Product Description

President Kennedy is the compelling, dramatic history of JFK's thousand days in office. It illuminates the presidential center of power by providing an indepth look at the day-by-day decisions and dilemmas of the thirty-fifth president as he faced everything from the threat of nuclear war abroad to racial unrest at home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

good
I have not read this book yet, but it arrived quickly and in good shape.

President Kennedy
I was worried about the book being boring and I wasn't able to finish the book but what I read was gripping and important.Reads like a fine novel.

EXCELLENT
This is unlike a lot of books you read about JFK. It is almost devoid of Camolot, Marilyn Monroe, or most of the myth we asscociate with Kennedy. Instead, it dives deeply into the day to day opperations of the White House in some of our mostdangerous of times.

Kennedy handled his botched 1961 summit with Krucheiv, civil rights, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He had to deal with a country on the verge of a racial war, and a world on the verge of a nuclear one.

What Reeves does is give insight into the day to day decision-making process Kennedy used, and showed how interests and politics work in this process. He also shows JFK as a pragmatist, but one who had the insight to thred the needle in some of Americas most dangerous historical events. This was a man who brought the world back from the edge during the cuban Missle Crisis, through sage wisdom, yet opened himself to blackmail by sleeping around parcipitously. A president who moved civil rights forward, but not before taking all the political implications first.

The contradictions are facinating, and Reeves draws them using small details, and not the broad strokes we've become used to when talking about this wonderful, tragic, unfinshed presidentcy.

Reeves also talks about the speeding up of technology from 1961-63: vaccuum tubes to transisors, operators to direct dialing, and memiographs to Xeroxs. Outlined is how these things changed America, and how its politics worked. This is an angle we might not think of,yet it is important because of these changes in process, and becuase it showshow America was climbing a social and technological mountian.'

Reeves shows an ambitious, young America, full of new ideas and unlimited resources, and you have to wonder if this was an America that could have been very different, had Kennnedy not been killed. What if we had all this technological progress but not the social fallout of the asassination: maintained our early 60s values. Would we all be living like George and Jane Jetson by now? Who knows.


In any event, this is a great read if you want to go beyond the Kennedy Myth.

A Look at On-The-Job Training
"President Kennedy" examines the subject's life during his White House years.At times it literally covers John F. Kennedy's life on an hour-by-hour, meeting-by-meeting basis as the president and his staff try to figure out how to run the country and influence world events.

This is one of the most interesting and scary biographies I have ever read.Interesting because the reader gets a glimpse of the inner workings of a president's decision-making process.Scary because apparently Kennedy was learning on the job and seemed poised to use nuclear weapons on several occasions.

This is a very readable biography that gives a good view of the politics of the time.

Kennedy: Profiles in Power
This product was sent efficiently and in great condition. Helping me tremendously with a paper I'm writing. Will buy from seller again ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of Richard Kennedy's stories, including "The Porcelain Man," "Come Again In The Spring," and "Inside My Feet." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Deserves wider recognition
I was introduced to Richard Kennedy through a single short story made into a juvenile picture book:The Porcelain Man, with illustrations by Marcia Sewell.I had no idea that there were lots more stories that were just as magical, instructive and dreamy as that one. These are not traditional fairy tales, or even in the middle of the fairy tale tradition. They remind me a bit of the Natalie Babbitt's stories in The Devil's Storybook(s). Neither an ordinary "chapter book" for middle-grade readers, nor an easy read for reluctant older readers; but a real treat for philosophical, curious, thoughtful readers of ANY age. My grown children would enjoy these as would a retired ex-Pat living in Estonia.

Collected Stories-Richard Kennedy
As an elementary teacher, I had the opportunity to use some of Richard Kennedy's books with my class.They were always a big hit.I have since retired, but think of his stories many times.

Currently I am teaching Reading at a Community College.Most of the students are ELL.I purchased the Collected Stories by Richard Kennedy.The students really seem to enjoy them.My favorites are "The Porcelain Man" and "Wait 'Till next Spring"

*****
the other reviewers have captured what i would have said far more eloquently.i'll just add my five stars and tell you that 'come again in the spring' is my favorite from the book.

it's a perfect gift for your child and the child in you.

Story gems that capture the foibles and follies of humans.
I consider Richard Kennedy one of the best short story writers - bar none. Oliver Hyde's Dishrag concert is the consumate tale of the separation that can come from loss of contact with others. Come again in Spring a clever tale of outtalking death. Crazy in Love is about the joy in finding someone to share your life.Mouse God- well I love to imagine the cat dressed in his mouse fur coat.Best of all is The Porcelain Man- about finding love in people not in fantasy.When my brother was blind and ill- I would read him these stories and they never failed to touch him- make him laugh (from picturing Ben Grizzard flying through the air)and help him accept the inevitable. It seems to me that Kennedy is really in touch with the joys and pains of being human and it comes through in these perfect tales.

Well written stories and well performed!
This audiotape of Richard Kennedy's wonderful stories is magnificent. The storyteller reads them with flair, and is very true to the author's intentions. The tape is engaging, fun, and the storytelling quality of the author is at its best when listened to as stories. Kennedy is one of our best authors for children. Of course, I know of many adults who enjoy them even more! I like to compare Richard Kennedy with Hans Christian Andersen. Kennedy's stories have a fairy tale quality to them, and the personae's voices are strong, clear, and personable. This is excellent stuff! One should both read and listen to these stories! ... Read more

Product Description

Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s election as president of the United States, this book is a revealing and intimate portrait of a leader, husband, and father as seen through the lens of Cecil Stoughton, the first official White House photographer. Stoughton’s close rapport with the president and first lady gave him extraordinary access to the Oval Office, the Kennedys’ private quarters and homes, to state dinners, cabinet meetings, diplomatic trips, and family holidays.

Drawing on Stoughton’s unparalleled body of photographs, most rarely or never before reproduced, and supported by a deeply thoughtful narrative by political historian Richard Reeves, Portrait of Camelot is an unprecedented portrayal of the power, politics, and warmly personal aspects of Camelot’s 1,036 days. 

Product Description

In the early 1960s, Richard Avedon was commissioned by Harper's Bazaar to create Observations, a column that consisted of a series of nine photographic essays. The subject of the first essay was John F. Kennedy and his young family, who sat for formal black-and-white portraits just three weeks prior to Kennedy's presidential inauguration. Six images appeared in the magazine's February 1961 issue.

Customer Reviews (11)

beautiful book
I received my book and am enjoying it now. Jackie and the children are in some beautiful pictures and JFK is in some beautiful shots with Caroline, John and Jackie. A great look into the young Kennedy family. I have been collecting books on Jackie so now this brings my collection into more of her life as a young mother in Washington with JFK and the children.

Not terribly impressed
While looking through this book,I felt as if I were looking at just anybody's private family pictures.They are mostly of the children and all in black and white.They are truly beautiful pictures but there was nothing really new there.

Portrait of the JFK's
While the pictures in here were beautifully done, I was expecting more casual photos as well as formal pictures. All of the pictures in here are from formal sittings with the author/photographer. It is also a very short book, so there are a number of better books that can be bought with many more photos of the Kennedy family.

The one book for which the Coffee Table format was created, the one which justifies such size and glory
This majestic and generous book provides prodigiously much for every American, for every photographer, for any historian, for all graphic artists.

Richard Avedon served as a fashion photographer in that time. His final works frequently found place in the The New Yorker (1-year) magazine on assignment, mainly very stark images, honest, one would say, often approaching the grotesque. A bare full face portrait of this late period, with chest, might reveal nakedly far more than the subject knew, or rather, precisely as the subject hoped. We may find such cruel portraiture in Richard Avedon Portraits and several other collections, including a study by the brilliant New Yorker critic of the arts John Lahr in his Performance: Richard Avedon.

Here we find Avedon before we were thrust all into the madness and chaos of despair after the assassinations, the cruelty which produced his later true work. Here we find Avedon the artist of fashion, who nevertheless maintains an edge to it all, a keen edge of impish near-perversity. As Mrs. Kennedy stands in a wonderful formal satin white gown upon the large roll of white paper formal photography uses to cover both wall and, curving, floor, we see the holes stepped through the paper by high heels and the passing Caroline. We see in the cover photograph the great JFK, weeks from his First Inauguration, with a crooked necktie which the soon-to-be First Lady could so easily and naturally have straightened. There was such a thing as a tie clasp as well.

Perich wonderfully nevertheless reveals the secrets of the darkroom which brought these rough shots into presentable shape for publication in the leading magazines of the day. We see the original image alongside the image as published, with explanation of the processes involved. The heel marks through the paper disappear, and several other flaws in the negative image give way to great art. This chapter in itself gives life to Ansel Adam's adage that photography begins in the darkroom. The darkroom now has mostly disappeared in this age of DSLR and photo software; this chapter reveals the arduous alchemic labors of the darkroom, the burning, the dodging, which gave birth to such wonderful and eternal art.

Any photographer therefore can learn much from studying carefully with attention these photographs as such, as the fruit of careful photography, of technique as well as the art of portraiture done properly, yes with complexity and keen honesty, while not to the extremes of his later years. I have managed to do much with low budget these past few years thanks to the Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX and 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens with 2 Nikon School DVD acquired here upon the amazon, and achieved publication weekly at least, locally, and it is the study of portraiture such as this which informs us so much more than such guides as Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories, for example, as here we truly see a master photographer at work, and might reverse-engineer some technique, if not memory of composition.

And yet this wonderful work here presented is so much more than a simple demonstration of photography. We see here the Kennedys, at their zenith, weeks from the White House, and we are very grateful for this generous presentation of the finest subjects for Avedon's art.

The book itself is ten by eleven inches and beautifully designed, black and white and grays throughout to reflect the Black and White photography, with a strong canary yellow for the inside covers and chapter separations. Beautifully and fittingly designed for this subject, with elegance and a noble restraint, this is a book worthy of space not upon a coffee table but a special lectern, to be seen and to be studied, to be viewed as the iconic collection it is, for this is America's sacred family, at home and at peace with one another and with us, the viewer. These are truly images to contemplate in peace, in recollection, in prayer, for souls, for wholeness, for healing, for grief, for hope, for peace, at last, now that we may once exhale in this present The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage).

See this now. And read as well the recent reflections of James Douglass in JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

Read here the writings prepared for this book by Associate Smithsonian National Musuem of American History curator Shannon Thomas Perich of the Photographic History Collection, to which Avedon generously donated his work. Additional writings are by Professor Robert Dalleck (of UCLA, Oxford, BU, and Columbia), author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. The most moving words here printed of course come from our President, from Avedon, who confides: "In a very charming way, he was ill at ease . . . Jacqueline said he always looks his best when he's talking to a crowd, and freezes up when he has his portrait taken." Of Mrs. Kennedy he writes: "Jacqueline is ravishing. Today she's the most beautiful woman in the world. She has a great deal in common with top movie stars - She knows when to hold herself back while everyone else you know gives too much of themselves at one time. So when she comes out, it's a great tour de
force."

and from Mrs. Kennedy, who here, among other pearls, is quoted: "Watching a child grow, guiding him, learning new ways to present life's wonderful panorama of events and scenes to him - all this is so wonderful for the parent." and "The quality I admire the most in my husband is his intellectual curiosity - and that is the quality we both wish to encourage in our children." Too few years later he was gone, for good.

A great, a terrible, a wonderful, a beautiful book to have and to hold, now and forever.

For me the most touching series of raw straight-from-negative prints (unprocessed images not doctored in the darkroom - it makes you distrust any image, especially now with computer manipulations) is Caroline holding what she then called the "kissing baby" and her father holding her standing on his lap. With this please hear Caroline's wonderful anthology Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, The, in particular the unabridged audiobook version.

Christmas Gift
I purchased this book to give as a Christmas gift for someone visiting from the UK.She has always loved the Kennedys and was thrilled to receive it. The book is beautiful and brings back alot of great memories.
It's perfect for the coffee table! ... Read more

Product Description
Was Richard Strauss the most incandescent composer of the twentieth century or merely a bourgeoisie artist and Nazi sympathizer?For the fifty years since his death on September 8, 1949, Richard Strauss has remained dogmatically elusive in the wider body of musical and historical criticism.Lauded as nothing less than the "greatest musical figure" of his time by Canadian musician, Glenn Gould, in 1962, Strauss also has attracted his share of posthumous epithets: in summary, an artist who lived off his own fat during his later years.As recently as 1995, the English critic Rodney Milnes wrote, "the court of posterity is still reserving judgment." In Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma, biographer Michael Kennedy demonstrates that the many varying shades of criticism that have painted this figure in the past half century resemble the similar understandings and misunderstandings held by his contemporaries--perceptions that touched almost every aspect of Strauss' life and career. Introducing his detailed work more as a broad explication than a firm answer to the Straussian riddle, Kennedy's scope includes the exuberant, extroverted Strauss of young adulthood as well as the phlegmatic and aloof middle-aged man who resembled a "prosperous bank manager;" the arch-fiend of modernism and the composer who redefined the term; a man who professed to lack all spiritual curiosity and a musician who penned the touching ballet Der Kometentanz; an at times almost humble family man and an artist who claimed to be as interesting as Napoleon and Alexander the Great.Kennedy clearly elucidates his enigmatic subject by building his analysis around the few constants in Strauss' life: his profound admiration for German culture, his dependence on his own family for guidance, and his "Nietzschean total absorption in art."This frame offers everyone from Straussian scholars to general readers an insightful and easy-to-follow biographical narrative. Kennedy also deals at length with Strauss' problematic relationship with Nazi authorities, detailing his incompatible roles as the father-in-law of a Jewish woman and as one of the country's leading composers. Michael Kennedy is the chief music critic of the (London) Sunday Telegraph and the author of many books about music.Amazon.com Review
There are few composers whose critical stock has roller-coastered as dramatically as that of Richard Strauss, both during his lifetime and in the five decades since his death in 1949. Once considered a dangerous firebrand of the avant-garde--his early masterpiece Salome was given the equivalent of an X rating--Strauss remained an exceedingly prolific composer throughout his long career, yet lived to be "written off as an extinct volcano." The painful story of his involvement with the Third Reich further cast a pall over his final years. But in the past two decades, a gradual reassessment has been underway--along with a recuperation of his neglected later works--and the field is ripe for a critically insightful overview of Strauss's achievement.

Such is the goal of Michael Kennedy, a longtime advocate of Strauss, in his new biography, Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma. Kennedy, the Sunday Telegraph's music critic and author of several other musical biographies--including an earlier study of the composer as well as illuminating articles and CD booklets on his music--here undertakes to penetrate the contradictions and see the man whole. Through his impressive access to diaries, letters, and living relatives, he posits an underlying consistency of attitude that made "art the reality in [Strauss's] life." The central enigma about the composer that fascinates Kennedy is the "disparity between man and musician," the paradox that this fundamentally aloof and reserved person, dedicated to bourgeois stability, could produce music of such overpowering passion.

While steering clear of Freudian reductionism, Kennedy reveals the crucial significance of Strauss's mother's nervous instability--she was eventually committed to various sanatoriums--and the centrality of the work ethic inherited from his father. The result was to make music "Strauss's means of escape ... and in much of his music he wore a mask." Yet for all his aloofness, Strauss "let [the mask] slip"--another aspect of the enigma surrounding him--in such compositions as Don Quixote ("the most profound" of his orchestral works) or the pervasively autobiographical Sinfonia Domestica, Intermezzo, and Capriccio, which Kennedy counts as Strauss's greatest achievement for the lyrical stage.

Kennedy is particularly persuasive in his high estimation of the post-Rosenkavalier output and the undiminished quest for artistic innovation that they continued to exemplify--above all in Strauss's development of a fluently conversational style in his operas. Although commentary on individual works involves generally concise summations, many observations sparkle with insight, and Kennedy continually sheds light on neglected gems among Strauss's output. The rapport with Hofmannsthal and his other librettists is admirably clarified, and the remarkably well-read Strauss emerges as a more imposingly intellectual figure, steeped in literature and philosophy, than he is usually depicted. We learn of his obsession with the card game skat and of his disdainful attitude toward the new medium of film. Kennedy similarly demystifies much of the received opinion that has developed around the composer, particularly in his level-headed portrait of his wife, Pauline. The fundamental happiness of their lifelong relationship emerges as a context indispensable to Strauss's creative focus.

Kennedy devotes a significant portion of the book to the composer's position as president of the Reich Music Chamber and subsequent fall from grace both with the Nazis and in world opinion. Here the author aims to offer perspective by carefully detailing the facts and documentary evidence from the time. In his view, Strauss becomes a "tragic figure, symbolising the struggle to preserve beauty and style in Western European culture" against emerging barbarism. Yet, as throughout the book, Kennedy's abiding sympathy with Strauss at times veers close to a kind of special pleading that invites skepticism. For all that, his style is admirably lucid, and his biography largely succeeds in pointing to a greatness that "has not yet been fully understood and discovered." --Thomas May ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A VERY WORTHWHILE BIOGRAPHY OF A PUZZLING COMPOSER
Michael Kennedy has written a very useful and insightful biography of a controversial composer, along with an ingtelligent analysis of his music.Strauss summarized his approach to "program music" (of which he was a foremost developer) by saying, "I am a musician first and last, for whom all 'programs' are merely the stimulus to the creation of new forms, and nothing more."

Kennedy observes that "Religion played no part in his upbringing."By 1892, "he had read Nietzsche's works and had been particularly attracted by 'his polemic against Christianity.'"As Strauss's character Guntram said, "My God speaks to me through myself."It is not surprising, therefore, that Strauss would attempt to set Nietzsche's "Thus Sprach Zarathustra" to music.

Controversial not only for writing operas such as "Salome," "(T)he German press denounced him for conducting two afternoon concerts in a New York department store (in 1904) ... Such conduct was 'a prostitution of art.'Strauss replied that the concerts had been given in artistic conditions and, anyway, it was no disgrace to earn money."Kennedy notes that "Strauss's output, large though it was, diminished between 1916 and about 1940 ... No wonder the world of music regarded him by then as almost a fossil."

Of course, Strauss's most controversial actions concern with the Nazi Party came to power.For example, in 1933 Joseph Goebbels appointed Strauss to the post of President of the State Music Bureau.Kennedy explains this thusly: "It was not only that Strauss believed nothing was more important than art: he simply did not recognize the conflict, a symptom of a blinkered mentality as a court composer.He kept his nose in the score and ignored the raised voices in the next room." But Strauss was not by any stretch an anti-Semite: "He acknowledged the help and inspiration he had received from Jews, adding that his own most malicious enemies had been Aryans."

Kennedy gives a summation: "If his music lacks mystical and spiritual depth---and it does, except for one late work---it has worldly, human rapture and insight, realism, and humor."Kennedy's fine biography is well-worth reading for anyone who wants to know more about the man or his music.

For Strauss enthusiasts
It is an excellent biography of Richard Strauss, well written and employing up-to-date scholarship on the great composer. It portrays not only Strauss' life and historical milieu, but also addresses inaccurate views of his political situation during Hitler's Third Reich, which have unfairly colored his reputation. The book would be an essential tool in fully understanding and appreciating this musical genius.

An eye and ear opener - why did it take this long?
I have grown up reading Michael Kennedy's biographies of such great English composers as Vaughan-Williams and Edward Elgar. So I eagerly picked-up his latest biography of Richard Strauss partly because of what I deemed to be Kennedy's objective approach to his subjects, and also because Strauss seemed to be a deeply held secret not meant to be shared with us ordinary listeners (in other words, there wasn't much else available).

Kennedy seems to have slightly more passion for Strauss it turns out than for RVW or Elgar, or at least enough moxy to blow the cover off some well established sacred cows. I know that I was not expecting to read exactly what I read.

If you are even vaguely interested in the music of Strauss or even if you are simply intereted in the history of Germany from 1900 to 1950, then this is a very interesting read.

Very well done!

The best compact introduction to Richard Strauss
Studies of Richard Strauss have a tendency to hover between enthusiasm and mealy-mouthed criticism. Or else they are so voluminous (multiple volumes) that only the most serious scholar or eager enthusiast can imagine plowing through them.Michael Kennedy's volume has two great strengths that place it at the top of the class when it comes to finding a good introduction to Strauss: It is compact, yet invitingly enthusiastic. Kennedy has the knack of highlighting precisely the unique strengths of each different work. Perhaps this is not so rare when he speaks of the leading masterpieces that others praise as well. But it is his special gift that he makes the reader want to listen to those works that have not been blessed with extreme popularity. All of them offer something that sounds interesting and inviting to the music-lover.Not only is it a superb guide to Richard Strauss; I think this book is a veritable model for the way that the non-technical music lover should be introduced to an important composer. ... Read more

Product Description
The assassination of President Kennedy is known as the “crime of the century.”It is one of the greatest mysteries of all time.What could one man do to find the truth?You will be surprised by the answer.Jim Koepke interviewed dozens of people from the Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon era, including Directors of the CIA, Intelligence Operatives, Organized Crime Figures, and Military Officers.Koepke’s research even led him to the Watergate figure known as “Deep Throat.”The information Koepke found is stunning and will encourage the reader to give considerable thought to these historical events. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Stop the Ultimate Sacrifice review!Enough already!
Every book reviewed onAmazon about JFK has this idiotic review that "while this book is good Ultimate Sacrifice is the best ever." Do you think,Vince, that you could stop putting your so-called review to every book in the catalogue?Your review is meaningless and it's irritating to see it stuck on every book.So give it a rest.

Good, but ULTIMATE SACRIFICE the best book ever
Good, but ULTIMATE SACRIFICE the best book ever
While I thought this book was worthwhile in many respects, ULTIMATE SACRIFICE is simply the best book ever on the JFK assassination.Still, worth your time.

Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA

Disappointed
Seems like the only ghosts the author chased were the ones that made him feel like more than a "common man". The author told about several important people calling him but he told very little of their conversations with him. I can't imagine receiving the calls he did and only having a 2 minute conversation. it seems that even the author is trying to "cover up". I am still not sure what really happened and reading this book will definitely not make things any clearer. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the essential book on the Kennedys, cited by every author who has written about America's most remarkable political family.It tells in detail how Joseph P. Kennedy built the family's fortune and instilled the will to win in each of his 9 children. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Too Dry to Read
This book reads like a a middle school textbook. I found it impossible to read more than a page w/o falling asleep. After a chapter,I gave up. If you want to learn about Joe K.,look elsewhere.

Good PR Job
Back in AD 1964, the sordid details of Joe Kennedy's life were kept secret.So what you have here is a very incomplete picture.But, if you want to understand his stock trading or his ambassadorship to GreatBritain, then this book is for you.But compared to Kearns-Goodwin andKessler, this is very lop-sided.

the kennedys are viewed favorably
oddly, you may be surprised about the kennedy's of massachusetts when you finish Whalen's work.It is possible that many have been quick to judge the family in a negative manner.Whalen, however, certainly points out Joseph Kennedy's very wonderful points including love of his family and gracious help for mankind.His charity for a man who wandered into his office off of the streets of Boston having just lost his son-and Mr. Kennedy buying the man a suit and paying for the funeral of that son-is particularly touching.Also of great interest to anyone interested in making a buck is how Mr. Kennedy made so much money in so many different arenas-sold out and took his profit on to the next venture-a sixth sense he had for making big money!author whalen points out this was almost always the case except his keeping ownership of Chicago's Merchandise Mart in the Kennedy name up, I believe, until currently-1998. Buy this work and then be prepared to not put it down for 48! !hrs.!Of added interest was a historical look at how Joseph Kennedy got into B grade motion picture producing in Hollywood in the early days. ... Read more

Product Description
"Delightful history of Gennett Records, its parent the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana, in the 1920s, and the birth of recorded jazz . . . For jazz followers, not to be missed. A huge success." --Kirkus Reviews

" . . . a labor of love if ever there was one. . . . [Gennett] helped get everything started, and we are in Rick Kennedy's debt for paying it due tribute." --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

" . . . lively and anecdotal history . . ." --JazzTimes

From 1917 to 1932, in a primitive studio next to the railroad tracks, the Gennett family of Richmond, Indiana recorded some of the earliest performances of jazz, blues, and country greats - including Jelly Roll Morton, Big Bill Broonzy, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Gene Autry, Bix Beiderbecke, and native Hoosier Hoagy Carmichael (whose "Stardust" debuted on Gennett as a dance stomp).

Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy is the first detailed account of the people and events behind this unique company. Personalized by anecdotes from musicians, employees, and family members, it traces the colorful history of a pioneer recording company. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fascinating account of an obscure topic!
I LOVED this book! I would not have expected that enough people would be interested in Gennett Records to warrant such a publication, but obviously (and delightfully) I'm wrong! Recommended reading for any record collector, but especially those of early jazz.

Fascinating!
Any collector of old 78s knows about the Gennett label. Gennett was the first independent label to have a serious impact on the recording industry, and in part helped to launch the careers of many early jazz legends. King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, Earl Hines, and others made their first records in Gennett's hot, cramped studio by the side of railroad tracks in Richmond, Indiana. Today, those original 78s are highly-prized collectors items, fetching hundreds or thousands of dollars at auction.

In years of collecting 78s, I have come across dozens of Gennett records, but until I read this book, I knew little about them or the company that made them (outside of tidbits here and there from reissue liner notes or chats with other collectors). Rick Kennedy has written a book that is filled not only with entertaining anecdotes, but a wealth of information. Reading about Bix's sessions with the Wolverines is almost like being there, and listening to the records afterwards gives the recordings a whole new meaning. Kennedy introduces us to the people who made Gennett records happen--the musicians, the sound engineers, the businessmen, and the distributors. The book traces Gennett Records from its beginning in the Starr Piano Company, through its legal struggle to continue (ultimately defeating Victor's patent for the right to make lateral recordings), to its glory days in the 1920s, and its demise with the onset of the Great Depression. Along the way, the book answers questions about how the records were made, how they were distributed, and what happened to the recorded masters (which is an interesting story in itself!). Gennett's relationship with the infamous KKK records is explained (basically, they were "custom" records that Gennett made solely for the extra profit, turning a blind eye to the content).

Gennett recorded some of the most creative and lasting jazz, blues, and "old-time" music in the 1920s and the label's story is a fascinating one. Lovers of jazz, old records, or American history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in general will enjoy reading this book. It is well-written and very "readable" (I went through it in about three sessions). It also serves as a handy reference to answer questions that may arise among 78 or jazz collectors. Highly recommended!

Essential Reading on the Recording Industry
In this eminently readable book, Kennedy manages to provide the readerwith an overview of the early history of the whole recording industry whilealso providing a view of successful Midwestern entrepreneurship---and thatis just the background laid for this fascinating topic.

I had heardabout those "incredible Gennett sides" for many years, andacquired several samples of Gennett records around 15 years ago.In manycases the unknown or obscurely known artists turned in amazing performancesthat anticipated where jazz and popular music would be several years in thefuture---in the later 30's and 1940's.I often wondered how theseperformances failed to come to the attention of the larger Americanlistening audience.After reading this book, I feel that I have anunderstanding.

Learning the history of the company that pioneeredrecorded jazz was the enjoyable and enlightening result of reading thisbook.The incredible history of this American popular music form and itslegitimacy as a recorded music encompasses the entire history of theMidwestern and Southern United States during the first quarter of the 20thcentury.Kennedy's book will soon have you absorbed in that history.

While the topic is certainly the genesis of Jazz music recording, thereader will soon discover there is much more to it.Highly recommended toanyone interested in American cultural history! ... Read more

Product Description
A princess whose radiant beauty blinds her and all who look upon her finds only one man willing to submit to her test for suitors--the court fool. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Favorite Childhood Book
This was one of my very favorite books as a child. It took me several years as an adult to be able to rediscover it, as I didn't remember the name or author.

While the story is dark, it is no more so than many fairy tales and I feel children are better able to handle this than most adults give credit. Certainly not more so than Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid" with it's original sad ending. As a child I had a facination with melencholy stories, and found this one beautiful. I don't think you can say that dying accidentally while trying to save someone is "suicide", even if they are in love, and the true lesson of the tale is that of seeing the person within, and not being fooled by outward beauty or station in life.

My only complaint is that the pictures are not as lavish as I would like with such a dramatic tale.

One of my favorite fairy tales ever
I must agree, this isn't really a children's book, but that's beside the point. Have you ever read Romeo and Juliet? This has a slightly similar concept, of death for love but a greater happiness waiting somewhere else. This, as the name suggests, it a dark, almost sinister sounding book from the start, but the flowing words and sorrowful tone lead up to a bittersweet ending. It's definitely not for kids under 5, but if the child is mature enough to see a good book, then this is a wonderful choice. Plus, the pictures are absolutely gorgeous.

Not for children, bad lesson here
I bought a used copy of this book after seeing a glowing recommendation on the web.

This fairy tale book is certainly not for children, and probably not for adults either.This book teaches that two young people may have an infatuation that is a "greater love" than anyone else has ever known.And what better way to show your love?The answer of this book: Commit suicide!

What a vile and dangerous lesson, especially for teenagers. ... Read more

Product Description

Richard Burton was one of Victorian Britain's most protean figures. A soldier, explorer, ethnographer, and polyglot of rare power, as well as a poet, travel writer, and translator of the tales of the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, Burton exercised his abundant talents in a diverse array of endeavors. Though best remembered as an adventurer who entered Mecca in disguise and sought the source of the White Nile, Burton traveled so widely, wrote so prolifically, and contributed so forcefully to his generation's most contentious debates that heprovides us with a singularly panoramic perspective on the world of theVictorians.

One of the great challenges confronting the British in the nineteenth century was to make sense of the multiplicity of peoples and cultures they encountered in their imperial march around the globe. Burton played an important role in this mission. Drawing on his wide-ranging experiences in other lands and intense curiosity about their inhabitants, he conducted an intellectually ambitious, highly provocative inquiry into racial, religious, and sexual differences that exposed his own society's norms to scrutiny.

Dane Kennedy offers a fresh and compelling examination of Burton and his contribution to the widening world of the Victorians. He advances the view that the Victorians' efforts to attach meaning to the differences they observed among other peoples had a profound influence on their own sense of self, destabilizing identities and reshaping consciousness. Engagingly written and vigorously argued, The Highly Civilized Man is an important contribution to our understanding of a remarkable man and a crucial era.

Customer Reviews (7)

misguided
Thoroughly researched, with a few interesting finds, but the author is hopelessly trapped in the current academic orthodoxies, which lead him into a dull, turgid, unhelpful analysis of Burton's life. He is at pains to state the obvious i.e. Burton was a product of his age and culture, and not from the future, outer space, or hatched from an egg. And yet when Burton displays Victorian characteristics, the author tuts and disapproves. Was Burton racist? Yes he was, except when he wasn't. Was he sexist? Yes, but not really. Surely there are more interesting and fruitful lines of inquiry into such a rich and varied life as Burton's.

A Modern Analysis of Richard Burton
The Highly Civilized Man by Dane Kennedy is the fifth Burton biography that I have read, and I would rank it 4th. In fairness, Kennedy didn't set out to write a biography of one of the most interesting people of the Victorian Era. He really used Sir Richard Francis Burton as an exemplar of the Victorian spirit of science and empire. Burton was unique for the breadth of endeavors in which he excelled and pioneered, but Kennedy demonstrates that the man was also a product of his time -- as much OUTSIDE the box as he was OF the box.

Rather than a mere chronicle of Burton's life, Kennedy takes on different facets of his subject's complex character. Chapters bear such headings as The Gypsy, The Orientalist, The Explorer, The Sexologist, etc. While the order of these sections basically presents the sequence of the major events of Burton's life, there is little if any new information provided, and it is assumed that the reader already knows something about Burton. This book is really more about Dane Kennedy's take on his subject rather than the subject himself.

It is appropriate, given Kennedy's contention that Burton represented the thinking of his age, that the analysis presented in The Highly Civilized Man is very much representative of its time. Just as Fawn Brodie's interpretation of Burton is steeped in the psychoanalytical mumbo jumbo of the 1960s, this book tars Burton with the current trendy labels of modern humanities scholarship. In a decade, the -ists and -isms of The Highly Civilized Man will likely seem quite dated.

If you are only going to read one biography of Sir Richard Francis Burton, then I can't recommend this one. The hands-down best is A Rage to Live by Mary Lovell. However, that book is pretty long, and if you are not looking for that kind of commitment, check out Burton by Byron Farwell.

Nuanced
A critical study of Sir Richard Burton. Most of his biographers, bowldered by the epic nature of their subject (understandably so, this is one remarkable guy), often smooth over some real contradictions in his thought, less than favorable interpretations, etc.. This author brings Richard under real scrutiny, examining his views on religion, sex, race, and his persona as a "explorer" or "impersonator"; Not much new info; just bringing to light what is usually in the background of most biographies. Perhaps a finer portrait emerges of the man- though its undeniable that some of his statements- esp about race were wildly contradicting. He tries to demonstrate how Victorian attitudes influenced who Burton was- which is obvious in a way, he knew what his countrymen would find shocking and played on it- thus building his persona as a man who flaunted social conventions, though of course in other respects- sexuality, his Stone Talk work- he didn't cater to anyone, - one thing I couldn't help noticing, and which Kennedy points out, though a compulsive, prolific author, and highly opinionated, Burton was not a particularly good writer.

Sir Captain Richard - a Precursor to Modernism
Nineteenth century Western colonialism and imperialism including the Industrial revolution changed Western values and social perceptions and mores, but more so, our awareness of the world as a whole, in terms of defining ourselves against difference. The Victorian influence towards modernism is far greater than historians first realized. One of the most romantic and pivotal figures of the Victorian age was Sir Captain Richard Burton. In Kennedy's critical biographical overview of the man's life and thought, unlike most of the numerous biographies to date, attempts to represent and reinterpret Burton's life and thought in the context of the Victorian era. By doing this, he proposes, we come to understand this highly complex genius in terms of the historical values of the time.

Kennedy outlines Burton's numerous accomplishments as a prolific writer, linguist, (twenty-five languages and many dialects) explorer, archaeologist, spy, amateur physician, translator, artist, poet, expert swordsman and sexologist. He wrote over twenty-five travel volumes containing his many adventures, and translated the Kumar Sutra and The Arabian Nights which is the most often read an quoted in present time. Similar to many of his contemporaries, his studies of Orientalism and African cultures were done in the spirit of difference, or the `other'. Kennedy's thesis is that Burton was a product of the Victorian age but an important precursor to modernism.

As the 19th century has a virtual endless list of incredible men and women, according to Kennedy, what set Burton apart, was "...restless determination to extend the reach of his experience to ever more pockets of humanity and to draw insights from those increasingly varied encounters in order to advance the larger epistemological quest to understand, explain, and classify difference." (p.270) Burton's vast written work, his copious notes and observations reveals this holy quest, his unwavering pursuit of hidden knowledge and knowledge of the `other', strange cultures and bizarre religions until his death in 1895.

The author devotes most of his analysis on Burton's works as a sexologist. Burton's many erotic translations, promoting his notion that Victorian repression of sexual matters and desire is tremendously unhealthy, paved the way for future sexologists to study the subject within a scientific framework. His controversial translations and writings also revealed a sexual hypocrisy that the Victorian age is infamously known for. Rather than study sex on moral grounds, Burton proposed a relativist position, attributing different climates around the world to certain sexual behaviours. We know this to be nonsense, however, including this premise, Burton achieved distance from the moral position, giving his subject a form of objectivity.

Dane Kennedy's approach to Burton is a fresh perspective of the man. He was an individual that accomplished more in one lifetime than many, but he was a man of his times, attempting to define the identity of western culture during a period of vast change. Despite over one hundred years since his death, even a critical appraisal of his life and work, does not in any way lessen his accomplishment nor profound influence in the Romantic age towards modernism.

A Highly Civilized man is a fresh and well-written account of an icon of the Romantic-Victorian age.

Early 21st century scrutiny of a 19th century Subject
A thoughtful book which most of the time attaches its arguments firmly to sources, scrupulously researched. A little verbose at times, tending to fall prey to the current academic fashion of attaching a superfluity of labels (particularly those ending in -ist) to its subject. Certainly there's the intention to 'de-mythologize' Burton and expose him to some quite valid criticisms, as well as plaudits. Kennedy reminds us that J.L. Burckhardt, not Burton, was the first European to travel on the Hajj in disguise. He suggests that in Burton's day, such disguise would only really have been necessary to enter the holiest places; simply because Burton could have professed conversion to Islam. I'm uncomfortable on those occasions when Kennedy states speculation as fact, for example (p63): 'Burton saw an opportunity to tap into this rich vein of curiosity by undertaking the pilgrimage to Mecca and exposing the city and its Muslim faithful to the scrutiny of his Christian Countrymen'. And then, later: "It must be understood, however, that Burton's decision to undertake a hajj in an "Oriental" disguise was directed as much at a British audience as it was at the Muslims with whom he associated during the journey." Although the facts are suggestive that this may be true, no proof is given - that would be very hard to do.

Kennedy concludes (p92) "There is little doubt that Burton too was attracted to impersonation precisely because it provided a way of transgressing against the codes and conventions that governed society, challenging the psychic shackles imposed by civilization." This conclusion could be a little superficial: we might also add that his daily dress of grotesque beard; eyes sometimes ringed with kohl; the brandishing of iron cane, pistol or navaja and his frequent adoption of a truly wicked and fearsome persona ("to shock"), could well have been a part of the same charade - whose ultimate purpose was to divert attention away from self. Did Burton suffer from some profound insecurity and a distaste for who he really was? Was he truly the "Sheep in wolf's clothing" that W.S. Blunt claims? The book had perhaps an opportunity to take this further.

The point is raised that, far from hacking their way through virgin African forest - unexplored territory - as is the general impression (my own, anyway), Burton and Speke took advantage of well-trodden arteries which had been used for slave and ivory traffic by Arab traders for generations - affording themselves of the supply infrastructure and information sources already in place to tend these parties. Wielding what must surely be humour, Kennedy observes that Burton was faced with insurmountable difficulties in the use of disguise on his African expeditions.

The subject of race and Burton's undeniable racism threads its way unceasingly through this book. Kennedy uses the word `troubling' numerous times when confronting it. He employs an early 21st century scrutiny to pass clear judgment on a latter 19th century culture - perhaps unconsciously setting relativism aside.

In 1633, Galileo Galilei was forced to abjure and recant his prior assertion of "...having held and believed that the sun is the center of the world and immovable, and that the earth is not the center and moves." Although we are dumbfounded by this today, we shouldn't be. There are dogmas in place in 2006 which no historian or anthropologist dares to contradict - on pain of professional suicide and even jail in a few countries. These dogmas touch upon versions of history enforced by law and statements upon the subject of race that are officially held to be modern heresies. Thus when judging Burton by the measures of our day with regard to racial matters and, then, reversing the scrutiny and weighing this book's criticisms by my own unfashionable standards; I, as a reader, am forced to conclude that neither one of them has the right of it. I am hit on the nose by the consequences of relativism!

Burton had good and bad to say about everybody - and an awful lot of the bad is directed at white Victorian society (which is nowhere labeled `racism'). The scientist in Burton (and he was a very good one I think) brought out his objectivity; the human being railed mightily and emotionally against slights, insults and injustices; some the consequence of his own misguided actions; some dead on target. I think Kennedy walks into the pitfall of early 21st century political correctness: time and again he is so troubled by negative remarks made concerning a particular race, yet seems to accept those that are positive without demur. In true critique, must we not take exception to all such generalizations? Burton made `hurtful' observations on colour and physiognomy which, I predict, in future times, will be done in the painless language of DNA base-pairs.

Certainly Kennedy cites instances where Burton takes relativistic stands, such as (p155): "There is more of equality between the savage and the civilizee - the difference being one of quantity, not of quality - than the latter will admit. For every man is everywhere commensurate with man". Kennedy then asks "How can these remarks be reconciled with Burton's insistence on the innate inferiority of the African?" Having raised the idea that the contradictions could be ascribed to "an undisciplined and volatile mind", Kennedy points out that such a conclusion would cause us to:

"... miss what may have been Burton's most intriguing contribution to Victorian conception of race. His understanding of race as a closed space defined by difference serves a double purpose: it supports the standard racists' contention that biology is destiny, but it also ventures the view that races have their own systems of beliefs and behaviour, each incommensurate with the other and implicitly standing against a universalist standard of values."

Doesn't that take rather a lot of words to say (without any of the promised reconciliation) that Burton was inconsistent: giving the Victorians a fresh new viewpoint on race while at the same time reinforcing their old prejudices?

The chapter entitled "The Sexologist" thoroughly covers a lot of well-trodden ground; over-trodden one might say. On homosexuality, Kennedy is of the opinion that Burton had probably actually indulged and cites a rather telling letter of Swinburn's in support, yet, knowing this was rather likely (even close to certain), so what? What more can be written about Burton? The answer is evident here: very little. This, by the way, is not a criticism of the book.

The final chapter "The Afterlife" is for me one of the more interesting. Kennedy speculates on Burton's spiritual beliefs and brings out his agnosticism as well as his horror of annihilation at death. In "A Glance at the Passion Play" (I quote the full context which Kennedy doesn't), Burton says (p165), on Spiritualism, " it satisfies a real want, a crave which is to millions - a part only of our kind but numbering millions - the bread of moral life." He then offers a `Spiritualist's Decalogue' of which Kennedy quotes article VI "Death, physically considered, dissolves a certain organic unity; it is not, however, annihilation, but change."

This was an astute selection by Kennedy and brings us closer to an understanding of Burton's spirituality.


... Read more

Product Description
An old man tries to outsmart Death with the help of the birds who come to his cabin. ... Read more

Product Description
Richard Tofel tells the full story of JFK's inaugural address. He draws on original research materials in the Kennedy Library and elsewhere around the country, as well as exclusive interviews. Unlike earlier treatments of the subject, these include extensive and candid conversations with Theodore Sorensen, Kennedy's aide and chief speechwriter, who has never before discussed in detail how the speech came to be written. In the tradition of Lincoln at Gettysburg, Sounding the Trumpet thus reveals many unknown details about this landmark speech. Includes DVD of speech. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

AGood Read for the Student of Oratory
One more interesting book on JFK's inaugural address. Author Richard Tofel provides his version of the crafting of this famous speech. I say `his version' because Thurston Clarke in his opus Ask Not comes to a totally different conclusion as to who scripted the speech. Tofel believes it was a true collaborative affair between Kennedy and White House counselor Theodore Sorensen, while Clarke suggested that the speech was almost totally a Kennedy composition.

History and the facts side with Tofel.It is indisputable that Kennedy relied very much on Sorensen for his writing while the thinking was a joint affair. Sorensen wrote well for Kennedy because he knew his style, a knowledge developed which he worked with the young Senator during the 50's. Sorensen writes about this in his excellent book Counselor.

In this book, Tofel breaks the inaugural speech into When, Why and How.
The speech itself was a collaborative effort involving ideas and thoughts from many Kennedy associates. Sorensen originally sent a request for content to ten men, most of whom would eventually join the Kennedy administration. While writing about collaboration, Tofel refers to how Lincoln's inaugural relied on input from William Seward.

Plyingmy craft as a keynote speaker and business humorist, I am fully aware I cannot create great material on my own. I need sources, resources and research. Sounding the Trumpet is a great example of the importance of the collaborative process in developing memorable, compelling speech craft. A worthwhile read for the student of oratory.

A treat for all communicators
Mr. Tofel provides an enjoyable and sympathetic account of how President-elect Kennedy managed the production of this rhetorical bombshell.

Like most presidential speeches, Kennedy's inaugural was a group effort, drawing upon the words and ideas of many gifted people. Tofel does an excellent job of pulling the speech apart, and showing the influence on particular passages of Kennedy's contributors and advisors, and of historical works such as Shakespeare and the Bible.

Lawyers and other communicators will be inspired by Kennedy's ability to fuse all these sources into one of the most invigorating of all Presidential inaugurals.
... Read more

Product Description
The instant Bobby Kennedy received the news that his brother had been murdered in Dallas, he believed a simple and terrible thing that he had contributed to his brothers death. Bobby assumed that his own furious and stubborn pursuit of the Mafia, Jacks love of risk, and the machinations of the CIA, J. Edgar Hoovers FBI, as well as pro- and anti-Castro forces, had brewed the cauldron of poison that produced Lee Harvey Oswald. But as Sons and Brothers proves with clarity, wisdom and meticulous research, the reason went even deeper.Amazon.com Review
This intriguing book brings a fresh perspective to bear on the intimate, charged partnership of John and Robert Kennedy. The author, Richard D. Mahoney, whose father was a friend of Bobby's and an appointee of Jack's, has both the academic and political experience necessary to evaluate evidence of the Kennedys' relations with the Mafia, anti-Castro rebels, and other groups lurking in the shadows of American life. He also has a sharp eye for the brothers' differing yet complementary personalities. Jack was intellectual and cheerfully cynical, with a zest for pleasure increased by a life-threatening illness concealed from the public. He looked to passionate, partisan Bobby for bulldog-like political support and used his brother as a "moral compass" when planning his administration's actions on civil rights, the corruption of organized labor, and the containment of Communism. Their powerful father, Joseph--whose deep pockets basically bought Jack the presidency and at the same time compromised it because of Joseph's links to organized crime--looms over the brothers as the author of a Faustian bargain that may well have played a role in JFK's assassination. Mahoney's vivid, compulsively readable text offers suggestive questions rather than definitive answers, but it certainly succeeds as a bracing corrective to "America's inability to see its history as tragedy," a failure Jack and Bobby emphatically did not share. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

The Kennedys - co-existence of idealism and opportunism
Richard Mahoney's book on the Kennedy brothers is a well-researched and well written history of John and Robert Kennedy's years between 1952 and 1968. It provides interesting answers and pointers to the many 'puzzles' surrounding the murder of both the brothers and also the extent of the roles of the Mafia, the anti-Castro exiles in Miami, the Teamsters Union, the CIA and the FBI in an advanced industrial democracy like the US in the 1950s and sixties.
The picture that emerges from the book about the two brothers and their father is somewhat as follows:
Jack Kennedy was basically one who had statesman-like qualities which he showed clearly in the Cuban missile-crisis, in his reluctance to authorize the assassination of Castro on moral grounds and in his ability to see the futility of the war in Vietnam. He was idealistic enough to pursue the civil rights legislation but also political enough not to alienate his white constituency in the south. Jack also was detached enough to privately admit that he would probably be assassinated but he dealt with it in his own light-hearted manner. On the other hand, Jack was a philanderer and had used the Mafia in rigging the election results in Illinois to win his presidency. He knew about his father's buying the party bosses in Virginia with money to make him win the democratic primaries in 1960. Though he was a devoted and affectionate father, he wasn't a faithful husband to Jackie, even though he knew that it affected his much younger wife.
On the other hand, Bobby Kennedy was more upright and also self-righteous. Except for a brief affair with Marilyn Monroe, he was faithful to his wife. He was a staunch Catholic, believed in right and wrong as black and white and went after the Mafia, the corrupt unions and also Fidel Castro with a vengeance, even though he knew that his own father was neck-deep in collusion with the crime bosses. Hesaw no contradiction in using the anti-Castro exiles to assassinate Fidel Castro. He believed in ends justifying the means. He believed strongly incivil rights. He took himself too seriously and pursued relentlessly his dangerous agendas thereby alienating the FBI boss Edgar Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, the Mafia, the union bosses and eventually the anti-Castro exiles.
The book also brings out the close relationship between the brothers. Bobby was totally devoted and loyal to Jack. Jack admired Bobby's zeal and passion and his abilities to get things done. They both had a deep affection towards each other.
In the end, one can surmise from the book that the brothers were killed because of Bobby's pursuit of the crime bosses even though Jack and his dad had used them to get to the Presidency. In the eyes of the crime bosses, the Kennedys did not keep their end of the bargain. They let down the Miami exiles badly in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. The FBI, under Hoover, also conspired by withholding information about the imminent danger to their lives. Both the brothers had a fatalistic view about their own lives as a result.
One disturbing image that arises from the book is the extent to which American politics at the highest level was corrupted and influenced by the Mob, the exile lobby and corrupt trade unions in the 1950s and 60s. Both Jack and LBJ had corruption to thank for to their rise to the highest offices. If this was the case in a rich, industrial democracy nearly 200 hundred years after independence, then it seems very self-righteous and unfair for the Administration of today to call the Afghan and Iraqi govts corrupt and beset by warlords. Applying this interpretation, one can say that J.Edgar Hoover behaved like a 'warlord' in the 1960s by using blackmail and snooping to advance his interests. The crime bosses and the CIA were their own centres of power in the 60s. The book is a humbling experience for anyone who is too critical of the struggle of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
Finally, the author suggests that even though Bobby did not believe in the conclusions of the Warren commission, he 'accepted' them because that was the only way to protect Jack's and his family's legacies as well as his own guilt that he may have contributed to the murder of his own beloved brother by his relentless pursuit of the mob.
This is an excellent and eminently readable book for all Kennedy admirers and non-admirers alike.

Sons and Brothers
Excellent and informative reading. I was amazed with the research and information. I grew up in the 50's and 60's and remember some poignant times, but was too young to really comprehend what was happening in our country and administration. A compelling account for all to read. I am always fascinated with history and I could not put this book down!

Pretty Good
First of all, let's get it out of the way.I really love the Kennedys. I enjoy most of the books about them and always learn something of each (yes, even the crazy conspiracy books).This book was a little different.I learned a lot.I enjoyed how it was put together.It starts with the 1950's and then takes 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and then Bobby Alone as separate topics. It has stories from their growing years in each as if looking back to show why they were doing what they were doing at that time in their life.I really got in the Bobby Alone section from 1964 to 1968.It showed how Bobby totally changed his views and what he went through in order to come to the conclusion that he needed to run for President.Mr. Mahoney does drag out the New Orleans, Cuban, and Mafia stuff but it's ok.Most nowadays do.I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a well rounded book on the Kennedy boys.

Great companion volume to Ultimate Sacrifice
Richard Mahoney is to be commended for putting together a highly readable and cogent account of the life and times of JFK and RFK, as well as their dealings with the Mafia (that led to the death of JFK). Well done.
[...]

why stop at only five stars?
ive read other books on JFK and none of the other books can quite compair to the realism in this book. the things i didnt understand in the first few books where explained more in depth than before and i came to realize that half of the things that kennedy was blammed for after his death were not acctually his fault. for example, vietnam. ... Read more

Product Description
A blue stone which seems to have fallen from heaven causes a farmer and his wife problems until they learn how to carefully use its power. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Lovely Read
Read this chapter by chapter to an eight-year-old at bedtime and you'll make a memory. Especially good if you can voice the main characters' lines with an Irish accent. Richard Kennedy has created a dear fairy tale with humor, reverence, danger, suspense, mischief, justice, and love. The sweetness of the characters has stayed with me ten years after I first read it. Great to find these old friends on Amazon.

This was a wonderful story of Magic.
I think that children my age (10) would greatly like this book.It is about two peasants who find a stone in a river and if a man swallows it, he turns into a duck and if a woman swallows it she turns into a chicken. This leads them to many adventures with the stone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Legends not Humans
Richard Bradley hits us with a brick of facts, and when we awaken we find the truth of the last 40 years.We learned from our recent President that along with getting this job, one must lose his privacy. Mr. Bradley show us that every President must also lose their humanity.JFK the great king?The evil Richard Nixon? Wake up and smell the coffee?

Richard Bradley serves it up piping hot!

Every american that watches those Sunday Washington talk shows should read this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Edward Kennedy was a towering figure of the American political landscape for almost half a century. The youngest member of America’s most fabled political clan and a leading voice of liberalism, he became one of the most powerful and effective Senators in the nation’s history.Kennedy’s rich and sometimes tragic story is told in this book by TIME writers Joe Klein, Richard Lacayo and Karen Tumulty; historian Robert Dallek; former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle; longtime Kennedy-family aide Theodore Sorensen; and Kennedy’s close friend and speechwriter Robert Shrum. It’s also told through dozens of unforgettable photographs, including many intimate, behind-the-scenes pictures of Kennedy at work, on the campaign trail or relaxing with family and friends. That story begins with the fierce ambition of Kennedy’s father, the wealthy and unstoppable Joseph Kennedy Sr., who believed that one of his sons should become President of the United States. As the youngest of Joe and Rose Kennedy’s nine children, Ted wasn’t necessarily destined for a political career. But one by one, his older brothers met their fates, until only Ted was left. Joe Jr. died in a combat mission during World War II. Jack reached the White House, only to be assassinated in 1963. Five years later, Robert was shot down during his own campaign for the presidency. For a time, it seemed inevitable that Ted would also seek the White House, and soon. Then came Chappaquiddick, the tragedy that cost a young woman her life and cast a shadow over Kennedy for the rest of his life. When he did make his only bid for the Oval Office, in 1980, it was in a surprising attempt to unseat an incumbent Democrat, Jimmy Carter. Though Kennedy’s 1980 campaign did not succeed, it ended in a speech to the Democratic National Convention that sealed his status as liberalism’s greatest champion. The failure of that campaign also freed Kennedy to focus for the rest of his life on the work of the Senate. It was there that he gave enduring substance to the Kennedy family legacy, through legislation that shaped this nation in many areas--education, the economy, civil rights, law enforcement and foreign policy--and especially through his decades-long struggle to extend affordable health care to all Americans. His career culminated in 2008 with his key role in securing the Democratic Party’s nomination, and ultimately the presidency, for Barack Obama. A rich compilation of insightful writing and memorable photographs, Kennedy is an authoritative portrait of a man who was one of the major figures of his time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

drunk, murderer, draft dodger, adulteror, liar, academic cheat
He cheated in college, was stopped for drunk driving many times, is a serial adulterer, had daddys help to avoid Korean war.

At 36 (& a US senator) he fled police in Chappaquiddick late at night, drove over a bridge, may have attemptedto save the gal a few times, walked past 4 homes w/ phones to go to his buddies house, drove back to the scene to attempt further rescue(?), failing they left the body & decided to drive ted back to his hotel for the night.At a riverthe ferry was closed for the night & instead of calling the ferry (hadn't called the police yet) ted swam 500 feet across the water at about 1am in the morning, snuck into his hotel, then called front desk at 2am to complain about loud neighbors, then slept til morning, go up ate breakfast & when the police arrived (fishermen found the boat) was chatting w/ the winner of prior days boat races. Per court records.He later paid off Mary Jo's family & that has been the end of it for him. Honor?

Great book for all to read
Ted Kennedy tribute to his life and times is a hard book to put down.It is informative and entertaining at the same time.Great book. ... Read more

Product Description
A new volume in the Liveright series of Cummingsreissues, offset from the authoritative Complete Poems1904-1962. The poems in Etcetera were discovered in threeCummings manuscript collections and selected from more than 350unpublished pieces. Many of the poems are from his early years and allconvey his freshness and youthful spirit, exhibiting his celebrationof love and delight in common natural phenomena. Etcetera was firstpublished by Liveright in 1983. This newly reissued edition ispublished in a uniform format with Is 5, Tulips & Chimneys, ViVa,XAIPE, and No Thanks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

ee cummings is amazing
As a long time ee cummings fan, I found this book to be just as wonderful as the rest of his writing, although this one isn't as well known.If you can appreciate his artistic use of words, you will not be disapointed byetcetera. ... Read more