Rating: 
Summary: The sources?
Review: This is an excellent book, but I have some trouble with the sources of information used by Dallek. While much of the information presented in this book is derived from files at the JFK and other libraries, it seems as though almost half is from previous books on JFK. Therefore the veracity and credibility of many points, including controversial ones such as JFK and Joe Kennedy's sexual exploits, relies upon the competence of previous biographers. It would have been reassuring to me if there was an indication that Dallek had independently confirmed some of the more controversial points, or at least cited corroboratory and evidence from several books. Otherwise there is the risk that false information originating in one book is perpetuated here. Furthermore, there is little evidence that Dallek did any original interviews for this book, at least not that he mentions in his acknowledgements. This distinguishes Dallek from biographers such as Robert Caro, who perform extensive original research in writing about their subject. So, while Dallek states at the beginning that this is not another in a series of character-bashing books on the Kennedy's, in many instances these books serve as his primary sources.
Rating:
Summary: An awful lot, but at least it's balanced
Review: First there were the loving eulogies of JFK, then the revisionist hatchet jobs. At last a book on Kennedy that is balanced. An "Unfinished Life'" is also thoroughly researched benefiting from newly available information. However this contributes to some of the book's problems. Having unearthed heretofore unpublicized medical information, Dallek tells all. Having access to new information, the author feels compelled to use seemingly every bit of it. As skilled a writer as Dallek is, this lengthy books often drags under the weight of all the minutiae.
Dallek would have been better off (and so too the reader) to have foregone trying for the definitive single volume biography and divided the work into two or perhaps three volumes.
JFK's early years breeze by, then fully half the book is devoted to his 1,000 day presidency (feels like each of those days is detailed with reports on every backache and bath).
All that said, "An Unfinished Life" is a must for any student of John F. Kennedy. Finally 40 years after his death, an author his able to view JFK objectively. To those stuyding or researching Kennedy, "An Unfinished Life" will be be invaluable. Readers with a more casual interest in Kennedy will enjoy the fresh perspective, while slogging through the detail.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: I very much enjoyed reading this book and recommend it strongly. I am grateful to Dallek for including so much substance and somehow still making the narrative flow for a "general" ( i.e, non scholar ) reader such as myself. The tone is clear and concise and starting around page 180 - pretty much correlating with JFK emergence on the national scene- you really can't put the book down. My only small complaint is the omission of more detailed explanation of JFKs ties to Sam Giancana. I wouldn't consider this an omission if Dallek wouldn't have referred to it himself ( according to the index, 4 times) but always in a passing fashion. Once something so potentially important as a mobster with access to the president was brought up, I felt it should be expanded upon - and either dismissed or validated - much as Dallek does on countless other topics (even ones that eventually do fall into the gossip category, as this one very well might after evaluation). As I say, this is a very small gripe in the overall context of a book that I am truly glad I took the time to read. The telling of key cold war battles is a highlight. Thanks to Dallek's style and the incredible gravity of the events themselves, the story is infinitely more gripping than any thriller you'll read. Dallek always maintains his objectivity while the action keeps moving in what is a terrific history of the twentieth century itself. The result is a volume I am pleased to put on my shelf next to other great presidential biographies that will stand the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: Spell-Binding Biography Of JFK's Life
Review: So much has been written about John F. Kennedy and his family that it perhaps hard to conceive of a book that could add much to a discussion about the meaning and purpose of his life. Yet that is exactly what this erudite and well-written new biography by acclaimed biographer and historian Robert Dallek accomplishes. For those of us steeped in the flood of Kennedy biographies that flowed after his assassination, this refreshing and revealing new look by famed historian Robert Dallek is a Godsend. It mines a lot of previously unavailable material only recently made available, and interprets this new information in a way that both questions and extends the Kennedy legend. JFK has become so much a figure of legend that it is useful to see him in the way that he is masterfully portrayed here, as a much more ordinary human being than he is often pictured as being, a person more profoundly sidelined and marginalized by serious illness and physical handicaps than is generally known. Yet by revealing these aspects of John Kennedy's existential circumstances, JFK inevitably becomes a much more admirable public and private figure, as someone who was able, often through sheer force of will, to make the most of out of every single day. Kennedy was a great believer in the commonplace Zen notion of "being here now", on focusing on the immediate present and enjoying every moment by wringing it of all its intrinsic possibilities. As a man in constant pain, for example, it brings new meaning to other aspects of his known personality, such as his admiration for Green Berets and active sports. As compromised as he was by his physical limitations, he did his damnedest to fully engage himself in life. It is revealing, too, in its relevance toward his admiration of Hemingway, and Hemingway's coda regarding what constitutes courage; grace under pressure. And Kennedy fits the definition of a courageous man along a number of dimensions. On the other hand, new facts surrounding the way the Kennedy family hid such aspects of JFK's life from view are cause for consternation, as they show the extent to which Joe Kennedy, JFK's imperious and ambitious father, was willing to go to further his son's political ambitions en route to the White House. He twisted facts, withheld important medical reports, and paid off officials to guard against the truth regarding his son's medical condition becoming public. Moreover, the degree to which the elder Kennedy used corrupt political practices to further JFK's efforts to become the Democratic nominee, while long suspected and much discussed previously, are even more scandalous. Finally, Dallek shows the ways in which JFK was a man living on the edge, a man willing to risk it all for an infantile sexual tryst with an under-aged cheerleader while on the campaign trail in 1960, a man who evidently got a kick out of sneaking hookers into the White House for pool parties while Jackie was away with the children. In sum, this is a biography bound to become the new standard bearer for Kennedy works precisely because he is so successful in showing all the many and often-contradictory strands of Kennedy's personality and life circumstances made him such a pivotal figure in contemporary American history. This is a great book I recommend for anyone as a good choice for an entertaining and informative summer read! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Scholarly, Not Sleazy
Review: This is a scholarly analysis of John Kennedy's life and, in particular, the Kennedy administration. Kennedy was President during a critical period in American history, the point at which the Cold War nearly turned lethal, post-war right-wing conservatism was born and the civil rights movement transformed the social face of America. Decisions made during his administration helped to create both the crises (Vietnam, for example) and the triumphs (civil rights) of the next 40 years. Most of what we have read about President Kennedy has been pure voyeurism, and that's too bad, since an analysis of his policies, as well as those policy's ideological roots and long-term effects, is critical to an understanding the history and politics of the last four decades. This book attempts that analysis and is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: The Very Best Book on JFK
Review: Having read Robert Dallek's two volume biography of LBJ, which, though comprehensive, pales in comparison with the stellar work in progress by Robert Caro, I approached this biography with enthusiasm, to be sure, but something less than highest expectations.
I should not have worried. This is by far the best biogaphy of JFK that I have read; and I have read pretty much all of the ones worth reading (that leaves the Victor Laskys of the world out). Dallek is an academician by training: and his writing has sometimes suffered for this (this was my major problem with the LBJ volumes, which are otherwise excellent and which I highly recommend.) But he has captured, perfectly I think, the essential paradox that was at the core of JFK's personality. The only other JFK book that remotely apporaches this one is Nigel Hamilton's supurb JFK: RESTLESS YOUTH. It is a pity that the Kennedy family got so upset about the Hamilton work (because of its depiction of Rose); because any careful reader of Hamilton's book comes away with what Dallek makes explicit: that John F. Kennedy was truly a heroic man who struggled to overcome a plethora of illnesses and handicaps which would have left many other people in the dust, no matter how wealthy they happened to be. That JFK did not allow self-pity and a life of ease to overtake him is one of the psychologically triumphant stories of political history, and one which Dallek relates with informed expertise and sympathy.
It is clear that Dallek admires Kennedy. I have no problems with this, as I do too. But he is no blind acolyte; and for this reason, his account is far more credible than those of Schlesinger and Sorenson, although these were admittingly penned in a time of intense grief for the recently murdered leader. Dallek takes Kennedy to task for a variety of things: from his intemperate and reckless pursuit of women to his hesitancy on civil rights. But his criticism of the Kennedy record is tempered with what I am convinced is an accurate sense of what was possible at the time.
Dallek is at his best in making the case that JFK would not have done what Lyndon Johnson did in Vietnam. Much is made of his skepticism of the military; but another reviewer -- I think it was in the Washington Post -- made the point that Dallek could have easily added that Kennedy's civilian advisors were also subject to his scrutiny, and that JFK did best, particularly in foreign affairs, when he trusted his own judgment on an issue. It is inconceivable to anyone reading the account herein of the Cuban Missile crisis that Kennedy could have blindly followed the advice of the Taylors and Westmorelands of the Vietnam conflict.
To his credit, Dallek passes through the assassination quickly. I have always thought that Kennedy's life should eclipse the attention given his death, and this book makes that point in a subtle manner befitting its subject.
This is, in short, an excellent book about a man who strove to excel, who was convinced that making the effort to be your best in a field of endeavor is the only way to live and be happy. I think that John F. Kennedy would be very happy with this book.
Rating:
Summary: One perfect life -- almost
Review: From a larger than life hero, this book cuts JFK down to the size of a man plagued by physical and moral weakness - the former magnifying his feats and achievements, the latter denigrating it away. Only by the sheer force of his brilliance, charisma and leadership does he compensate for his weakness - the same shortcomings that history seems to gracefully overlook and forgives. Dalek's book is an overkill in the documentary substantiation of JFK's medical problems and personal dalliances. It is a tribute to JFK's aura that history judges him on a greater scale of his contributions to the world now as we know it, obviating the nuclear holocaust of the Cuban crisis, his vacillation on the need to pursue the Vietnam policy, his view of racial equality as a moral issue. Like the Camelot's brief shining existence, his unfinished life is an inspiration to people who pursue perfection and never catch up with it; that great leaders are fallible and good people deserve forgiveness.
Rating:
Summary: The Biggest Coverup Was Medical But Nondeliberate
Review: When Dallek's findings on JFK's medical history were first published on JFK in the Fall of 2002, it was crystal clear to me as a sufferer of the same affliction he very evidently suffered, he had a condition called Celiac Disease. This is an autoimmune process which affects the ability of the small intestine to porperly absorb food when the Celiac person is ingesting foods containing the grain protein named gluten. The bone loss and other symtpoms which accrue from this poorly understood process which afflicts those of Irish Descent in particular,and theoretically he could have been identified accurately during his life as having this condition but instead never received this accurate assessment. The "conventional wisdom" regarding his medical condition,which was that he suffered "Addison's Diseae" does not according to what I've read thus far have adequate objective backing in evidence;furthermore, when one considers the fact that in Celiac disease as an autoimmune process, adrenal function along with other glands and organs can and often are adversely affected, one gains a clearer understaning of the comprehensive description and a possibility toward comprehending this medically as it relates to the 35th President of the United States.
That the situation for American Celiacs has not changed since the death of the 35th President of the United States nearly 40 years ago in terms of timely diagnosis and appropriate medical advice in avoiding gluten in the diet continues to reflect poorly upon the medical profession in the United States and indeed a sober realization of what these medical facts of JFK can teach us as a society to pay more attention to Celiac disease and to grant it some level of status in the nation JFK headed as the Executive to a level and degree it has not heretofore enjoyed.
Finally, the fact that the Kennedy family withheld this medical history for nearly 40 years following this man's death indicates a stance that at the very least was unhelpful to those who suffered the same affliction he did, and at most represented an act which ought be regarded by the American public and those interested in public health matters and concepts as "criminal in nature."
Rating:
Summary: Real "Living History." Well done!
Review: Robert Dallek is a scholar with integrity. He feels the record on JFK should be honest, fair, and balanced, and he succeeds on all counts. This book brings to life a portrait of a unique, but controversial historical figure, born into wealth and privilege, who, rather reluctantly, chose public service over an easy career as a journalist or a writer. JFK is treated here in very human terms, not worshiped and not denigrated. We are given glimpses of his motivations for his obsessive womanizing, but all of that pales in the face of JFK's intellectual depth, complex independent personality, and larger than life presence in these pages. Kennedy tried to live every day to the fullest, and understood the context of American politics in the world order. How different from presidents that followed him.
I recommend this book highly, if for no other reason than to spend time again with Kennedy, his family, and his times. I don't think we'll see his ilk among us again any time soon, and that's our great loss as a nation.
Rating: 
Summary: Can we Stand Any More?
Review: How much more can possibly be written about the Kennedys? Dallek writes an easy-to-read study of President Kennedy and his brother Bobby, but there is little new ground here. About the only thing of interest is President Kennedy's alleged affair with a White House intern, which Seymour Hersh also hinted about in the book, The Dark Side of Camelot. The compelling theme of this book focuses on Kennedy's health and the impact of his health on his Presidency. Yet, most of this health discussion is exceptionally well known. Kennedy's back problem, probably Addison's disease, being hopped up on amphetimenes and borderline incompentent medical care have been discussed ad infinitium. It's as if Dallek is saying, "hey look at me, I got in the library's files," ignoring the fact that the most effective data on Kennedy's health, autopsy results on November 22, 1963, were misrepresented, in many cases burned and god knows how truthful. Dallek himself at times tends to be preachy -- witness his penultimate comments on Kennedy's behavior at the Cuban Missle Crisis. His comments about savings the world were un-necssary and seemingly aimed at stroking some unnamed Kennedy legend. The facts are strong enough to stand on their own and if they're not, then the author has done a poor job of research. I bought the book because I needed something to read on a transcontinental airline flight. It fulfilled a need but adds little to the body of knowledge about JFK. Now, if he had only written about Reagan the same way ....
|
