Let Every Nation Know

Thurston Clarke

Dallek (the author of the splendid JFK biography An Unfinished Life) and Golway (the author of Washington's General) examine each example of Kennedy's rhetoric, from his 1960 campaign through to Dallas, in chapters that are arranged chronologically, provide historical context and quote the most noteworthy passages. (Unfortunately, they have not included a complete transcript of each speech.) The perhaps unintended result is a terse and judicious narrative that may be the best concise account of the Kennedy presidency ever written. But if their superb text is not enough to convince post-1963 Americans that JFK deserves to be ranked among the greatest presidents, the audio CD of his speeches that accompanies the book virtually makes the case on its own and will be a revelation to anyone whose familiarity with his oratory is limited to his magnificent inaugural address
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

After Lincoln, John F. Kennedy is generally acknowledged as our most eloquent president. The words of such major speeches as his inaugural and his remarks at the Berlin Wall resonate still in the minds of Americans. But as this book and CD illustrate, Kennedy was equally articulate on a host of other occasions, including campaign debates with Richard Nixon, White House press conferences, commencement addresses and comments on such topics as the integration of the University of Mississippi and the Cuban missile crisis. Of course, a large part of JFK's communicative excellence lay in his smart, confident delivery. Thus bestselling Kennedy biographer Dallek and Golway (The Irish in America) present the speeches on a CD featuring Kennedy's own voice, while their book sets each of the CD's 32 tracks in historical context. The speeches and commentary trace JFK's presidential career from the 1960 campaign through his death. Painstakingly, the authors lay out the parameters of real politics that lay behind particular phrases and positions. In the end, the reader/listener is even more impressed with JFK after learning the backgrounds and contexts and then hearing Kennedy so lucidly express the words. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

History generally tells us that President Kennedy's deft use of soaring rhetoric, infused with historical anecdotes and biblical references, inspired the nation during the early 1960s and helped solidify his reputation as a great president. Eminent Kennedy biographer Dallek (An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963) and Golway (The Irish in America) here support that assertion with a book giving brief analyses of 31 of JFK's speeches and debates, presented in audio selections on the accompanying CD-ROM. The results reveal Kennedy's eloquence, humor, and grace under pressure. Along with numerous photographs, the text and CD-ROM together provide an accessible and concise digest of the Kennedy administration. Readers will go back to the often harrowing events of those years, including the 1961 Berlin Crisis, the Civil Rights battles at the universities of Mississippi and Alabama, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The speeches are not transcribed, with the exception of brief remarks, never spoken, that Kennedy was to make in Dallas on his final trip. This work illuminates the importance of public address to the success and reputation of presidents and shows that Kennedy mastered this art. Recommended for all public libraries.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Excerpts of selected speeches, interviews and debates delivered by the last president (but one) not to speak from note cards or in sound bites; packaged with an audio CD. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, avow presidential historian Dallek (Flawed Giant, 1998) and New York Observer columnist Golway (Washington's General, 2005), "spoke in literate paragraphs, and his speeches were filled with references to history and literature that have all but disappeared from American political discourse." Indeed, Ronald Reagan borrowed the "city on a hill" trope, unacknowledged, from Kennedy, who took it from the early American Protestant religious dissenter John Winthrop; it always sounded a little foreign on Reagan's lips, but Kennedy-though, famously, the first and only Catholic president-naturally took to the rhetoric of Boston's Brahmins. Dallek and Golway, for their part, acknowledge that Kennedy had speechwriters aplenty, notably the brilliant Theodore Sorensen, who wrote much of Kennedy's Profiles in Courage; regrettably, they do not go on to distinguish which of his aides concocted which New Frontier theme. The help notwithstanding, Kennedy did his homework, was smart and hardworking and gave a resounding speech. As Dallek and Golway remark on the best of his public utterances, they offer illuminations and remember little-known episodes. The third presidential debate with Richard Nixon featured Nixon tsk-tsking Harry Truman for using words like "hell" and "damn," saying that he'd never allow such language in his White House. (The irony, the irony.) The debates were followed by the narrowest election in history, they note, but not so narrow as Nixon protested; even if Nixon had won the supposedlyrigged Illinois vote, Kennedy would have carried the Electoral College. And Kennedy berated himself over the Bay of Pigs disaster, which only seemed to increase the esteem his compatriots felt: "It's like Eisenhower," he said. "The worse I do, the more popular I get."Useful for students of presidential history, and worthy of emulation: a selected Ford, anyone?

From the Publisher

"A well-made enhanced e-book that collects some 30 speeches by John F. Kennedy from January 1960 until the day before his assassination in November 1963...Readable and easily navigated and bookmarked-a first-rate introduction to the Kennedy presidency." - Kirkus