The path to power
JFK: Volume 1, 1917–1956
Viking, 816 pages, £30
In 1992, broadcaster Charlie Rose interviewed JFK biographer Nigel Hamilton and asked: “Why write about someone who’s been written so much about?” Rose pointed out that three Kennedy biographies had been published that year alone. Hamilton demurred: “Ninety per cent of all books (2001) comes close, and that book is now nearly 20 years old. Surprisingly, Kennedy is overdue for lengthy reappraisal, and Pulitzer prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall aims to plug the gap.
