Event
JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956: A conversation with Author Fredrik Logevall and moderator Seth Blumenthal
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Join us for a virtual discussion with Fredrik Logevall and moderator Seth Blumenthal about Logevall's upcoming book, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956. This event is hosted by the Brookline Booksmith and the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site.
Logevall argues that of the countless biographies that have come and gone in the decades following President Kennedy’s untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the complete John F. Kennedy. Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Logevall has spent much of the last decade searching for the “real” JFK. The result of this herculean effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that attempts to properly contextualize Kennedy amidst the 20th century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK’s life.
Along the way, Logevall tells the parallel story of America’s midcentury rise. As Kennedy comes of age, we see the charged debate between isolationists and interventionists; the tumult of the Second World War; the spread of the Cold War; and the domestic politics of anti-Communism and McCarthyism. This is a sweeping history of the United States in the middle decades of the twentieth century, as well as a portrait of an American icon.
Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and professor of history at Harvard University. A specialist on U.S. foreign-relations history and modern international history, he is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Embers of War, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Francis Parkman Prize.
Seth Blumenthal, Senior Lecturer in Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program. This year, Blumenthal was recognized with Boston University’s Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence. His research focuses on the Republican Party and conservative politics after 1968, and his first book published in 2018, Children of the Silent Majority: Youth Politics and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1968-1980, won the New England Historical Association’s James P. Hanlan Book Award. Blumenthal is also a founding member of the Friends of JFK Birthplace and currently serves on the Board of Directors as Secretary and Community Outreach Committee Chair.
Can’t make this event? The JFK Library is hosting Dr. Logevall as part of their Virtual Kennedy Library Forums on September 09, 2020 at 6:00 PM.
Reservation or Registration: Yes
Image Gallery
Fredrik Logevall