Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Politics & government

INCOMPARABLE GRACE

Mark K. Updegrove

JFK in the Presidency

The acclaimed presidential historian and head of the LBJ Foundation offers an illuminating account of John F. Kennedy's brief but transformative tenure in the White House.

Nearly sixty years after his death, JFK still holds an outsize place in American culture. While Baby Boomers remember his dazzling presence as president, millennials more likely know him from advertisements for Omega watches or Ray Ban sunglasses. Yet his years in office were marked by more than his style and elegance. His presidency is a story of a fledgling leader forced to meet unprecedented challenges, and to rise above missteps to guide his nation into a new era.

Kennedy entered office inexperienced but compelling, his reputation more given by an enamored public than earned. In this compelling new account of his time in the White House, presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove reveals how his first months were marred by the botched Bay of Pigs invasions, a disastrous summit with the Soviet premier and a mismanaged approach to the Civil Rights movement. Though demoralized, Kennedy offered an important lesson in perseverance, righting wrongs and, importantly for our times, learning the correct lessons. Indeed, Kennedy grew as president, radiating greater possibility as he coolly faced a never-ending stream of crises before his tragic death.

Mark K. Updegrove is a presidential historian and the author of four books on the presidency. He currently serves as the President and CEO of the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation. Once the publisher of Newsweek, he is the former director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.

Available products
Book Published 2022-04-26 by Dutton

Comments

With narrative gifts worthy of its title, Incomparable Grace rescues JFK from Camelot mythology. In its place Mark Updegrove gives us the event- and conscience-driven transformation of a cautious Cold War liberal to a trailblazing advocate for nuclear restraint and the dismantling of his own country's segregated culture. Candid and clear eyed about Kennedy's failings, this hugely readable volume explains and justifies his lofty ranking among historians, and his continuing hold over the popular imagination.

We are lucky that Mark Updegrove has brought us this elegant, concise, knowing, fluent and highly-readable look at John F. Kennedy as president. In these troubled times, JFK's leadership looks better and better in the rearview mirror, and Updegrove here deploys his wise historical judgment to show us the essentials of why.

Updegrove's skillful portrait reveals a president who learned on the job and did so with humility, 'calling forth the best in all of us,' which helps account for the widely shared enshrinement of Kennedy's memory today... A well-rendered portrait showing that presidential politics can be both effective and a force for the good.

Politico's Playbook covered the author's private book party at the White House Historical Association on April 13 Read more...

Updegrove limns Kennedy's ascent from overshadowed, somewhat sickly second son to war hero... Updegrove doesn't lost his way in excessive detail, penning a biography that brings JFK into living perspective for a younger generation who might know him only from their parents' tales.

In this tremendously absorbing and inviting portrait, Mark Updegrove delivers a warm, yet unflinching examination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His deep knowledge of the presidency allows him to convey the political complexity of the issues without ever losing the narrative flow. This is an important book that captures the energy, hope and vision of a young president navigating a potential nuclear confrontation, a gathering storm in Vietnam, and the struggle for justice at home.