JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
Sep 2020 · Sold by Random House
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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this “masterful” (The Economist) biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president.
“An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
In development as the Netflix series Kennedy, starring Michael Fassbender
WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE • NAMED THE TIMES’ BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the full person.
Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade on a sweeping two-volume biography that properly contextualizes Kennedy amid the roiling American Century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK’s life to reveal his early relationships, his formative experiences during World War II, his ideas, his writings, and his political aspirations.
JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 is a sweeping history of the United States in the middle decades of the twentieth century, as well as the clearest portrait we have of this enigmatic American icon.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Sunday Times (London), New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, Kirkus Reviews
“An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
In development as the Netflix series Kennedy, starring Michael Fassbender
WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE • NAMED THE TIMES’ BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the full person.
Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade on a sweeping two-volume biography that properly contextualizes Kennedy amid the roiling American Century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK’s life to reveal his early relationships, his formative experiences during World War II, his ideas, his writings, and his political aspirations.
JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 is a sweeping history of the United States in the middle decades of the twentieth century, as well as the clearest portrait we have of this enigmatic American icon.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Sunday Times (London), New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, Kirkus Reviews
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this “masterful” (The Economist) biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president.
“An utterly incandescent study of one of the most conseque...
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3 reviews
B-RYE
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March 22, 2026
This is a very detailed, thoroughly researched biography of JFK and his era. It's the very first volume in an upcoming three book series. I've already read this book and I am anxiously awaiting volume 2. Highly recommended for those of you wanting to reach back in time and get to know JFK from a personal level as well as what he was like before he stepped into the public spotlight and his rise into politics.
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January 11, 2024
Could be better, but for now, the rizz is low, the skibidi is high, your motion is low, go to your mama and cry.
About the author
Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and professor of history at Harvard University. A specialist on U.S. foreign-relations history and modern international history, he is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Embers of War, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Francis Parkman Prize.
Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and professor of history at Harvard University. A specialist on U.S. foreign-relations history and modern international history, he is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Embers of War, which won the Pulitzer ...
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