Rating: 
Summary: A verbal re-assassination
Review: This is not up to Dallek's standards, much less those of any first rate historian. All hearsay and rehash. What a shame that 40 years after the first assassination, JFK must be assassinated again.
Rating: 
Summary: Another JFK biography!
Review: Another JFK biography! Did we need another? The lives and times of American Presidents always make interesting reading. The US has been blessed with some great men who have held the top job. And even the less than great deserve some sort of attention, because getting to be president is often a life long journey in itself. My particular favourites are Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and Nixon, and in recent times I have spent more and more time trying to get a grip on Truman, LBJ whom has probably not received the due credit he deserved, and Clinton, who is probably getting all the wrong sort of attention. Back to this biography. JFK's life reads like a "Boys Own Annual" - wealth, adventure, girls, fame, political intrigue, and political sophistication. This biography joins all the dots, covers all the salient points in the man's life, and makes the usual historical assumptions, and determinations. Is it any better or worse, or any more necessary than other works? In my opinion it sits somewhere in the middle. It's probably a good place to start if you have not read anything else. At the end of the day, the beginning is usually a good place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: skeptical about medical aspects
Review: The story here is one of tenacity and determination at truly heroic levels; regardless on one's political opinions on Kennedy, it has to be granted that he made himself function despite medical problems and symptoms that would reduce most people to a distinctly sub-presidential level. "Tough" is a very fair word to use here. The story is made worse by questions regarding his treatment and doctors' competence. And this raises a big question with me: I am a physician and don't see how his war exploits were possible, even with a phony medical exam getting him into the military. All these problems and yet he was able to function in high-stress military operations in remote areas of the Western Pacific islands? How did he get all his medications when even normal mail must have been sporadic? If he did obtain them, no one noticed him taking them? Two days in salt water? Going many days without food or water (especially, in the tropics, water)? This is hard to reconcile with the medical problems he is said to have had as far back as prep school and college, much less service on a PT boat in the Phillipines. I'm not implying anything underhanded here but I don't get it.
Rating: 
Summary: A true masterpiece
Review: Dallek has written a little over 700 pages of fascinating insight into the Kennedy presidency. It's important to note that Dallek has not written a "pro-Kennedy" book at all - he deals with JFK's affairs head on, as well as the incredible amount of medication that the president took not only to keep him alive, but to ameliorate his pain from back injuries, spastic colitis, Addison's Disease and other physical ailments. Particularly interesting in this masterful tome is Dallek's detailed writing on Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs Invasion and JFK's marital infidelities. Where Dallek breaks new ground is his examination of JFK's medical records, and how JFK's extensive use of medication affected his life and also his decision making during his presidency. Dallek concludes, based on his seemingly thorough research, that the president's medication did not influence any important decision making. But, this is an issue that bears discussion and scholarly debate. Dallek's conclusions carry significant weight because JFK's medical records until recently were not made available to authors and scholars. This book will probably hold up as one of the best JFK biographies ever for many reasons - the best being its largely objective view based on the author's thorough research and interviews. I highly recommend this book for anyone even remotely interested in learning about JFK the man and his presidency.
Rating:
Summary: This is one of the best biographies of JFK
Review: Robert Dallek did a good job! This is perhaps the best biography of JFK I've read. It was fair and balanced. If anyone asked me what book they should read on JFK's life. It would be this one.
Rating:
Summary: From a Gen Xer's Perspective
Review: I enjoyed this book because for the first time after years of education, documentaries, and personal accounts retold by my parents and their friends, I finally was able to begin to understand the nearly indescribable tension that permeated Kennedy's presidency. The author does a great job of translating the toll on the President caused by the Vietnam War, the struggle with Kruschev and Castro, and Kennedy's own personal struggles, as well as highlighting their underlying causes and effecs. On the other hand, the book was a bit dry at times and often lost itself in the minutiae of detail. At times I found myself forging ahead with the same determination I had to muster in college history classes to get through the reading.
Rating:
Summary: JFK: A Real Human Being
Review: Almost every time John F Kennedy is mentioned nowadays, it is because of his assassination, but many seem to have forgotten that JFK was still a real person who lived a fascinating and important life before he left the world in 1963. Robert Dallek does the Kennedy legacy proud in this one volume treatment of his `unfinished life', and by focusing a sizable portion of the book on Kennedy's childhood and run-up to his Presidency, (something most biographers of Kennedy have chosen not to do) he has given us an even better understanding of the man.
Much of the book discusses Kennedy's tasks in foreign policy, and the author unsurprisingly defends and applauds the President's actions; more often than not with justification. He also defends Kennedy's position on civil rights, a subject on which Kennedy has been increasingly criticised, but here Dallek is convincing. He explains that Kennedy faced a congress that was hostile to his aims, and one that would have rejected any radical plan he put to them. He then creates a sympathetic portrait of Kennedy as a man who had to balance the needs of blacks in his own country with those of a world at the brink of a war that could destroy civilisation as he knew it. Although the domestic problems were important, one can understand why Kennedy chose to put them second behind effectively saving the world from possible destruction.
On the assassination, Dallek is staunchly dismissive of the conspiracy theories, and offers a good explanation on why - he claims that people find it hard to accept that someone as powerful and as important to the world as Kennedy could so easily be snatched from us by a loser like Lee Harvey Oswald. Conspiracy theories, therefore, make people feel better because of the belief that a group of powerful forces beyond our control are what killed Kennedy, rather than an assassin acting alone
One complaint that could be made of this biography is that Dallek comes across as solidly liberal, which is fine if you share those beliefs (like me), but perhaps not so for those who want a more balanced study, or even one that aims to debunk the Kennedy `myth'. I have to admit that even I found it surprisingly one sided at times. Even so, Dallek has written a fine and fitting tribute to a life that was tragically cut short.
Rating:
Summary: Profiles in Politics
Review: Overall the author's portrayal is detailed, fair, and balanced, revealing Kennedy's strengths and weaknesses. But I do not share Dallek's underlying reverence for his subject. My dominant impressions of Kennedy after completing this book are:
1) Kennedy was motivated primarily by a thirst for power and usually did whatever was politically expedient to advance himself. That's not an unusual failing for a politician, but it is staggeringly hypocritical and ironic given his overblown "Profiles in Courage" image.
2) So much of JFK's life revolved around deception-concealing his multiple health problems, hiding his compulsive philandering from his wife, the press, and the public. What energy the man must have had to devote each day to weaving his web of dishonesty. And yes, I'm disturbed by JFK's lack of integrity and moral character. What about the idea that what we do all the time, in and out of public office, relates directly to the kind of person we truly are (e.g., if you'll cheat on your wife, you'll cheat elsewhere)?
3) Kennedy comes off as simply too young and untested to be an effective world leader. Yes, he had some visionary ideas, such as the Peace Corps and the goal to land a man on the moon. But for everything positive about Kennedy there's a troubling negative, such as the Bay of Pigs fiasco, preposterous plots to assassinate Castro, Mob contacts, the affairs, and appointing his thirty-five year-old brother Attorney General. Why did he do that? Ego gratification?
4) Kennedy was actually much more conservative than the contemporary Democratic party (tax cuts, anti-communism, foot-dragging on civil rights). He couldn't get nominated today. Only his celebrity status remains in the playbook. In light of the 2004 election, it's interesting to see how this Democrat was able to win and hold some of the "red states." Maybe JFK is the Last of the Liberal Northeastern Elites?
Rating:
Summary: "An idealist without illusions"
Review: I bought "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963" because of its author's stature as a scrupulously fair and highly literate historian and biographer. Robert Dallek, a Professor of History at Boston University, is well known for his scholarly works, and especially for his two-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson (entitled "Lone Star Rising" and "Flawed Giant.") Because of Dallek's sterling reputation for objectivity, I figured that "An Unfinished Life" would be an excellent biography of JFK.
I was not disappointed. Of the four JFK biographies I've read over the years (now including "An Unfinished Life"), Dallek's book stands head and shoulders above the others in terms of detail, scholarship, and objectivity.
"An Unfinished Life" is an excellent and important new book about President John F. Kennedy. It may, in fact, be THE essential one-volume biography of JFK for those readers who value objectivity as a key quality in works of history and biography. It combines in one volume all the most pertinent facts about the life and political career of the 35th President of the United States, presented in a seamless and well-written, (although rather stylistically stuffy) narrative. True to his reputation for fairness and objectivity, Robert Dallek scrupulously avoids attempting to create new controversies about JFK; at the same time, he doesn't shy away from making negative judgments about Kennedy's decisions and actions when he feels those judgments are warranted.
The whole fabric of Dallek's book is based on sound research and upon well-known and documented facts. There are, however, two vitally important threads that run through "An Unfinished Life", which are based on new research and previously undocumented facts: his predilection for philandering, and serious chronic problems with his health.
The first thread, according to Dallek, has its roots in Kennedy's overall view of women. Even as an adolescent, Jack viewed women as objects to be used for his own gratification, much as his father did. Dallek presents a powerful case that young Jack was certainly aware of his father's many dalliances. Such behavior was actually encouraged among the wealthy families of the day, so it seemed perfectly normal. While he was in college and in the Navy, Jack's letters to friends are filled with references to his sexual exploits. Even after his marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953, Kennedy's dalliances continued... almost up to the day he died.
Kennedy's sexual appetite was also linked to the second important thread in "An Unfinished Life": his chronic health problems. From earliest childhood, Jack was chronically ill with a succession of extremely painful and life-threatening maladies that eluded doctors' attempts to diagnose and treat them. He was constantly in and out of hospitals with chronic stomach, colon, and prostate ailments, and severe lower back pain. He was treated with steroids that probably only made his back pain much worse. As he got older, his physical sufferings increased; in 1947, he was diagnosed with Addison's disease. Kennedy's illnesses imbued him with a strong fatalistic streak and an attitude that he might as well enjoy life's pleasures now, for tomorrow he may die.
As it became more apparent that he was on the road to the White House, Kennedy, his father, brother, and political advisors, all made a concerted effort to "cover up" JFK's ailments. They successfully painted him as a robust picture of youthful good health, beset only occasionally by back pain brought on my an old war injury. It was, in fact, a myth that lasted until well after Kennedy's death.
Overall, "An Unfinished Life" presents a positive picture of JFK. Dallek's overall judgment is that Kennedy was a successful President - perhaps even a near-"great" Chief Executive - because he was able to faithfully discharge the duties of his office during an especially difficult period in American history, despite having to contend with chronic health problems that would have defeated a lesser man. In Dallek's view, President John F. Kennedy was neither a "saint" nor a "sinner," but instead, was the "idealist without illusions" whose Presidency was marked by successes and failures in equal measure.
Read and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: This is the worst biography I have ever read. There is nothing new or interesting about it except for a few critical facts about JFK's health. The audio with JFK's "voice" (by an actor) for the sections of his speeches is ridiculous. This book has no merit. Save your money, this is a waste.
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