Book picks similar to
The Irish Brotherhood: John F. Kennedy, His Inner Circle, and the Improbable Rise to the Presidency by Helen O'Donnell
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non-fiction
politics
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Parkland
Vincent Bugliosi - 2007
Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The film—starring Paul Giamatti, Zac Efron, Jacki Weaver, and Billy Bob Thornton—follows a group of individuals making split-second decisions after this incomprehensible event: the doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital, the chief of the Dallas Secret Service, the cameraman who captured what has become the most examined film in history, the FBI agents who had gunman Lee Harvey Oswald within their grasp, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson who had to take control of the country at a moment’s notice. Based on Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History—Parkland is the story of that day—the movie is produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman (Game Change, Charlie Wilson’s War), Nigel Sinclair (End of Watch, Snitch), Matt Jackson (End of Watch, Snitch), and Bill Paxton, and written and directed by Peter Landesman.
The Kaisers
Theo Aronson - 1971
Theo Aronson's The Kaisers is the story of six people whose bitter differences were a microcosm of, and greatly influenced, a national conflict which echoed all round the world. Kaiser Wilhelm I, born 1797, King of Prussia 1861, proclaimed Emperor of all Germany 1871, died only in 1888 an autocratic, militaristic man of the eighteenth century completely opposed to the liberalizing ideas which swept Europe in his lifetime. In contrast his Empress, Augusta, was progressive in thought, open-minded in outlook, yet with all had a taste for the theatrical and pageantry of her royal status. The best of her was seen in their son, Kaiser Frederick III, who was Crown Prince for all but the last few cancer-torn weeks of his life. He personified the best of European liberalism of the nineteenth century. In this he was supported—many said unduly influenced by his energetic and vivacious English wife Victoria, Queen Victoria's eldest and 'Dearest Child', who brought to the marriage the enlightened ideals and hopes of her shrewd, practical mother and her far-seeing father, the Prince Consort. The tragedy, the tempting speculation of Germany's history, is that this couple reigned for only three months before Frederick III's death brought their son to the throne. Kaiser Wilhelm II, 'Kaiser Bill' of the first World War, was again the antithesis of everything his parents stood for. Queen Victoria's hopes that her grandson might be 'wise, sensible, courageous — liberal-minded — good and pure', could hardly have been more misplaced. The sixth, the dominating figure in the Hohenzollern story, is Prince Otto von Bismarck, the ruthless 'Iron Chancellor', virtual dictator of Germany for nearly thirty years. He served all three Kaisers, claiming with justification that on his shoulders he had carried the first to the Imperial throne—where he manipulated him to his will despite the hatred and manoeuvrings of the Empress Augusta. He feared the reign of the short-lived second Kaiser and feared more perhaps (and never missed an opportunity to disparage) the Empress Victoria and the constant, commonsense influence from England of her mother. (`That', he said ruefully after their one meeting, 'was a woman ! One could do business with her ! ') Their son he flattered, siding with him against his parents, and in so doing brought about his own downfall, when the vainglorious young man he had schooled as Crown Prince came as Kaiser to believe that he could do without his mentor. But for Europe it was too late, and the policies of one and the vanities of the other were already leading Europe helter-skelter into the holocaust of 'the Kaiser's War'. Theo Aronson's gifts as a writer have deservedly brought him high regard as a chronicler of the complex histories of Europe's great ruling Houses. Rarely have his talents been better employed than in this study of the comet-like rise and fall of the House of Hohenzollern, the House of the Kaisers of Germany. It is a story of bitter, almost continual conflict, yet even in what can now be seen as a path to inevitable destruction Mr. Aronson finds passages of light and shade that show the Hohenzollerns not simply as Wagnerian puppets posturing on a vast European stage, but people deserving of our understanding and compassion.
The Day John Died
Christopher Andersen - 2000
I'd rather be a good one."—John F. Kennedy, Jr. Where were you the day John died? Like his father's assassination and the death of Princess Diana, the tragic plane crash that took the life of JFK Jr. on July 16, 1999 is one of the defining moments of our lives—an event that moved us so deeply we will never forget where we were the day we heard the news. With good reason. No other American had lived his entire life in the spotlight—from his rambunctious toddlerhood in the Kennedy White House and heartbreaking salute to his father's coffin to his daredevil Sexiest Man Alive bachelor days and his final years poised on the brink of fatherhood and a brilliant political career. Now, in the manner of his other No. 1 NEW YORK TIMES bestseller THE DAY DIANA DIED, respected Kennedy family biographer Christopher Andersen makes THE DAY JOHN DIED available for the first time as an ebook. Andersen draws on important sources—many talking here for the first time—to recreate in vivid and startling detail the events leading up to that fateful night off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. An inspiring, sympathetic, and compelling look at one of the most remarkable young men of our time, THE DAY JOHN DIED is more than just the definitive biography of JFK Jr. It is a bittersweet saga of triumph, love, loss, fate—and promise unfulfilled. It is the story of America's son. "Fascinating…Heartbreaking."—Newsweek "Compulsively readable."—Chicago Sun-Times "A detail-packed tearjerker… We defy you to remain unmoved."--Associated Press About the Author: Christopher Andersen is the critically acclaimed author of eighteen New York Times bestsellers, including six about the Kennedy family—Jack and Jackie, Jackie After Jack, The Day John Died, Sweet Caroline, These Few Precious Days, and The Good Son—as well as the No.1 international bestseller The Day Diana Died. A former TIME Magazine contributing editor and senior editor of PEOPLE, Andersen has also written for The New York Times, Life, Vanity Fair, and countless other publications.
The Soul of an American President: The Untold Story of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Faith
Alan Sears - 2019
Eisenhower that focus on his military career or the time of his presidency, none clearly explores the important role faith played both in his personal life and in his public policy. This despite the fact that he is the only US president to be baptized as a Christian while in office.Alan Sears and Craig Osten invite you on a journey that is unique in American history and is essential to understanding one of the most consequential, admired, and complex Americans of the 20th Century. The story begins in abject poverty in rural Texas, then travels through Kansas, West Point, two World Wars, and down Pennsylvania Avenue. This is the untold story of a man whose growing faith sustained him through the loss of a young son, marital difficulties, depression, career disappointments, and being witness to some of the worst atrocities humankind has devised. A man whose faith was based in his own sincere personal conviction, not out of a sense of political expediency or social obligation.You've met Dwight Eisenhower the soldier and Dwight Eisenhower the president. Now meet Dwight Eisenhower the man of faith.
America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Sarah Bradford - 2000
With an extraordinary range of candid interviews--many with people who have never spoken in such depth on record before--Bradford offers new insights into the woman behind the public persona. She creates a coherent picture out of Jackie's tumultuous and cosmopolitan life--from the aristocratic milieu of Newport and East Hampton to the Greek isles, from political Washington to New York's publishing community. She probes Jackie's privileged upbringing, her highly public marriages, and her roles as mother and respected editor, and includes rare photos from private collections to create the most complete account yet written of this legendary life. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's life is once again the center of interest with the 2016 release of the Pablo Larrain movie "Jackie," starring Natalie Portman.
The Dean: The Best Seat in the House, from FDR to Obama
John David Dingell - 2018
House of Representatives for fifty-nine consecutive years, from December 13, 1955 to January 3, 2015—the longest tenure of anyone in Congressional history. The son of a Congressman, Dingell worked in his father’s office from childhood and became a house page in 1938, when he was just eleven years old. Retiring from Congress at eighty-nine, he has witnessed some of the most significant events that have shaped our nation and the world.In The Dean, Dingell looks back at his life at the center of American government and considers the currents that have reshaped our Congress and America itself, from his childhood memories of wartime Washington during the FDR administration, through the Reagan Revolution, to the election of the first black president, Barack Obama.Rife with a wisdom that literally only Dingell can possess, The Dean is the inspiring story of some of the greatest congressional achievements, of which Dingell was an integral part, and of the tough fights that made them possible. Dingell offers a persuasive defense for government, explaining how it once worked honorably and well—in defeating Hitler, sending us to the moon, ending segregation, and providing for the common good of all our citizens. He argues that to secure our future and continue our progress, we must work together once again—lessons desperately needed today.
Rose Kennedy's Family Album: From the Fitzgerald Kennedy Private Collection, 1878-1946
Caroline Kennedy - 2013
Kennedy's centennial, celebrate the life and legacy of the 35th President of the United States. A selection of more than 300 images--including family letters, personal ephemera, and captivating photographs--collected by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, many never seen before, featuring the beloved and revered Kennedy family: This remarkable history dates from 1878 through 1946--up to the aftermath of WWII and the beginning of JFK's political career--and covers everything from the family's first home to beach vacations, from children's birthdays to first Communions. The images capture the formative years of a uniquely American dynasty, imparting a glowing nostalgia to the period and detailing the family's progress as it grows from a pair of turn-of-the-century newlyweds into a populous, vibrant clan of hopeful young men and women on the brink of their brilliant destinies. This is a piece of Americana that readers will treasure.
All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Tour of Appalachia
Matthew Algeo - 2020
Kennedy ventured deep into the heart of eastern Kentucky to gauge the progress of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Kennedy, already considering challenging Johnson for the Democratic presidential nomination, viewed his two days in Kentucky as an opportunity to test his antiwar and antipoverty message with hardscrabble white voters. Among the strip mines, one-room schoolhouses, and dilapidated homes, however, Kennedy encountered a strong mistrust and intense resentment of establishment politicians. In All This Marvelous Potential, author Matthew Algeo meticulously retraces RFK’s tour of eastern Kentucky, visiting the places he visited and meeting with the people he met. Algeo explains how and why the region has changed since 1968, and why it matters for the rest of the country. The similarities between then and now are astonishing: divisive politics, racial strife, economic uncertainty, and environmental alarm. This book provides a new portrait of Robert Kennedy, a politician who, for all his faults, had the uncommon courage to stand up to a president from his own party and shine a light on America’s shortcomings
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga
Doris Kearns Goodwin - 1987
Drawing on unprecedented access to the family and its private papers, Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling historian Doris Kearns Goodwin takes readers from John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald's baptism in 1863 through his reign as mayor of Boston, to the inauguration of his grandson as president ninety-eight years later. Each character emerges unforgettably: the young, shrewdly political Rose Fitzgerald; her powerful, manipulative husband, Joseph P. Kennedy; and the "Golden Trio" of Kennedy children -- Joe Jr., Kathleen, and Jack -- whose promise was eclipsed by the family's legacy of tragedy. Through the prism of two self-made families, Goodwin reveals the ambitions and the hopes that form the fabric of the American nation.
Bal Thackeray & The Rise of The Shiv Sena
Vaibhav Purandare - 2012
It examines Thackeray the person and his intriguing political personality, his party’s militaristic methods of operation, its controversial role at major junctures, the fight between Thackeray’s nephew Raj and son Uddhav, the end of an era in Maharashtra politics after his death in November 2012 and the future of the Shiv Sena without his imposing presence. A must-read for an understanding of contemporary Indian politics and the rise of the Hindu nationalist phenomenon.
The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People: An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America
N. Brent Kennedy - 1994
Kennedy's memoir of discovery is personal and historical, cultural, and autobiographical.
The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century
Howie Carr - 2006
For years their familiar story was of two siblings who took different paths out of South Boston: William "Billy" Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate; and his brother James "Whitey" Bulger, a vicious criminal who became the FBI's second most-wanted man after Osama Bin Laden. While Billy cavorted with the state's blue bloods to become a powerful political force, Whitey blazed a murderous trail to the top rung of organized crime. Now, in this compelling narrative, Carr uncovers a sinister world of FBI turncoats, alliances between various branches of organized crime, St. Patrick's Day shenanigans, political infighting, and the complex relationship between two brothers who were at one time kings. As the film Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, hits theaters, take a deeper dive into the story of the Bulgers, and their fifty-year reign over Boston with Howie Carr's The Brother's Bulger.
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
Jacqueline Kennedy - 2011
Kennedy's centennial, celebrate the life and legacy of the 35th President of the United States.
In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy recorded seven historic interviews about her life with John F. Kennedy. Now, for the first time, they can be read in this deluxe, illustrated eBook.Shortly after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, with a nation deep in mourning and the world looking on in stunned disbelief, Jacqueline Kennedy found the strength to set aside her own personal grief for the sake of posterity and begin the task of documenting and preserving her husband's legacy. In January of 1964, she and Robert F. Kennedy approved a planned oral-history project that would capture their first-hand accounts of the late President as well as the recollections of those closest to him throughout his extraordinary political career. For the rest of her life, the famously private Jacqueline Kennedy steadfastly refused to discuss her memories of those years, but beginning that March, she fulfilled her obligation to future generations of Americans by sitting down with historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and recording an astonishingly detailed and unvarnished account of her experiences and impressions as the wife and confidante of John F. Kennedy. The tapes of those sessions were then sealed and later deposited in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum upon its completion, in accordance with Mrs. Kennedy's wishes.The resulting eight and a half hours of material comprises a unique and compelling record of a tumultuous era, providing fresh insights on the many significant people and events that shaped JFK's presidency but also shedding new light on the man behind the momentous decisions. Here are JFK's unscripted opinions on a host of revealing subjects, including his thoughts and feelings about his brothers Robert and Ted, and his take on world leaders past and present, giving us perhaps the most informed, genuine, and immediate portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy we shall ever have. Mrs. Kennedy's urbane perspective, her candor, and her flashes of wit also give us our clearest glimpse into the active mind of a remarkable First Lady.In conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy's Inauguration, Caroline Kennedy and the Kennedy family are now releasing these beautifully restored recordings on CDs with accompanying transcripts. Introduced and annotated by renowned presidential historian Michael Beschloss, these interviews will add an exciting new dimension to our understanding and appreciation of President Kennedy and his time and make the past come alive through the words and voice of an eloquent eyewitness to history.
Gimson's Presidents: Brief Lives From Washington to Trump
Andrew Gimson - 2020
Helping to bring these forgotten figures into the light, Andrew Gimson's illuminating accounts are accompanied by sketches from Guardian sartirical cartoonist, Martin Rowson, making this the perfect gift for all lovers of history and politics.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: The True History of the War for Southern Independence
Clyde N. Wilson - 2016
The entire South—its people, culture, history, customs, both past and present—has been and continues to be lied about and demonized by the unholy trinity of the American establishment: Academia, Hollywood, and the Media. In the midst of the anti-South hysteria currently infecting the American psyche—the banning of flags, charges of hate and “racism,” the removal and attempted removal of Confederate monuments, the renaming of schools, vandalism of monuments and property displaying the Confederate Battle Flag, and even physical assaults, albeit rarely at present, on people who display the symbols of the South — Shotwell Publishing offers this unapologetic, unreconstructed, pro-South book with the hope that it will reach those who are left that are not afraid to question the sanity of this cultural purge and the veracity of its narrative concerning the South.