The Patriarch The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy

by Nasaw, David

• ISBN13: 9781594203763
• ISBN10: 1594203768
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-11-13
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The

Summary

Celebrated historian David Nasaw brings to life the story of Joseph Patrick Kennedy, in this, the first and only biography based on unrestricted and exclusive access to the Joseph P. Kennedy papers Joseph Patrick Kennedy-whose life spanned the First World War, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the Cold War-was the patriarch of America's greatest political dynasty. The father of President John F. Kennedy and senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, "Joe" Kennedy was an indomitable and elusive figure whose dreams of advancement for his nine children were matched only by his extraordinary personal ambition and shrewd financial skills. Trained as a banker, Kennedy was also a Hollywood mogul, a stock exchange savant, a shipyard manager, the founding chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and ambassador to London during the Battle of Britain. Though his incredible life encompasses the very heart of the American century, Joseph Kennedy has remained shrouded in rumor and prejudice for decades. Drawing on never-before-published material from archives on three continents, David Nasaw-the renowned biographer of Andrew Carnegie and William Randolph Hearst-unearths a man far more complicated than the popular portrait. Was Kennedy an appeaser and isolationist, an anti-Semite and Nazi sympathizer, a stock swindler, a bootlegger, and a colleague of mobsters? Did he push his second son into politics and then buy his elections for him? Why did he have his daughter Rosemary lobotomized? Why did he oppose the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, and American assistance to the French in Vietnam? What was his relationship to J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI? How did he influence his son's politics and policies in the White House? In this groundbreaking biography Nasaw ignores the tired old answers surrounding Kennedy, starting from scratch to discover the truth behind this misunderstood man. Though far from a saint, Joseph Kennedy in many ways exemplifies the best in American political, economic, and social life. His rags-to-riches story is one of exclusion and quiet discrimination overcome by entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and unshakable endurance. Kennedy's story deserves to be told in full, with no holds barred, and Nasaw's magnificent The Patriarchis the first book to do so.

Author Biography

DAVID NASAW is the author of Andrew Carnegie, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and winner of the Bancroft Prize in History. He is the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters	p. ix
Introduction	p. xix
East Boston to Cambridge to Brookline	p. 1
Dunganstown to East Boston	p. 3
School Days	p. 16
Starting Out	p. 32
War	p. 47
Making a Million	p. 58
Hollywood	p. 83
"My Own Master in My Own Business"	p. 85
Hollywood	p. 105
Gloria and Rose	p. 128
Last Exit from Hollywood	p. 149
Washington	p. 165
On the Roosevelt Train	p. 167
Waiting for the Call	p. 185
To Washington	p. 204
Reelecting Roosevelt	p. 238
Maritime Commissioner	p. 254
London	p. 281
A Plainspoken Ambassador	p. 283
A Rather Dreadful Homecoming	p. 312
Munich	p. 323
The Kennedy Plan	p. 348
Sidelined and Censored	p. 371
"This Country Is at War with Germany"	p. 399
The Lives of Americans Are at Stake	p. 408
Defeatist	p. 427
The Fall of France	p. 444
The Worst of Times	p. 457
There's Hell to Pay Tonight	p. 473
Washington, but Briefly	p. 487
Home Again	p. 489
The Man Who Out-Hamleted Hamlet	p. 505
Palm Beach and Hyannis Port	p. 523
A Forced Retirement	p. 525
War	p. 538
"A Melancholy Business"	p. 570
The Candidate's Father	p. 591
Family Matters	p. 610
"The Great Debate"	p. 632
The Next Senator from Massachusetts	p. 652
Retirement	p. 671
Making Money and Giving It Away	p. 692
The Catholic Candidate	p. 709
Electing a President	p. 726
"He Belongs to the Country"	p. 749
"No!"	p. 775
Acknowledgments	p. 789
Notes	p. 793
Bibliography of Works Cited	p. 829
Index	p. 835
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