About this title: In this Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, John F. Kennedy tells the stories of eight U.S. senators who put principle above popularity. Kennedy singled out John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Edmund G. Ross, Robert A. Taft, and four other individuals who risked their political lives to embrace their most heartfelt beliefs.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc
Date Published: 1967
Description: Acceptable. 7th Prt'g. Water damage/stains. Cover very worn; most of spine rubbed/worn through; half back cover detached. Creased. Yellowed. Good for a reading copy. read more
Edition: Cardinal ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Minor creases and wear on binding and cover. This edition boasts a classically mid-century cover design! xx, 233 p., [8] p. of plates: ill., ports.; 17 cm. Giant Cardinal edition; GC-238. Includes: Illustrations, Portraits, Plates. Includes numerous references to Daniel Webster. Includes index. Bibliography: p. 215-226. read more
Edition: Cardinal ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. clean pages, no marks or tears, heavy tanning, creases on spine & back cover, cover worn edges & corners with chipping, small rip on top of spine, mild reading wear cover slightly bent, tight binding, all pages intact,... xx, 233 p., [8] p. of plates: ill., ports.; 17 cm. Giant Cardinal edition; GC-238. Includes: Illustrations, Portraits, Plates. Includes numerous references to Daniel Webster. Includes index. Bibliography: p. 215-226. read more
Edition: [Memorial ed.].
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper & Row, New York
Date Published: 1964
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 287 p. port. 24 cm. Includes Portraits. Bibliography: p. 269-281. Nice copy. Very clean and crisp type. Mo marks, tears or folds inside or out. read more
Edition: A Cardinal Edition; Sixteenth Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, Inc, New York, NY
Date Published: 1961
Description: Covers very worn and creased, large mark on front cover; spine very worn & reader creased; pages creased and bent and yellowed due to age, good reading copy. Mass Market (Rack) PB, glued binding, 234 pages Forward by Nevins, Allan; black & white photographs read more
Edition: Cardinal ed.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Slightly warped. Reading copy. xx, 233 p., [8] p. of plates: ill., ports.; 17 cm. Giant Cardinal edition; GC-238. Includes: Illustrations, Portraits, Plates. Includes numerous references to Daniel Webster. Includes index. Bibliography: p. 215-226. read more
"While I like reading auto-biographies, I have never been one to enjoy the history writings of biographies. I like history, know it's important, want to know it, but have never much liked the sterile style of writing often seen in historical stories. I'd rather watch it than read it. Still this is a very fascinating book - as much because of the author as the actual stories. Seeing what the future President viewed as courage made me re-think what I view as courage and what is what I see as right and wrong in today's political climate. Perhaps a dry read, yet an important read I believe, for Americans."
""It is not true, in fact, that any people ever existed who love the public better than themselves." -President John Adams
But what differentiates the senators of whom Kennedy writes is not that they love the public--it's that they love themselves enough to uphold their ideals even when all their constituents rail against them (even threatening to lynch them).
Here is a book not of right or wrong or even necessarily of sound judgment, but of American leaders standing up with courage and faith in the face of resounding pressure and odds.
Not a big fan of historical texts or of Kennedy's writing (and the theme is endlessly repetitive), but this is an important book for its time and offers interesting insight into Kennedy's character and motivations before he was President."
"One of my favorite books of all time, even though I strongly suspect it was actually ghostwritten by Theodore Sorensen, rather than by JFK himself. I admire courage as the noblest of human virtues, and even though we love to denigrate politics and politicians, it is a virtue which manifests itself in that arena, too -- and probably more often than we realize. I have often said that if I were a high-school civics teacher, I might make this book required reading. I recommend it."
"I was in Dallas that fateful November day in '63. I was six weeks old and my mother was with me at the Safeway. When she heard the news she abandoned her shopping cart and went straight home. I grew up in the shadow of the events of that day...and somehow I was never made aware of this remarkable book until recently!
Why was this not required reading at my high school or even at Texas State? History comes alive in these pages. Character is revealed. It speaks to what it means to be an American of what it means to take a stand.
Being a native of Texas I assumed that the chapter on Sam Houston would be my favorite. Instead, Edmund Ross and Robert Taft were my favorites. I think I liked them because they spoke to issues so much in the minds of Americans in 2009. Ed Ross spoke to the balance of power. Bob Taft to how to treat the "worst of the worst" and still uphold our values. I understand now how this book influenced President Obama's thinking.
I was surprised to learn, and I should not have been sursprised, that Ted Sorenson was the writer. JFK directed the ideas but Sorenson, a Unitarian Universalist like myself, gave it voice. Good choice Mr. President, good choice."
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