Mark K. Updegrove is a presidential historian and the author of four books on the presidency. He currently serves as the President and CEO of the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation. Once the publisher of Newsweek, he is the former director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.
“Absorbing…Updegrove provides a balanced look at Kennedy's personal
and political failings while offering a look at why a man who
served just 1,036 days in office continues to rank so high by
historians among the nation's presidents.”—Associated Press
“Updegrove limns Kennedy’s ascent from overshadowed, somewhat
sickly second son to war hero... Updegrove doesn’t lose his way in
excessive detail, penning a biography that brings JFK into living
perspective for a younger generation who might know him only from
their parents’ tales.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Updegrove’s skillful portrait reveals a president who learned on
the job and did so with humility, ‘calling forth the best in all of
us,’ which helps account for the widely shared enshrinement of
Kennedy’s memory today… A well-rendered portrait showing that
presidential politics can be both effective and a force for the
good.”—Kirkus
“The fast-paced narrative smoothly transitions from one high-stakes
matter to the next and reveals just how eventful the abbreviated
Kennedy presidency was…. a brisk and entertaining
biography.”—Publishers Weekly
“In this tremendously absorbing and inviting portrait, Mark
Updegrove delivers a warm, yet unflinching examination of John
Fitzgerald Kennedy. His deep knowledge of the presidency allows him
to convey the political complexity of the issues without ever
losing the narrative flow. This is an important book that captures
the energy, hope and vision of a young president navigating a
potential nuclear confrontation, a gathering storm in Vietnam, and
the struggle for justice at home.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times
“We are lucky that Mark Updegrove has brought us this elegant,
concise, knowing, fluent and highly-readable look at John F.
Kennedy as president. In these troubled times, JFK’s leadership
looks better and better in the rearview mirror, and Updegrove here
deploys his wise historical judgment to show us the essentials of
why.”—Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author of
Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times
“With narrative gifts worthy of its title, Incomparable Grace
rescues JFK from Camelot mythology. In its place Mark Updegrove
gives us the event- and conscience-driven transformation of a
cautious Cold War liberal to a trailblazing advocate for nuclear
restraint and the dismantling of his own country’s segregated
culture. Candid and clear eyed about Kennedy’s failings, this
hugely readable volume explains and justifies his lofty ranking
among historians, and his continuing hold over the popular
imagination.”—Richard Norton Smith, author of On His Own Terms: A
Life of Nelson Rockefeller
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