Overview

"Before John F. Kennedy became a legendary young president he was the junior senator from Massachusetts.The Senate was where JFK's presidential ambitions were born and first realized. In the first book to deal exclusively with JFK's Senate years, author John T. Shawlooks at how the young Senator was able to catapult himself on the national stage.Tip O'Neill once quipped that Kennedy received more publicity for less accomplishment than anyone in Congress. But O'Neill didn't understand that Kennedy saw a different path to congressional influence and ultimately the presidency. Unlike Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic leader in the Senate, JFK never aspired to be ""The Master of the Senate"" who made deals and kept the institution under his control. Instead, he envisioned himself as a ""Historian-Scholar-Statesman"" in the mold of his hero Winston Churchill which he realized withthe 1957 publication of Profiles of Courage that earned JFK a Pulitzer Prize and public limelight. Smart, dashing, irreverent and literary, the press could not get enough of him. Yet,largely overlookedhas beenKennedy'stenure ona special Senate committee to identify the five greatest senators in American history - JFK's work on this special panel coalesced his relationships in Congress, and helped catapult him toward the presidency. Based on primary documents from JFK's Senate years as well as memoirs, oral histories, and interviews with his top aides,JFKin the Senateprovides new insight into an underappreciated aspect of his political career."

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9780230341838

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Reviews

This book provides a great introduction to Kennedy's personality and his efforts to transform himself into a viable presidential candidate...it will serve well to all those interested in acquiring a quick overview of Kennedy's trajectory before reaching the White House - LSE Review of Books

Author Information

"John T. Shaw is a senior correspondent and vice president for Market News International anda contributing writer for the Washington Diplomat.He is afrequent guest on C-SPAN, where he discusses Congress, as well as on KPCC, an NPR affiliate in Los Angeles. He has also appeared on the ""PBS News Hour."" Shaw was a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford Universityfor six years, and he speaks frequently to seminars for diplomats in Washington. He lives in Washington, DC."

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