedy, the ambitious young crown prince, eager to seize power and change the world.

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