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.
Review
"Acute commentary . . . fair-minded. . . . Laudable. . . . Perry employs a newly released trove of diaries and letters to add nuance and detail." Julia M. Klein
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"Will likely become the definitive biography of one of the most important women of the 20th century." Boston Globe
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"A more thorough account . . . of a lady whose solid grounding in Boston politics and serene Roman Catholicism carried her through America's most corrosive century, and in the telling, it's clear that Kennedy never played the victim to history." Trey Grayson, Director, Institute of Politics, Harvard University
Review
"A fuller picture than ever before...Perry writes with compassion and brings keen insight into what Rose Kennedy's own words tell us about this complex woman." Matt Damsker USA Today
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"The much needed, balanced biography of the grand matriarch of American politics." Amy Scribner Book Page
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"A finely crafted, comprehensive account of one of the most driven women in the shadows of American political history. . . . While there are untold numbers of books on the Kennedys, Perry adds archival details and nuance to our understanding of Rose. Kennedy completists and novices alike are sure to find the book fascinating as it further reveals the perspective of the strong woman behind the dynasty." Douglas Brinkley, author of Cronkite
Synopsis
"An insightful portrait of this paradoxical woman."--
Synopsis
In this definitive biography--the first to draw on an invaluable cache of newly released diaries and letters--presidential historian Barbara A. Perry unearths the complexities behind the impeccable persona Rose Kennedy showed the world. Rose Kennedy provides unequaled access to the life of a remarkable woman who witnessed a century of history and created the public image of one of America's preeminent families.
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.