The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy

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I hesitated to buy this book, because I knew about Kennedy's clashes with Roosevelt and Churchill during the Second World War, and willingness to negotiate with Hitler, and such behavior and attitudes were repugnant to me. Nonetheless, I can't resist a good, long, well-researched biography, particularly about someone who, like Kennedy, played an important role in the New Deal. I was pleasantly surprised to find this biography to be objective, informative and no hagiography. While the author clearly does not dislike Kennedy, he pulls no punches in describing Kennedy's defeatist, concessionary attitudes, not merely at the outset, but during the early years of the War. In addition, however, because the author is a good historian, he provides us with a basis on which to understand the conflicting opinions that prevailed at the time as to what was in Britain's and the US's long-term interests, as well Kennedy's reasons, both personal and political, for believing, as he did, that victory over Hitler, whom he despised as a dictator, was impossible. He thinks they're friendly. He gets into moving pictures exhibitions. He owns a couple of theaters, distributes films to New England, eventually ends up as the studio head of a minor studio, goes to Hollywood as the owner of FBO, which had been a British company, and immediately makes his mark. Towns and cities and states across this country are beginning to institute censorship laws because they don't trust the industry, which caters to their children and is run by Eastern European Jews. And I will be the fresh face. I'll protect you. And he does. He does very well. He gets hired by studio after studio to run their enterprise. At times I found the author too fawning on his subject, but he does provide enough details to allow us our own evaluations. Even though the author states that Kennedy was a “good father” he was absent much of the time. I found the relationship between Kennedy and his wife, Rose, an enigma; he was covertly and not so covertly carrying on relationships with several women – like the actress Gloria Swanson and Clare Booth Luce (wife of Time/Life editor Henry Luce). Rose just seemed to take this all in stride – like she was wearing blinkers – constantly referring to her husband in the most glowing of terms.

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-12-11 04:07:06 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40309113 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Nasaw, David (2020). The last million: Europe's displaced persons from World War to Cold War. Allen Lane.DAVIES: So Joe Kennedy heads the Securities and Exchange Commission for little over a year, then serves as chair of a maritime commission, trying to shape up the city's merchant fleet. And then gets this very important ambassadorship to England. This is an incredible moment. He goes to England in 1937 or '38? And he says to the industry, and he says it over and over and over again, he says it in the trade press, he says it in private, he says it in public: You guys need me, a Boston banker who's not a Jew, as the face of the industry, because you're going to be in trouble. You're already in trouble. Nasaw began this authorized biography after Kennedy’s two youngest children (Jean and Edward) approached him to assess his interest in the project. Once he was assured unrestricted access to Kennedy’s papers and complete editorial control he spent six years researching his subject’s life – documenting his personal and professional lives and investigating a variety of alleged misdeeds. Apparently he was disgusted that his son won the election by such a narrow margin, and again rants and raves at all of those that he feels were responsible.

Children of the City: At Work and at Play (Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985; Oxford University Press, 1986). DAVIES: If you're just joining us, we're speaking with historian David Nasaw. His new book about the life of Joseph P. Kennedy is called "The Patriarch." David Nasaw’s “The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy” was published in 2012 and was a Pulitzer Prize nominee in 2013. Nasaw is an author and a professor of American history at City University of New York. Among his most widely-read books are biographies of William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Carnegie (which was a 2007 Pulitzer Prize nominee). Nasaw describes Kennedy as an “active, loving, attentive, somewhat intrusive father.” He corresponded faithfully with all of his children when he was not at home (most of the time). However, he was a far cry from a model husband. He had affairs with countless women, the most notorious of these with actress Gloria Swanson, whom he often invited to be with him on family occasions that included his wife, Rose.DAVIES: Now he does make his way into banking and finance. There's a bank that his father is associated with, right, and he gets work there, does very well, and then in the late '20s, I guess mid-'20s, goes out to Hollywood. How did he get there? What did he do in Hollywood? urn:lcp:patriarchremarka0000nasa:epub:af12b8ff-57e0-40e5-9182-e897578f4818 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier patriarchremarka0000nasa Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2m9rq67qvj Invoice 1652 Isbn 9780143124078

Martin Arnold (February 28, 2002). "Writers Beware: History Is an Art, Not a Toaster". The New York Times. So he agreed with the doctors that they would do this operation and she would accept her condition. It went terribly wrong and I don't think he ever forgave himself and never wanted to see evidence of what he had done to his beloved daughter. David George Nasaw was born on July 18, 1945, in Cortland, New York, the oldest son of lawyer Joshua Nasaw (1909–1970) and Beatrice Kaplan (1917–2010), an elementary school teacher. [4] Nasaw is the older brother of Jonathan Lewis Nasaw (b. August 26, 1947), [5] the prolific author of at least nine thrillers; [6] [7] [8] and Elizabeth Perl Nasaw (May 29, 1956 – February 28, 2004), [9] who as "Elizabeth Was" (later "Liz Was" and finally "Lyx Ish") was a poet and publisher of avant-garde magazines, [4] [10] and the cofounder of Xexoxial Editions and Dreamtime Village in West Lima, Wisconsin. [11] [12]

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And Kennedy enters into a business relationship with her that soon becomes a romantic relationship. They form an intense relationship, which lasts only as long as Kennedy is in Hollywood. When he leaves Hollywood to go east again, he drops her like a hot potato. They remain in touch, but their romantic attachment is gone. And he's the one who ends it. It did not, and nothing came easy to any of the Kennedys, that tragic clan, who continue to fascinate. Exhaustive yet accessible, Nasaw’s book illuminates. That was invaluable for Roosevelt, and Roosevelt used it, and he in turn used Roosevelt. The relationship between these two men was remarkable. These were two of the most savvy personal politicians. They were good at political - at politics on a private level, on a public level. NASAW: Joe Kennedy never saw her for the rest of his life because he had made a dreadful decision. It was the decision the medical authorities pushed on him. I mean, the lobotomy was the approved treatment for depression and anxiety, and he believed that his daughter could not cope with her retardation, could not cope with the idea that she was going to be watched over and institutionalized for the rest of her life as a, quote, "retarded" young lady.

Nasaw’s even-handed judgments stem from a nuanced understanding of Kennedy’s complicated character and tumultuous times. His numerous warts, like womanizing and anti-Semitism, are thoughtfully examined. But there are minor flaws. Most notably, Nasaw dismisses the longstanding charges of bootlegging, despite persuasive arguments in journalist Seymour Hersh’s The Dark Side of Camelot. My favorite part of the book was Kennedy’s tenure as Ambassador to England in the 1930s leading up to World War II. This section of the book could have easily commanded its OWN book. I’ve read many history books on World War II, and the events leading up to it, but it was fascinating to read about it through Joseph Kennedy’s eyes. It was also probably the key reason why I ended up not liking the man. Like many Americans, Kennedy was an isolationist prior the Pearl Harbor bombing, but unlike most, he remained an isolationist throughout the entire war, convinced it was a giant mistake. We read time and time again how Kennedy simply didn’t think England had a fool’s chance to win, and like Neville Chamberlain, he went through hell and highwater to appease Hitler to keep the war from expanding; even without the US being involved. When one reads between the lines, one gets the impression that Kennedy was more interested in protecting his wealth than he was stopping a maniacal dictator from trying to take over the world. Joseph Kennedy had wanted to exert his influence in a positive way, and Rosemary aside, he did. His children entered public service with verve and single-mindedness because that was what he raised them to do. "He told [his children] over and over again, 'I'm making all this money so you don't have to make money, so that you can go into public service,' " Nasaw tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. Nasaw was given unique access to all the papers in the Joseph P. Kennedy collection at the Kennedy Library in Boston. There were times during my reading that I would have opted for an abridged version of the book. Ultimately, however, every moment spent with this splendid biography provided real dividends.Have you listened to any of Malcolm Hillgartner’s other performances before? How does this one compare? The audiobook is narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner. He uses a distinct East Coast dialect for all Kennedy quotes, and there are many - from diaries, letters and speeches. The quotes, hearing exactly what Joseph said and how he expressed himself, reveal much about his character. In the beginning I found the intonation annoying, but it does make it easy to follow conversations because you know who is saying what. However, the same inflection was used for all the Kennedys. I liked the narration a lot. It was easy to follow. Finally readers will not be surprised to find the author adept at seeing the silver lining around every Kennedy-generated cloud. While Nasaw rarely fails to point out his subject’s numerous flaws and moral failings, he often soft-pedals them (somewhat in the spirit of “Kennedy just being Kennedy”) or excuses bad acts altogether on technical grounds. And, you know, we forget, we know about the men who went into politics, but Eunice Kennedy Shriver I think 50 years down the road is going to be as remembered or should be as remembered as her brothers were because she invents, she constructs the disability rights movement. Jean Kennedy Smith is the ambassador to Ireland during the critical time in which the English negotiate a new relationship with Northern Ireland that ends the troubles. Each of the children embarks on a career in public service, because they knew that's what their father wanted and because they knew that's what they owed him and the owed nation that had been so kind to all of them. He came to be regarded as a Nazi appeaser, and by some as an anti-Semite. Our guest, historian David Nasaw, was asked by two of Joseph Kennedy's children, Ted and Jean Kennedy, to write a biography of their father with full access to his papers. Nasaw agreed, provided he had unlimited access to the archives and no restrictions on their use.