Synopses & Reviews
In her compelling and intimate portrait, presidential historian Barbara A. Perry captures Rose Kennedy’s essential contributions to the incomparable Kennedy dynasty. This biography — the first to draw on an invaluable cache of Rose’s newly released diaries and letters — unearths the complexities behind the impeccable persona she showed the world. The woman who emerges in these pages is a fascinating character: savvy about her family’s reputation and resilient enough to persevere through the unfathomable tragedies that befell her. As a young woman, she defied her father, Boston mayor John Fitzgerald, by marrying ambitious businessman Joseph Kennedy. During Joe’s diplomatic career, she began carefully calibrating her family’s image, stage-managing photo shoots and interviews of her nine children and herself. After husband Joe’s isolationist views on the eve of World War II made him a political liability, Rose took to the campaign trail for son Jack. Her perfectionism, initially a response to the strictures imposed on Catholic women, ultimately created a family portrait that resonated in modern politics and media.
Perry’s account looks past the fanfare, poignantly revealing the matriarch’s vulnerability. Rose sought solace from crushing personal tragedies and a philandering husband in prayer, habitual shopping, travel, and medication. Initially ashamed and afraid of daughter Rosemary’s mental disability, Rose ultimately shined a light on the affliction, raising millions of dollars for disabled children. An indefatigable campaigner for Jack, Bobby, and Teddy, she had an unshakable Catholic faith that informed their compassionate social policies and her daughters’ philanthropies.
The definitive biography, Rose Kennedy provides unequaled access to the life of a remarkable woman who witnessed a century of history and masked her family’s more inconvenient truths while capturing the American imagination.
Review
"Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was one of the most inspiring women of the twentieth century. Everyone knows her as the mother of President Kennedy, but her story is far richer — one for the ages. Barbara Perry brilliantly and sensitively shows us Rose’s world, filled with almost unimaginable privilege yet scarred by terrible tragedies that would have been unbearable for most. You will be deeply moved by Perry’s magnificently researched account of this remarkable centenarian, whose steely optimism and unshakeable religious faith overcame life’s darkest detours." Larry J. Sabato, Director, University of Virginia Center for Politics
Review
"Barbara Perry's story of Rose Kennedy will likely become the definitive biography of one of the most important women of the 20th century. Perry utilizes newly released materials to tell a more complete story of the matriarch of the Kennedy family." Trey Grayson, Director, Institute of Politics, Harvard University
Review
"Behind the public’s image of an ineffectual icon, Barbara Perry uncovered a Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy far more complex, shrewd, and ambitious than most of us knew. This lively, thoughtful biography shows both the reach of the subject’s influence and the stubbornness with which she guarded her own independence. Using newly opened archives, Perry reveals, for the first time, the important role that the matriarch of America’s most glamorous political dynasty played in her family’s remarkable story. It makes a superb read." Betty Boyd Caroli, author of First Ladies: From Martha Washington to Michelle Obama
Review
"Barbara Perry has crafted an insightful and fast-paced narrative, based on Rose Kennedy’s own papers, that does full justice to the vital role Mrs. Kennedy played in the turbulent life of her influential family. Perry has set a high standard for biographies of presidential mothers and their impact on their children." Lewis L. Gould, author of Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Creating the Modern First Lady
Synopsis
The definitive biography of Rose Kennedy peels away layers of public imagery, revealing the matriarch who became a political legend.
Synopsis
Barbara Perry finally captures Rose Kennedy's genuine contributions to her family's political dynasty. Mining newly released diaries and letters, Perry trains her eye on traits that other biographers have neglected. Rose's perfectionism, initially a response to the strictures imposed by gender, class, and religion, ultimately created a family image that resonated in the political arena and new twentieth-century media. An extroverted socialite at her husband's side in prewar London, she became an effective campaigner at home, reaching voters that Jack, Bobby, and Teddy could not. For the first time, we see a complete portrait of Rose that adds depth and dimension to her legend. A stoic, devout presence in public, Rose sought solace from crushing personal tragedies in compulsive shopping, travel, and self-medication. Rose Kennedy is an unequaled book about a remarkable woman who nurtured an image that masked her family's more inconvenient truths.
About the Author
Barbara A. Perry, a well-known authority on the Kennedys, is a Senior Fellow in the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. As part of her extensive research on the American presidency, she interviews prominent members of previous administrations. She is the author of Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier, among other works, and lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.