For Fredrik Logevall, this book emerged from a paradox. On the one hand, the life and death of John F. Kennedy forms an extraordinary American story. On the other hand, although we have innumerable books on aspects of that saga, there exists virtually no full-scale biography. Nor has anyone fully examined Kennedy in the context of his time and place. Logevall set out to produce such a work. By situating JFK within the wider setting of the era and the world, he argues, we can better comprehend not only his rise, but his country’s rise, and can come to see how much Kennedy’s life story tracks with key facets of America’s political and geopolitical story in the middle decades of the 20th century.

Panelists:

Frederik Logevall, Harvard University
Barbara Perry, University of Virginia

Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and Professor of History at Harvard University. His book Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (Random House, 2012), won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Francis Parkman Prize, among other prizes. His other recent works include America’s Cold War: The Politics of Insecurity (with Campbell Craig; rev. ed., Belknap/Harvard, 2020). Logevall’s essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, Daily Beast, and Foreign Affairs, among other publications. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Barbara A. Perry is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor and Director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited 14 books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Professor Perry has conducted more than 100 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Presidential Oral History Projects and she directs the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project. She served as a U.S. Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate.