February 1, 2022
In this biography, the elegant and popular presidential historian Updegrove (head of the LBJ Foundation; Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency) asserts that despite John F. Kennedy's early temporizing stumbles with the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1961 Vienna Summit, and the 1963 Diem coup, his pragmatic nature allowed him to learn from his mistakes (especially his initially tepid attitude toward the civil rights movement) and leave a lasting legacy. Updegrove's opinion is shared by the likes of Robert Dallek (An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963) and disputed by, for instance, Nigel Hamilton (JFK: Reckless Youth). Here Updegrove only mentions, but does not elaborate on, the presidential distractions posed by Kennedy's womanizing. Instead, he provides more context on the overarching impact of World War II on the extended Kennedy family, especially patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. Updegrove demonstrates an extensive familiarity with extant sources and adds new material from the papers of Kennedy aide/speechwriter Richard Goodwin, provided by Goodwin's widow. VERDICT Updegrove will alleviate, although not quench, general readers' continual thirst for biographies of JFK. Pair with the likes of Fredrik Logevall's JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.
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February 28, 2022
In this stylish yet familiar history, former Newsweek publisher Updegrove (The Last Republicans) contends that John F. Kennedy maintained his unprecedented popularity because he acknowledged and learned from geopolitical missteps such as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion (“The worse I do, the more popular I get,” Kennedy once mused). It’s a largely flattering portrait, as Updegrove acknowledges Kennedy’s “erraticism” and “rampant and reckless womaniz,” including an affair with a 19-year-old intern, but prefers to focus on how he gained confidence and perspective while confronting the prospect of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis (“the most dangerous moment in human history”) and the demands of an intensifying civil rights movement. Though the fast-paced narrative smoothly transitions from one high-stakes matter to the next and reveals just how eventful the abbreviated Kennedy presidency was, Updegrove has few new insights to offer on his subject’s character or motivations and relies heavily on the work of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Ted Sorenson, and other Kennedy biographers. The result is a brisk and entertaining biography that doesn’t bring much new to the table. Agent: Jim Hornfischer, Hornfischer Literary Management.
March 15, 2022
A nuanced portrait of John F. Kennedy's truncated time in the White House. Americans have long been politically divided. As presidential historian Updegrove observes, Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in the 1960 election only by the slimmest of margins, less than two-tenths of a percentage point. Americans seem to have been more generous of spirit back then. Multiple times the author observes that Kennedy had a disastrous first few months in office with the Bay of Pigs invasion (authorized, it must be said, by Nixon's former boss, Dwight Eisenhower), but his approval rating stood at 83%. The grace of Updegrove's title comes not just from Kennedy's air of noblesse oblige, but also from Ernest Hemingway's definition of courage as "grace under pressure," which Kennedy certainly showed, at least in public. In private, things were different: Kennedy was often debilitated with pain from injuries suffered in war and the effects of steroids taken precisely to improve his condition. "He, his family, his aides, and his doctors had hidden his illnesses and medical remedies from the press," writes Updegrove, "knowing that Americans would raise understandable concerns if made fully aware of his extensive maladies." Still, Kennedy met the occasion, as when the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961, a feat that caused Kennedy to fast-forward the development of NASA programs that would put Americans on the moon. Kennedy also learned from his frequent showdowns, mostly rhetorical, with Nikita Khrushchev that nuclear war was out of the question, as his deft handling of the Cuban missile crisis would prove. Updegrove's skillful portrait reveals a president who learned on the job and did so with humility, "calling forth the best in all of us," which helps account for the widely shared enshrinement of Kennedy's memory today. A well-rendered portrait showing that presidential politics can be both effective and a force for the good.
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Starred review from March 15, 2022
Historian Updegrove, who chronicled Lyndon Johnson's presidency in Indomitable Will (2012), turns here to LBJ's predecessor. When John Kennedy assumed the Presidency in 1961, he faced the height of superpower Soviet Union's global reach abroad and struggled to navigate the politically dislocating rise of the civil rights movement at home in the U.S. Updegrove limns Kennedy's ascent from overshadowed, somewhat sickly second son to war hero. Building on his father's ambitions and considerable wealth, young Kennedy became a force of his own in Congress and rose steadily in Democratic Party politics. As he began his administration, Kennedy contended with Soviet success in space and the disastrous attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime. In his personal life, while he and wife Jackie set a new social and cultural standard for the country to admire, his insatiable libido thrust him into dangerous territory that was an open secret. Kennedy and his handpicked team of advisors, including brother Bobby, successfully navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis, but found themselves perplexed by Southeast Asia's ferment. Updegrove doesn't lose his way in excessive detail, penning a biography that brings JFK into living perspective for a younger generation who might know him only from their parents' tales.
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