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The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963 (1967)

by William MANCHESTER

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1,2281115,727 (4.17)19
As the world still reeled from the tragic and historic events of November 22, 1963, William Manchester set out, at the request of the Kennedy family, to create a detailed, authoritative record of President John F. Kennedy's death, including the days immediately preceding and following the assassination. Through hundreds of interviews, extensive travel, and firsthand observation, and with unique access to the proceedings of the Warren Commission, Manchester conducted an exhaustive historical investigation, accumulating forty-five volumes of documents, exhibits, and transcribed tapes. His ultimate objective-to set down as a whole the national and personal tragedy that was JFK's assassination-is brilliantly achieved in this galvanizing narrative, a book universally acclaimed as a landmark work of modern history.… (more)
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The Death of a President: November 20 – November 25, 1963 by William Manchester accounts in minute detail the five days when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Mr. Manchester, a published historian, was asked by the Kennedy family to write this book with unprecedented access to interviews, documents, and more.

This is a fantastic book, which tells in engrossing narrative the great American tragedy through impeccable research. The author delivers a magnificent, and riveting account of the five days which changed the nation.

If this wasn’t a history book, I would have thought that The Death of a President by William Manchester is a Shakespearean tragedy.

- President Kennedy – a charismatic king going to the hub of American fascism (Dallas), becoming a legend in a second.

- Jackie Kennedy – the widow, the North Star and moral compass. A representative of glamour, suffering and sorrow.

- Lyndon Johnson – the second in command, being thrusted in an instant from “the most insignificant office that ever the Invention of man contrived or his Imagination conceived”, to unhindered power. Maneuvering and intriguing to consolidate his rule.

- Lee Harvey Oswald – the lone assassin who has been demoted from a central character to a bit player in a drama of his own doing.

Other agencies play supportive roles in this tragedy. The press, the turf wars between government agencies, and the publicity hounds who at times seem to be there for comic relief no man could conceive in fiction.

At times, Mr. Manchester’s adulation of President and Mrs. Kennedy is naïve. However, the book, as a whole, is a superb and authoritative narrative, an account of almost minute-by-minute detail of these five days, as well as the impact on the nation as a whole. ( )
  ZoharLaor | Jun 23, 2023 |
very detailed, but not very readable. ( )
  JohnJohnsonII | May 19, 2013 |
Manchester is one of my favorite writers and this was my introduction to his work. Reading about Kennedy, whose death I still remember as I was a Freshman in high school sitting in geometry class when along with my classmates I was startled to hear the radio announcement over the school speaker system. This coming as an interruption to our day and so soon after his death was new experience, as was being let out of school early that day. This was history based on events through which I lived, about which I had spent time reading in the daily papers and weekly news magazines as they happened. It was the first, but not the last time I would find the history of events that occurred during my life to be even more interesting than they seemed to be at the time I experienced them. ( )
2 vote jwhenderson | Sep 2, 2012 |
I've read this book three times over the years. An awesome account of the entire four days in November, 1963. ( )
1 vote srbankhead | Apr 15, 2012 |
The Death of a President is outstanding!!! This book is probably the most emotional book I have ever read and I am not an emotional person by any stretch of the imagination. Manchester writes with an amazing flair and is so detailed in the events and emotions of the people directly involved and associated with those fateful five days, that you feel as though he was there throughout the whole ordeal. It is a superb work on the subject of JFK's assasination and the mood of the country at the time. ( )
1 vote redsox0407 | Dec 1, 2010 |
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As the world still reeled from the tragic and historic events of November 22, 1963, William Manchester set out, at the request of the Kennedy family, to create a detailed, authoritative record of President John F. Kennedy's death, including the days immediately preceding and following the assassination. Through hundreds of interviews, extensive travel, and firsthand observation, and with unique access to the proceedings of the Warren Commission, Manchester conducted an exhaustive historical investigation, accumulating forty-five volumes of documents, exhibits, and transcribed tapes. His ultimate objective-to set down as a whole the national and personal tragedy that was JFK's assassination-is brilliantly achieved in this galvanizing narrative, a book universally acclaimed as a landmark work of modern history.

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