Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House | 
|  | | | Title: | Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House | | Author: | Sally Bedell Smith | | Publisher: | Ballantine Books | | Type: | Book / Mass Market Paperback | | Publication Date: | 30 May, 2006 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0345484975 / 9780345484970 | | List Price: | $7.99 | | Amazon Price: | $7.99 | |
 This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $4.20. |
The HTML code below can be pasted onto your web-site, your MySpace page, or blog - or any number of similar places - to create a link to this page: If, instead of a text link, you'd like to create a link to this page which will display the book cover, if it's available, then the code below will do exactly that:
Check for the same book at these other US book sites:
• [ Abebooks ] • [ Alibris ] • [ Barnes & Noble ] • [ Half.com ] • [ Powells ] … or check UK bookstores
| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
In GRACE & POWER: THE PRIVATE WORLD OF THE KENNEDY WHITE HOUSE, New York Times bestselling author Sally Bedell Smith takes us inside the Kennedy White House with unparalleled access and insight. Having interviewed scores of Kennedy intimates, including many who have never spoken before, and drawing on letters and personal papers made available for the first time, Smith paints a richly detailed picture of the personal relationships behind the high purpose and poiltical drama of the twentieth century's most storied presidency.
At the dawn of the 1960s, a forty-three-year-old president and his thirty-one-year-old first lady – the youngest couple ever to occupy the White House – captivated the world with their easy elegance and their cool conviction that anything was possible. Jack and Jackie Kennedy gathered around them an intensely loyal and brillant coterie of intellectuals, journalists, diplomats, international jet-setters and artists. Perhaps as never before, Washington was sharply divided between the “ins” and the “outs.”
In his public life, JFK created a New Frontier, stared down the Soviets, and devoted himself to his wife and children. As first lady, Jackie mesmerized foreign leaders and the American people with her style and sophistication, creating a White House renowned for its beauty and culture. Smith brilliantly recreates the glamorous pageant of the Kennedy years, as well as the daily texture of the Kennedys’ marriage, friendships, political associations, and, in Jack’s case, multiple love affairs.
Smith’s striking revelations include new information about what drew Jack to his numerous mistresses – and what effects the relationships ultimately had on the women; about the rivalries and resentments among Kennedy’s advisers; and about the poignant days before and after Kennedy’s assassination.
Smith has fashioned a vivid and nuanced portrait not only of two extraordinary individuals but of a new age that sprang to life around them. Shimmering with intelligence and detail, GRACE AND POWER is history at its finest.
From the Hardcover edition.
| Other Items You May Enjoy:
Browse Books From These Related Subjects:
Customer Reviews:
• Not Bad. Focuses More On The Social Aspects. 01 May, 2007
Don't look for an in depth analysis of policies or events. Instead, look for in depth analysis of the parties and the social scene. The book does give slightly more insight on some of the key interpersonal relationships. It also carves a picture of Jackie as being much stronger than others. You get more of a sense of her grace, intelligence, and grit.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3T1SHOXILMT6W
• Exquisite And Containing Information I've Read Nowhere Else 12 June, 2006
What a unique way to weave the story of the politics, history, friendships, relationships, marriage into one finely written work. It's as if you can pick any day from January 1961 to Nov 25, 1963 and there, as if opening a long forgotten datebook, is the gem containing an intimate picture of a special family party, a state dinner, a cruise on the Honey Fitz, Jackie's White House school--name it, if it's personal and human (yet without judgement) you'll find it in Sally Bedell Smith's cultural/social history of the Kennedy years. It's not all fine dining and socializing because important history and the toll it takes is playing out all the while--a deft tapesty!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A22ETJ61ZCAMTB
• Behind The Scenes At Our 20th Century Camelot! 26 August, 2006
Although Sally Bedell Smith's "Grace and Power" cannot compete with Arthur Schlesinger's "A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House" nor with Theodore Sorenson's "The Kennedy Legacy," the author makes absolutely no pretensions of doing so. Far from a political history of the Kennedy years, Ms. Smith has drawn on private letters, personal papers and 142 interviews with those close to John F. and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy to illuminate the personal lives of the martyred president and his First Lady. Her take on the couple's complex relationship, including his compulsion to take numerous lovers and her manner of coping with this problem, are mainstays here.
The book reads like an upscale Kitty Kelly bio. It is filled with sensational gossip, character sketches of glorious personalities, and fascinating anecdotes of the people and events that made the Kennedy years so exciting. Ms. Smith is an excellent raconteur who has done her research and written a nonfiction "tell all" that reads like a best-selling novel. But it is not what I would call a serious biography.
Sally Bedell Smith has also written biographies of Princess Diana and Pamela Churchill Harriman and has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair for about ten years.
If you are a "Kennedy junkie" and want to read about the 20th century Camelot, this is a book you will love. If you are looking for excellent political history, go elsewhere. I did enjoy "Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House," and though I was an adolescent during the magical time JFK was in office, it brought back memories of the president and first lady I idolized. On the other hand, there are things I wish had never been made public. And it is all made public here!
JANA
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1RECBDKHVOJMW
• Phenomenal 26 March, 2008
Grace & Power has to be one of my favorite non fiction pieces. I originally borrowed it from my local library, and once finished, decided I wanted a hardback copy for my own collection. Grace & Power walks its reader through almost every day in the Kennedy Whitehouse paying close attention to detail. One begins to feel like a fly on the wall of every ball, press conference and tete-a-tete. For anyone who has a fascination with the Kennedy family, or politics in general, this is a must read. Thank you Sally Bedell Smith!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ZENWPDLKI2U1
• Grace And Power: Jack And Jackie Reign At The Top Of The White House Hill 05 June, 2006
Washington insider and biographer Sally Bedell Smith opens the doors to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue during the Kennedy administration. This is a revealing look at the private passions, joys, griefs and lives of those people who were stars
in the Kennedy court. We also get a good look at Jack Kennedy and
his wife Jackie. Those readers expecting a tabloidish perusal will be disappointed. This is a serious book and deals with
the major obstacles faced by Kennedy in his short term prior to
the tragedy of Dallas. We learn:
how Kennedy dealt with Khrushchev; the Bay of Pigs and Cuban
Missle Crisis; the burgeoning furor over integration and the
relationship Kennedy developed with his staff and Congress.
We learn about the lives and opinions of such key Kennedy loyalists as Bob McNamara; LBJ; Dean Rusk. We are invited to
the Kennedy compound where we become better acquainted with that
fascinating family. US involvement in Vietnam following the overthrow of Diem is also discussed with intelligent commentary,
Jack Kennedy was brilliant. He was also ill with many problems most notably his Addison's disease. Kennedy was a notorious womanizer who was amoral! The press of the day did not reveal his many affairs with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to White House secretaries. Jack Kennedy was not a nice man!
Jackie was a jet setter who loved to spend money on clothes, travel and shopping sprees. She was also highly intelligent, engineered much needed White House renovation and was a plus on
diplomatic jaunts abroad. In Paris she talked fluent French with De Gaulle and represented the US well in trips to such places as
India.
This is a fine book for those seeking more knowledge of the Kennedy White House. Along with the book by Richard Reeves it is a good introduction to John Kennedy and the 1000 days this modern day Prince Arthur and his Guineviere reigned over America.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1G37DFO8MQW0M
|
