A âprovocative reconstruction of John F. Kennedyâs âfive-year campaignâ for the White Houseâ (The New Yorker), beginning with his bold, failed attempt to win the vice presidential nomination in 1956 and culminating when he plotted his way to the presidency and changed the way we nominate and elect presidents.
John F. Kennedy and his young warriors invented modern presidential politics. They turned over accepted wisdom that his Catholicism was a barrier to winning an election. They hired Louis Harris to become the first presidential pollster. They twisted arms and they charmed. They turned the traditional party inside out. They invented The Missile Gap in the Cold War and out-glamoured Richard Nixon in the TV debates.
Now âThomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie, both veteran political journalists, retell the story of this momentous campaign, reminding us of now forgotten details of Kennedyâs path to the White Houseâ (The Wall Street Journal). The authors have examined more than 1,600 oral histories at the John F. Kennedy library; theyâve interviewed surviving sources, including JFKâs sister Jean Smith, and they draw on their own interviews with insiders including Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
From the start of the campaign in 1955, âThe Road to Camelot brings much new insight to an important playbook that has echoed through the campaigns of other presidential aspirants as disparate as Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The authors take us step by step on the road to the Kennedy victory, leaving us with an appreciation for the maniacal attention to detail of both the candidate and his brother Robert, the best campaign manager in American political historyâ (The Washington Post). âA must-read for fans of presidential historyâ (USA TODAY), this is âan excellent chronicle of JFKâs innovations, his true personality, and how close he came to losingâ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).