Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007), known today as the architect of John F. Kennedy's presidential legacy—and the myth of Camelot—blazed an extraordinary path from Harvard University to wartime London to the West Wing. The son of a pioneering historian—and a two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner in his own right—Schlesinger redefined the art of presidential biography. A Thousand Days, his bestselling record of the Kennedy administration, remains immensely influential and has cemented Schlesinger's place as one of the nation's greatest political image makers.
In this vivid account of Schlesinger's life and career, biographer Richard Aldous draws on oral history, rarely seen archival documents, and the official Schlesinger papers to craft an invaluable portrait of a brilliant and controversial historian who framed America's rise to global empire. Schlesinger promises to transform our understanding of one of the key figures of the twentieth-century American intellectual elite.
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“Aldous gracefully balances an appreciation for his subject’s talents as a writer of narratives and speeches with an acknowledgment of his shortcomings as a political analyst and aide.”
— New York Times Book Review
“[A] very readable distillation of a long and fruitful life.”
— The AtlanticBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Richard Aldous is a professor of history at Bard College, where he holds the Eugene Meyer Chair. He is the author and editor of more than ten books books and is a contributor to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. Aldous’ writing appears regularly in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Book Review, and the American Interest, where he is a contributing editor. He lives in Red Hook, New York.
Norman Dietz is a writer, voice-over artist, and audiobook narrator. He has won numerous Earphones Awards and was named one of the fifty “Best Voices of the Century” by AudioFile magazine. He and his late wife, Sandra, transformed an abandoned ice-cream parlor into a playhouse, which served “the world’s best hot fudge sundaes” before and after performances. The founder of Theatre in the Works, he lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.