The Kennedy Men : 1901 - 1963

Rating:
Summary: A Refreshing Change From the "Kennedy Myths"
Review: In the years since John F Kennedy was elected President two kinds of "Kennedy Myths" have developed. The positive one portrays John, Robert and Ted Kennedy as liberal "saints" committed to a progressive revolution in America. The negative one shows the Kennedys to be rapacious libertines who throw off all social conventions in their personal and political lives. Leamer's book transcends these over-simplistic views and covers the lives of patriarch Joseph P Kennedy and his four sons, bringing out the complexity of this unique group of people.

Those who hold a negative view of the Kennedys will find much material to confirm their beliefs. In truth, Joe Kennedy seems to be a man with almost no redeeming virtues, a virulent anti-Semite and pro-Nazi, greedy and miserly, manipulative man. The second generation of Kennedys learned not to ask where the family's money came from. Yet Joe Kennedy went on to implement needed reforms in the Security and Exchange commission to which he was appointed, supported the progressive FDR and became the most powerful Catholic in the US.

Similarly, JFK went on to be an incredibly reckless philanderer who possibly compromised the very security of the US with liasons with women involved with organized crime and possibly even East German intelligence, but at the same time, he inspired young people to volunteer for the Peace Corps and set American on course to landing on the Moon. RFK goes to work for family friend Senator Joe McCarthy and works with the Mafia in order to destablize Castro's regime in Cuba, but then also works vigorously against the same Mafia and institutionalized racial discrimination (and somehow escapes the taint of his association with McCarthy).

Leamer show that JFK and RFK were definitely not "soft liberals". JFK was the best friend the "military-industrial complex" ever had, pouring unprecedented amounts of money into defense and space projects. They supported a very tough anti-Communist policy in Cuba and Vietnam which almost led to nuclear war and did lead to the quagmire in Southeast Asia. One important point about the book is that Leamer does not demonize various "bad guys" from the positive Kennedy Myth, such as General Curtis Lemay and other military men from the Cuban Missile Crisis, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover who was friendly for many years with Joe Kennedy and showed great forebearance with the many indiscretions of his sons and had good reason to be concerned with JFK's behavior and finally Lyndon Johnson who loyally served the Kennedy Administration and yet was treated with contempt by RFK and many of JFK's advisors (although not by JFK himself).

Finally, the author has come to the same conclusion that other investigators have arrived at regarding JFK's assassination, namely, that it is very likely that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was motivated, either with or without the knowledge of agents of Fidel Castro, to kill Kennedy in revenge for the Kennedys' attempt to kill him.

It is not easy to cover the lives of five different men in a singel book, and much had to be left out, but as an introduction to this remarkable tribe of American aristocracy, this book is indispensable.

Rating:
Summary: A Refreshing Change From the "Kennedy Myths"
Review: In the years since John F Kennedy was elected President two kinds of "Kennedy Myths" have developed. The positive one portrays John, Robert and Ted Kennedy as liberal "saints" committed to a progressive revolution in America. The negative one shows the Kennedys to be rapacious libertines who throw off all social conventions in their personal and political lives. Leamer's book transcends these over-simplistic views and covers the lives of patriarch Joseph P Kennedy and his four sons, bringing out the complexity of this unique group of people.

Those who hold a negative view of the Kennedys will find much material to confirm their beliefs. In truth, Joe Kennedy seems to be a man with almost no redeeming virtues, a virulent anti-Semite and pro-Nazi, greedy and miserly, manipulative man. The second generation of Kennedys learned not to ask where the family's money came from. Yet Joe Kennedy went on to implement needed reforms in the Security and Exchange commission to which he was appointed, supported the progressive FDR and became the most powerful Catholic in the US.

Similarly, JFK went on to be an incredibly reckless philanderer who possibly compromised the very security of the US with liasons with women involved with organized crime and possibly even East German intelligence, but at the same time, he inspired young people to volunteer for the Peace Corps and set American on course to landing on the Moon. RFK goes to work for family friend Senator Joe McCarthy and works with the Mafia in order to destablize Castro's regime in Cuba, but then also works vigorously against the same Mafia and institutionalized racial discrimination (and somehow escapes the taint of his association with McCarthy).

Leamer show that JFK and RFK were definitely not "soft liberals". JFK was the best friend the "military-industrial complex" ever had, pouring unprecedented amounts of money into defense and space projects. They supported a very tough anti-Communist policy in Cuba and Vietnam which almost led to nuclear war and did lead to the quagmire in Southeast Asia. One important point about the book is that Leamer does not demonize various "bad guys" from the positive Kennedy Myth, such as General Curtis Lemay and other military men from the Cuban Missile Crisis, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover who was friendly for many years with Joe Kennedy and showed great forebearance with the many indiscretions of his sons and had good reason to be concerned with JFK's behavior and finally Lyndon Johnson who loyally served the Kennedy Administration and yet was treated with contempt by RFK and many of JFK's advisors (although not by JFK himself).

Finally, the author has come to the same conclusion that other investigators have arrived at regarding JFK's assassination, namely, that it is very likely that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was motivated, either with or without the knowledge of agents of Fidel Castro, to kill Kennedy in revenge for the Kennedys' attempt to kill him.

It is not easy to cover the lives of five different men in a singel book, and much had to be left out, but as an introduction to this remarkable tribe of American aristocracy, this book is indispensable.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting history.
Review: Interesting history by an author whose analysis is undermined by his liberal bias. He does not shrink from JFK or the family's shorthcomings, but fails in my estimation to accurately analyze central issues facing JFK during his administration. Very readable with some new information.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat comprehensive but by no means exhaustive
Review: The broad and bold claim captured by the Leamer's title fails to explore the manhood beyond its three major characters: Joe Sr, Joe Jr, and Jack. Further the sun shines too brightly through Jack for it is only through Jack do we glimpse at Bobby and Teddy which this book thier histories fail miserably to document.

Leamer's treatment of Joe Sr is more restrained and authoritative than Nigel Hamilton's assessment in "Reckless Youth." He succeeds in annotating the competiveness that the old patriarch fostered in his children, from what I gather from Leamer seems his only means of directing his attention toward his children. But by only mentioning it without further describing what exactly did he do to foster it, its hard to come away with a judgment of Joe Sr the father.

Leamer does an excellent job of Joe Jr's biography and one can see the family dynamic the good son played in attempting to realize his father's dreams and the shadow he would cast on his brothers.

Leamer's sympathetic treatment of Jack Kennedy does not address the political pettiness and the ruthless tenacity by which he sought to destroy his enemies as indicated in Chris Matthews' book "Kennedy and Nixon." But one begins to see the power of this young man's vision for America reflected in the subject's words buttressed by author's use of context.

However, where is Bobby? If you want to know about Bobby and Teddy and their interplay within and outside the family, look elsewhere.

I am interested in reading Leamer's book "The Kennedy Women" however although Leamer is a wonderful storyteller nothing stands out about his prose that would make me venture beyond the Kennedy sunject matter to read a Laurence Leamer book.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat comprehensive but by no means exhaustive
Review: The broad and bold claim captured by the Leamer's title fails to explore the manhood beyond its three major characters: Joe Sr, Joe Jr, and Jack. Further the sun shines too brightly through Jack for it is only through Jack do we glimpse at Bobby and Teddy which this book thier histories fail miserably to document.

Leamer's treatment of Joe Sr is more restrained and authoritative than Nigel Hamilton's assessment in "Reckless Youth." He succeeds in annotating the competiveness that the old patriarch fostered in his children, from what I gather from Leamer seems his only means of directing his attention toward his children. But by only mentioning it without further describing what exactly did he do to foster it, its hard to come away with a judgment of Joe Sr the father.

Leamer does an excellent job of Joe Jr's biography and one can see the family dynamic the good son played in attempting to realize his father's dreams and the shadow he would cast on his brothers.

Leamer's sympathetic treatment of Jack Kennedy does not address the political pettiness and the ruthless tenacity by which he sought to destroy his enemies as indicated in Chris Matthews' book "Kennedy and Nixon." But one begins to see the power of this young man's vision for America reflected in the subject's words buttressed by author's use of context.

However, where is Bobby? If you want to know about Bobby and Teddy and their interplay within and outside the family, look elsewhere.

I am interested in reading Leamer's book "The Kennedy Women" however although Leamer is a wonderful storyteller nothing stands out about his prose that would make me venture beyond the Kennedy sunject matter to read a Laurence Leamer book.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: The inside jacket preview and the back cover reviews seem to be by those who could not have read this book.
The author may be accomplished, but I am not impressed. In this book, it all comes back to whether or not the Kennedy he's wirting about at the time is having sex and with whom, not with the historic topic at hand.
I also feel some of the most important facts are either misinterpreted, left out or just wrong.
I am not impressed.

Rating:
Summary: What's so good about this book or author?
Review: The inside jacket preview and the back cover reviews seem to be by those who could not have read this book.
The author may be accomplished, but I am not impressed. In this book, it all comes back to whether or not the Kennedy he's wirting about at the time is having sex and with whom, not with the historic topic at hand.
I also feel some of the most important facts are either misinterpreted, left out or just wrong.
I am not impressed.

Rating:
Summary: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- in Context
Review: The Kennedy Men: 1901-1963 By Laurence Leamer has been an appendage of mine since its release in mid-October. I literally could not put it down and when I finished, I lamented its ending. It was personal, like a friend, a wonderful place to go when I read it. I wanted more -- yes, even after reading 700-something pages.

Leamer put this family into context with grit and courage. The book does not mince words. He did not just give us the bad and the ugly; he also gave us the good. And even the bad and the ugly are in a context where the actions are understandable, unlike the Seymour Hirsch book, "The Dark Side of Camelot," where it was all seamy and skewed.

When Joe Kennedy had the lobotomy done on his daughter, Rosemary, one could understand his motives, even the hubris that made him do it. In his own way, he was being protective of her, but his suffering after the disastrous results that left her a mere shadow of her former self -- was some of Leamer's finest writing.

It was as if the author were inside Joe Kennedy's head and had become omnipotent. That is the part of the book that was the most tragic and deeply sorrowful. The fact that he never spoke of her again, and the rest of the family followed suit -- all parched by their unspeakable grief at her loss -- gave more insight into the human condition than I have ever seen in a book, bar none. I believe the lamentation today is still borne by the Kennedy family and that is the demon that drove Eunice to work so hard for the handicapped; she was doing penance for the entire family. This one section could be pulled out alone and made into a morality play; Albert Camus and the existentialists have nothing on Leamer here.

The dossier of facts in this book will stay with the reader, who will not be the same after reading the book. Your heart breaks for this family, what they suffered through -- even if much of the catastrophic consequences they endured were their fault. One can clearly see the motives.

Leamer is sans judgmental hostility. He doesn't lean on the Kennedys for their faults -- rather he puts them into this a historical frame of reference without blue-sky illusions.

Who knew how much John F. Kennedy suffered his entire life? His transition to adulthood was inevitably painful emotionally but also physically. He bore upon his frail shoulders the burden of his older brother's death. His drug habit, scary as it appeared, could also be understood in this book's context. Leamer neither softens nor sentimentalizes it. Kennedy's lifetime of pain makes the reader wince with a lump in their throat. One leaves the book admiring what he accomplished rather than judging him harshly. He was trying to find an even keel for himself. He was looking for an even playing field. One must remember, he was taking the injections wearing 1960s glasses. No one knew the dangers of amphetamines back then. They were the "smart" drug of the day.

I was rather surprised that Rose was as cavalier as she was toward the end, after Joe's stroke -- with cruel indulgence, showing him gowns she would wear to parties she attended without him. She appeared to enjoy her "last-laugh" status her continued health gave her.

Even more surprisingly, Rose was rather cruel to the children as they grew. She wrote letters to their schools but she never visited. She expected the children to be "little men" and "little women" from the time they were babies, another fragment in the mosaic of their shattered lives. To justify this shoddy behavior, she opined that she thought it was best if the children were not dependent on her.

This was one of the big surprises for me of the book: Rose's distance from the children. You were either with her or you were gone. Witness what happened to eldest daughter Kathleen, who died in a plane crash in Europe. She wasn't even brought back for burial, rather, she was buried in England. That fact will stick in one's craw. "Kick," as she was called, was divorced and having an affair, so she was banished, even in death.

Of course, affairs were de rigueur for the Kennedy men. I'm looking forward to Leamer's next volume and hope he explores the relationship of Bobby Kennedy with Jackie after Jack's death when both were .

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. It's one of the truly great books I have ever read. Henry Kissinger once said of an argument, "It had the added advantage of being true." That is The Kennedy Men.

Rating:
Summary: Leamer Tells It Like It Is...and Was
Review: This is one of the best books ever written about the Kennedys. From the first chapter about young Joe Kennedy, this book will seize your imagination and bring to life all of the tragedy and glory of being a Kennedy. Read it for sure!

Rating:
Summary: Kennedy Men Finally Revealed
Review: Too often, the Kennedy works tend to dwell on the testimony of those enamored of the family. There is a great deal to admire in the family and Learner's book reveals that very well from their attempt to distance themselves from those that helped get Jack Kennedy elected and take the nation to new heights, challenging it to rise above the status quo. Yet we also see a more balanced appraisal than seamier, darker works on the leacherous and traiterous aspects of the men, from the harsh Joe Sr to the boys that carried forth the mission of the family.
Rose Kennedy's harsh, dictatorial, compartment treatment of the boys and who's attention she granted or denied goes a long way in explaining some of the icy coldness and ruthlessness the boys would demonstrate in thier relationships to women, the value of women in their lives.
It is amazing that John Kennedy was able to hide so well his drug use and pain killer treatments. The man suffered so all his life and his internal clock was a primary driver in acknowledging to him how short his life would be and his determination to live it as hard and fast as he could. You come away knowing that if the assassin's bullet hadn't take him in 1963, the ravages of drug abuse and his crippling condition would have definitely shortened his life down the road.
I was very interested to get Learner's perception of Joe Jr in this portrayal. Joe Jr's and Jack's level of competitiveness and Joe's consistent intimidation of Jack gives a new view of a brother lost and written about so passively in past books. From Joe's paging Jack to steal his girl at a Harvard event to the academics vs playboy paradigm that existed between the two, it is clear that Joe Sr had a definite plan for the oldest and bought publicity at every turn. Jack was unable to get a compass on his direction and whom he was as a result.
I find this book to be very well written, an outstanding piece of narrative and hard to put down. Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about this family more secrets are revealed in doing so, they give us a better understanding of what drove the individual men to do what they did and the outside influences that eventually would overtake them.