Rating: 
Summary: How can you make JFK boring?!
Review: I agree with Norman Ravitch that this book drags. The guy who wrote it has all the warmth and compassion for his subject that a dog collar has for a leash. He drones on and on and on, and the only reason I gave it 3 stars is because there is a lot of new information about JFK's medical problems, which were far more considerable than anyone even guessed. There is some stuff at the front about Kennedy's childhood which could have been fascinating, had it been written with any insight or interest whatsoever. This author writes like he's got a term due paper due TOMORROW and is writing it tonight at 3 a.m. Kennedy's older brother Joe comes across as an arrogant and bullying brat, Joe Kennedy as the most domineering guy ever to walk the planet, and Rose Kennedy as so religiously obsessed as to be almost mentally ill. There is nothing about Jacqueline or any of the rest of the family with the exception of Bobby, and not much of him. This is---plain and simple---boring reporting from a major university nerd. I'm donating this turkey to the Used Book Store pronto.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Kennedy lover loose on American shelves
Review: Another useless Kennedy loving book has been loosed on us and I want to show you how useless this book is. Thier must be 50 books on JFK. This book now tops the pile, sopposedly exploring new evidence(how much new evidence can their be, arnt we waiting for the CIA to admit they killed him?) and sopposedly explodes the myth that kennedy wanted to expland the war in Nam. NOw lets not fall off our chairs, Kennery was a warlike person, a hater of the communists, your telling me he got cold feat and then suddenly died. No. JFKs life wasnt 'unfinished' as this biogrpahy claimed. It was finished. And it was finished apparently by a man who was a big communist lover, who also was invovled with anti castro right wing groups and apparently was involved with the mob(also anti castro) and the CIA(which was also anti castro), but wanted to kill kennedy becasue Kennedy wanted to kill castro. So Kennedys life is finished. And its for the best. Kennedy was a monstrous man, cheating on his wife, using drugs, prostitutes, abusing women, lying, having sex with the same woman his brother was, destroying the CIA while putting america into wars half a world away. Nothing was unfinished unless you wanted Kennedy to finish his term so he could be involved in more wrongdoing and chicanery. This is a useless biography, something that deserves to be put onto the used bookstore shelf along with the over 50000 books on JFK.
Rating:
Summary: A critical study but still too liberal
Review: Dallek presents much new material. We have a Kennedy whose life was beset by serious medical conditions, by an upbringing of no warmth or concern from absent parents, and by a bullying elder brother. Who can have anything but sympathy for what JFK was nevertheless able to achieve? He was also stymied in his presidency by excessive warmongering by the Right, which was largely responsible for his entanglement with Cuba and Vietnam. He handled Khruschev's folly in Cuba very well, all things being equal. Dallek is an accomplished historian but his prose is too wooden and academic. The book frequently drags. Dallek as a liberal is too quick to fault JFK about his tepid record on civil rights. As someone suspicious of Negro adventurism I applaud Kennedy's unwillingness to give in too much to the black revolution which we call the civil rights movement. It remains to be seen whether blacks are really better off today than before 1960. Still all in all, Kennedy as president was hardly of the stature of FDR or Harry Truman. This book helps to remove some of the myth. Kennedy is personally more appealing but presidentially somewhat less so than before.
Rating:
Summary: Too much humdrum detail.
Review: At times, I felt that I was reading pages and pages of JFK's gastro-intestinal maladies, and back problems with simply too much detail. The meat of the biography was just intertwined in between his doctors visits!
Rating: 
Summary: Political Biography Sheds Light on JFK's Character
Review: For anyone who lived through the early 60's and took an interest in its politics, Dallek's biography of JFK, a superb work of scholarship, is like reliving your youth, but with the benefit of hindsight. Dallek sees Kennedy's greatest acccomplishement as his managment of the nuclear confrontation between the cold-war superpowers, and, in particular, his achievement of the Test Ban Treaty, the first step toward arms control, achieved by Kennedy at a time when military leaders and others considered nuclear war to be a plausible option for responding to the Soviets. Dallek faults Kennedy above all for his cautious approach to advancing racial equality. However, given the heavy price that the Democratic Party has paid for its support of racial equality, i.e. it has turned itself from the majority party into a minority party, and given that Kennedy did initiate the historic civil rights legislation that LBJ brought to fruition, it is hard to agree with Dallek that Kennedy was too cautious. Indeed, Kennedy's most interesting character trait, as revealed by Dallek's biography, was his cautious reasonableness, imperfectly applied yet persistently present. Just where this character trait came from remains something of a mystery. The son of a wealthy robber-barron isolationist, capable of great physical bravery in regard to his chronic multiple illnesses, elevated to the presidency at a uniquely young age and largely by virtue of his fame as a war hero, indulged because he was handsome and charming, and, as one might expect, reckless in his sex life, Kennedy nevertheless was driven by some impulse of mysterious origin to work for the triumph of reason over violent conflict. In its own way it is a mystery no less compelling than the emergence of Abraham Lincoln from a log cabin.
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT'S THE FASCINATION WITH THIS GUY?
Review: Ah, so many opportunities for adultery, so little time. Such was the short but libido-riddled life of this highly overrated man. What little JFK accomplished has now been overshadowed by sleazy behavior which makes Clinton look like a saint. This was a man who swam nude in the White House pool with two young women referred to as Frick and Frack. This was a man who had an affair with Judith Exner, the girlfriend of mafia crime boss Sam Giancana. This was a man who as president initiated a 19-year-old virgin as his private concubine, brazenly flying her around on Air Force One. Naturally he impressed upon her the importance of keeping their little romance a secret. This was a forty something man who during his presidential campaign tried to persuade a sixteen year old high school cheerleader to come to his hotel room! No wonder the guy had back problems! It's not surprising that Jackie sought to divorce him early on. Simply put JFK was a narcissist who used his office to satisfy personal depravities. Not only did he leave an embarrassing legacy for his wife and children, he completely disregarded the potential for blackmail and threats to our national security. Why anyone would revere JFK or indeed any Kennedy is a mystery to me. The democrat who termed his tenure as Camelot must think Hell is a sunny resort with iced tea on demand.
Rating:
Summary: Great biography
Review: I've always been reluctant to read a biography of John Kennedy. He's still too recent a president to get a truly objective biography; most writers would either have an agenda to push or be interested in a sensationalistic angle (try and find a Bush or Clinton biography that does not have a distinct slant). When I saw that Robert Dallek had come out with a JFK biography, my knowledge of his interest in historical writing overcame my skepticism and I was rewarded for taking the chance. Although slightly favorable to JFK, this is overall a very balanced book. Dallek does not ignore Kennedy's obvious flaws and shows that JFK was not one of the great presidents, but merely a good one, elevated to higher prominence through his charisma and his assassination. Dallek deals with JFK's philandering but does not dwell on it more than necessary. What he is more interested in is JFK's medical history, which was largely concealed from the public. It is a comment on JFK's willpower that he was able to not be beaten by his poor health; in this sense, he was similar to an earlier Democrat, Andrew Jackson, who was also in constant battle with pain and health issues. JFK is also portrayed as a rather moderate figure, hardly ideological or willing to fight all out for important issues such as civil rights. Instead, he was often deceitful or flaky in his actions. However, when it was the most important, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK was at his best and resisted pressures that might have had other presidents starting nuclear wars. JFK was also a very sharp person, witty and clever and able to charm both men and women. Of course, objective and detailed writing is nothing if it is not good and readable as well, and this book is. There have been many books on JFK and his family, and it is too soon to say there is a single "definitive" biography (such as Remini on Andrew Jackson or Dumas Malone on Jefferson), but this book is well-written enough that it might someday be considered for that honor.
Rating:
Summary: An Admirable, Balanced Examination of JFK
Review: Presidential historian Robert Dallek has taken on a challenging task in his new biography of John F. Kennedy, "An Unfinished Life." Unlike the majority of journalists, academics and others who have written about our 35th president, he comes neither to crucify or deify JFK. His goal is far more difficult: to present a balanced picture of Kennedy's short, event-filled life. This book manages to fulfill that goal admirably. Dallek's narrative is straightforward, and the outlines are familiar; Kennedy's birth as a child of parents quickly moving into prosperity; his years of growing up, dominated by illness and loneliness; his coming to maturity in college; his World War II heroics; his election to Congress and steady pursuit of the top prize in politics, the presidency of the United States. Dallek's evenhandedness is evident throughout his treatment of the major issues Kennedy confronted during his brief, event-filled presidency. He praises his restraint in handling the Cuban Missile Crisis, while also recognizing that it was his missteps in the months leading up to that confrontation that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation in the first place. He conveys the spirit of optimism and vitality JFK brought to the nation, and how the sudden loss of that on November 22nd 1963 was such a shattering event; but Dallek also refuses to minimize or condone the potentially disastrous consequences of Kennedy's sexual recklessness. "An Unfinished Life" would deserve praise even if Dallek had only provided an evenhanded summary of all the JFK scholarship that's come before. But he has done more here, breaking new ground about the extent of JFK's health troubles. Not only did he suffer from the back problems and Addison's Disease that are now well known, he had a host of other troubles, including chronic colitis, and prostate troubles. The author's admiration for Kennedy's ability to overcome these physical challenges are clear, yet he also tries to come to an objective conclusion to the question of whether these difficulties ever impaired his ability to perform his job. Dallek's prose doesn't soar the way Robert Caro's does in the retelling of Lyndon Johnson's life. But his narrative is clear and easy to follow. He seems to have a knack for selecting the right illustrative quote and weaving it into the text without interrupting the flow. It's doubtless, as Dallek himself concedes, that this will not be the last word on John F. Kennedy. But if you're looking for a nuanced examination of his life and career without heavy pro- or anti-Kennedy bias, there's no better volume right now.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but rather dry
Review: Robert Dallek has done a great job of researching for this book, and when it comes to JFK:s years in the White House he doesn't leave many stones unturned. But the book suffers from a slightly cold and unpersonal tone, and Kennedy's childhood and formative years are covered too briefly. Vital events that greatly shaped JFK:s life and personality, like the deaths of his brother Joe Jr and his sister Kathleen in the 1940s are, for instance, never properly investigated. Still, it's a fair representation of the Kennedy era.
Rating:
Summary: Puzzled.
Review: I am somewhat puzzled after reading this book. I think the author tended to trivialize Pres. Kennedy's sexual exploits. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but I think the Pres. had a problem. I also question the extent of his medical problems. I'm not a Doctor, but common sense seems to say that they couldn't have been as bad as they are depicted. I was enthused (?) when I started reading this book, but I was somewhat disappointed when I finished. I also think that the author somewhat belabored some of Kennedy's situations with education, the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, etc. It he was writing a manual for the politicians he did well...if a book forthe average reader he missed to boat a wee bit.
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