An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

392. JFK: The Road to the White House (Part 1)

November 27, 2023

Description

“There were a lot of people who wanted Kennedy dead, a lot of powerful people. There are secrets still being held and I never bought for a minute that Oswald operated alone.” The assassination of...
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Books Referenced

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

Author: Richard Hofstadter

Context:

Referenced as a book written the year after Kennedy's assassination, discussing the theme of paranoia in American politics

JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century

Author: Fred Logevall

Context:

Referred to multiple times as 'Fred Logevall's great book on JFK' and 'his big biography' - a biography of JFK's early life

The World Crisis

Author: Winston Churchill

Context:

Described as the book Kennedy read as a teenager that 'transformed his life' - Churchill's account of the First World War

Marlborough: His Life and Times

Author: Winston Churchill

Context:

Referenced as 'Churchill's massive million word biography of the Duke of Marlborough' which Kennedy read after The World Crisis

The Young Melbourne

Author: David Cecil

Context:

A biography of Lord Melbourne mentioned as something Kennedy read and 'became absolutely a mad devotee of Lord Melbourne'

Pilgrim's Way

Author: John Buchan

Context:

Mentioned as one of the books Kennedy took with him to the South Pacific during World War II

War and Peace

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Context:

Mentioned as a book Kennedy took with him and read while serving in the South Pacific

Arabian Nights

Author: Anonymous (Traditional)

Context:

Mentioned as one of the adventure and romantic stories Kennedy loved reading as a child

While England Slept

Author: John F. Kennedy

Context:

Referenced as a book Kennedy wrote about British politics in the 1930s, about Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, based on his Harvard senior thesis