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    Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero
    Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero
    Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero
    Audiobook13 hours

    Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero

    Written by Chris Matthews

    Narrated by Holter Graham

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Filled with the vitality and spirit that made Jack Kennedy such a magical figure. Chris Matthews shows the cunning and determination beneath that magic. It’s an awesome and delightful book.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

    “What was he like?”

    Jack Kennedy said the reason people read biography is to answer that basic question. 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. We see this most beloved president in the company of friends. We see and feel him close-up, having fun and giving off that restlessness of his. We watch him navigate his life from privileged, rebellious youth to gutsy American president. We witness his bravery in war and selfless rescue of his PT boat crew. We watch JFK as a young politician learning to play hardball and watch him grow into the leader who averts a nuclear war.

    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. 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. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know.”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 1, 2011
    ISBN9781442349179
    Author

    Chris Matthews

    Chris Matthews is a distinguished Professor of American Politics and Media at Fulbright University Vietnam. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit; Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero; Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked; Kennedy & Nixon; and Hardball. For twenty years, he anchored Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC

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    Reviews for Jack Kennedy

    4/5

    63 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A quick political biography of John F. Kennedy by the host of Hardball Chris Matthews. Matthew's is up front about his love of Kennedy, but with that said, I thought this biography was very fair in pointing out JFK's successes and failures. I enjoyed the many behind the scenes stories and quotes from this biography. I thought it went a bit too quickly through the major events of his presidency, but I certainly gained a deeper appreciate for Kennedy the man and Kennedy the politician.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good biography, but I realize it's not the best one of JFK. Mainly told from perspective of his friends and political associates. I have become sort of fascinated with the Kennedy family.
    • 4/5
      In my reading of Presidential biographies, I tend to gravitate towards the larger tomes. I want to get a broad picture of the zeitgeist of the day, and I figure that in a smaller biography, those details would be the first to be edited out. This time, however, I broke pattern and went with a book that was barely over 400 pages. Mr. Matthews didn't fail me. He paints a full picture of John Kennedy and the times he lived in. Based mostly on interviews with Kennedy's friends and co-workers, Mr. Matthews tells the story of the rich boy who struggled with ill health and grew up in the shadow of his older brother. Service in World War II helped shape him, and after the war he turned his attention to politics, creating his own style of campaigning. As I read the book, I got a better understanding of Kennedy's charisma and appeal. Growing up in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, I sometimes wondered if his legacy in our culture was simply the response to his untimely death. This book shows that John Kennedy did indeed help shape American culture, even as he wrestled with the events of the day.--J.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed the book and thought Matthews did an able job of keeping his personal politics out of it. Wonder how accurate a portrayal it was of JFK's romantic life and how Matthews decided which romantic aspects of JFK's life shaped who he was as a leader and a man.
    • 5/5
      Excellent!
    • 3/5
      This book really cuts a lot out of the life of JFK. It's basically a fluff piece, written by a man obviously enamored of his subject. The book focuses mostly on the goods deeds of JFK, and basically skims over his faults. Look elsewhere if you want a serious, well-rounded biography of JFK.