{"product_id":"jfk-volume-1-19171956-9780241185896","title":"JFK: Volume 1: 1917-1956","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe most compelling biography I have read in years . . . There has been a host of JFK biographies  but this one excels for its narrative drive  fine judgments and meticulous research . . . makes the story seem a cliffhanger even though we know what is coming Max Hastings  Sunday Times  In his utterly absorbing JFK  Fred Logevall reconstructs not only a great man  but also his entire age Brendan Simms  author of Hitler: A Global Biography  The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic  yet still elusive  thirty-fifth president.   By the time of his assassination in 1963  John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Bostons wealthiest  Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age  and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in modern history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma  reports of his extramarital affairs  and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death  these accounts all fail to capture the full person.  Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge  Harvard professor Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade combing through material unseen or unused by previous biographers  searching for and piecing together the real John F. Kennedy. The result of this prodigious effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that for the first time properly contextualizes Kennedys role in the international events of the twentieth century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFKs life - from birth through his decision to run for president - to reveal his early relationships  his formative and heroic experiences during World War II  his ideas  his bestselling writings  his political aspirations  and the role of his father  wartime ambassador to Britain. In examining these pre-White House years  Logevall shows us a more serious  independently minded Kennedy than weve previously known.  In chronicling Kennedys extraordinary life and times  with authority and novelistic sensibility  putting the reader in every room where it happened  this landmark work offers the clearest portrait we have of a remarkable figure who still inspires individuals around the world.   A riveting study of young JFK. Logevall has written a superb book. David Runciman  Guardian  A brisk  authoritative  and candid biography  and a wonderfully compelling history of Americas heady and troubled mid-century rise Jill Lepore  author of These Truths: A History of the United States  Fredrik Logevall makes JFK as alive and compelling as if you were reading about him for the first time George Packer  author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America  A powerful  provocative  and above all compelling book Jon Meacham  Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of The Soul of America  In this first volume of Fredrik Logevalls definitive biography  JFK is all too engagingly and amiably human . . . I hope Logevalls second volume will follow soon Peter Conrad  Observer\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45652406173749,"sku":"ByrdShop_0241185890","price":95.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780241185896.jpg?v=1781851435","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/jfk-volume-1-19171956-9780241185896","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}