Robert Dallek.
ROBERT DALLEK
AN UNFINISHED LIFE: JOHN f. KENNEDY, 1917-1963 (2003)
John F. Kennedy (born 1917) was the 35th President of the USA, serving from 1961 until Iin 1963 he was assassinated while driving in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas. He is, at 43, the youngest person to have been elected as President. Before winning the Presidency he had served as Congressman, then Senator, representing Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1940, and joined the Naval Reserve the following year. He commanded PT boats in the Pacific area during World War II, his most dramatic experience being the sinking of his boat PT-109. He was decorated for his bravery in rescuing of crew members. A notable feature of his presidency were the 1962 Cuban missile crisis - during which nuclear war was narrowly averted. He presided over the formation of the Peace Corps, and continued the Apollo moon landing programme. Following the building of the Berlin Wall by East Germany, Kennedy delivered in 1963 a famous speech in West Berlin, pledging US support for the isolated city.
The Guardian wrote of Dallek’s biography of Kennedy: ‘Dallek has produced easily the best and most objective modern account of JFK. Dallek's unique selling point is that he has had access to previously unreleased records in the Kennedy Library in Boston which detail the full misery of the president's health problems - as well as the immense efforts to which he went to conceal them.’ The Daily Telegraph wrote; ‘It is the singular achievement of this magnificent new biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy that it has taken one of the most scrutinised lives of the 20th century and made it feel fresh...’.
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Robert Dallek (born 1934) is a historian specialising in the modern history and politics of the USA. He was educated at the University of Illinois and at Columbia University where he took his PhD. He has been a professor of history at the University of California Los Angeles, and at Boston University. He has written biographies of John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger.
