Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 312 ratings

Price: 18.8

Last update: 09-04-2024


About this item

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Leaming answers the question: What was it like to be Mrs. John F. Kennedy during the dramatic thousand days of the Kennedy presidency? Here for the first time is the full story of the extravagant interplay of sex and politics that constitutes one of modern history's most spectacular dramas.

Drawing from recently declassified top-secret material, as well as revelatory eyewitness accounts, Secret Service records, and Jacqueline Kennedy's personal letters, bestselling biographer Barbara Leaming answers the question: what was it like to be Mrs. John F. Kennedy during the dramatic thousand days of the Kennedy presidency? Brilliantly researched, Leaming's poignant and powerful chronicle illuminates the tumultuous day-to-day life of a woman who entered the White House at age thirty-one, seven years into a complex and troubled marriage, and left at thirty-four after her husband's assassination. Revealing the full story of the interplay of sex and politics in Washington, Mrs. Kennedy will indelibly challenge our vision of this fascinating woman, and bring a new perspective to her crucial role in the Kennedy presidency.


Top reviews from the United States

Paul Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2023
Excellent, well written and comprehensively researched. the author exposes the illusion of Camelot with a balanced view of both Jack and Jackie, detailing their respective flaws and strengths. Jackie emerges as somewhat of a spoiled brat, while Jack emerges as a complete lout.
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely fabulous biography
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017
This is one of the best and most interesting biographies I have ever read. The amount of work the author put in is truly astounding, judging from the extensive footnotes and her acknowledgments. Much original material was sourced for this book including Secret Service notes and White House schedule books as well as many interviews with principal players, friends and family. This book goes into day by day life with the Kennedy White House. There is much unsavory information about JFK's trysts and love affairs with lots of background information. It paints JFK in a warts and all light with lots of warts such as lying to Jackie, sneaking off for sex in the middle of social occasions, the many pool orgy parties while Jackie was away and why she was away. Much focus on Jackie's insecurities and pain at JFK's affairs as well as her special gifts that rose
to the fore during her challenging Kennedy years. Interesting was her influence in making the image of JFK that has lasted. A well recommended read!
Fox in a Box
4.0 out of 5 stars Really juicy, although I should take a star away for repetition
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2010
Like any good little Catholic girl of the 1960s, I have read and read and read all kinds of books on most of the Kennedys, but have a fascination with Jackie. I must say that when I picked this book up, I expected more treacle and baloney. But it really offers exceptional detail of Jacqueline Kennedy's daily life as First Lady and a straightforward presentation of her torment in light of her husband's exceptionally loose zipper. I was frankly astonished and I didn't think I could be astonished at these people anymore.

Leaming is a pretty good writer, and has done her homework. However, for some reason she repeats various facts CONSTANTLY, as if she was writing for idiots. God, it is annoying.

Nevertheless, I give this one four stars because of the incredible amount of research Leaming includes about the details of day-to-day life, the rather shocking details of drug usage in the Kennedy White House (I found this very alarming), a fresh approach to Papa Joe, Kick Kennedy stories (repeated endlessly, alas)and the analysis of JBK's association with her mother, her husband's paramours, and the tactics she used to keep her sanity in the face of all this (escape, look good, escape, dress well, escape, entertain brilliantly, escape, read another book, escape, escape, escape).

Leaming is a Jackie partisan, so paper doll Jackie stars here hoping to arrest Jack's attention for more than five minutes. I understood, when all was said and done, what HAPPENED to her -- that is, what acted upon her -- but less than necessary about how she actually felt, what she thought, what she believed.

Jackie refused to keep a diary or tell her own story, so we will always be left to guess what really made her tick. I ended thinking tha the two of them, JFK and his wife, were clearly flawed but absolutely in control of their images. They could easily be nothing but really lightweight puff pastries whom we have endowed with our own craving for an Olympian combo of beauty, glamour and brilliance. This book gives us ample reason to pity their pathos while applauding their skill at impression manipulation, but like all the others, it just can't cough up the whole chihuahua -- ie ever WAS a whole chihuahua between them.
Alexa Porter
5.0 out of 5 stars What Jackie Knew....
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2017
Delicious and juicy. Yes, yes, I know we've heard it all but not from her side. This was about all the naughty things she knew were going on and a lot she didn't know. At the end you really feel sorry for Jackie; she led an awful life really, esp. when you realize that she was truly in love with Jack and all the pain his constant hi-jinx caused her. He was incredibly crass and cruel to her, not caring what she knew or saw. He would take young girls up the stairs, while she -and others - were watching at a party down below. He took them in her bedroom when she was gone, with her books and pictures of her children sitting around. He was a real beast - can't believe I voted for him...I usually hate this kind of book - but this wasn't cheap and trashy. Very well written and a real page turner!
Ellen Joy
5.0 out of 5 stars Not Remotely Camelot
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2016
Well researched book that took a long overdue look at the complex marriage of the Kennedy's, the baggage they each brought to the union and the extraordinary circumstances they encountered both prior to and during the White House years. First time I had read anything about "Dr. Feel Good" and his injected cocktails of speed regularly dosing both Jack and Jackie while Jack was President. Terrifying stuff and frankly reminiscent of the fact Hitler was doped up during most of WWII. I knew Jack Kennedy had lots of affairs but didn't realize the mind boggling extent of his womanizing and the astonishing pass the press gave him that was scheduled to expire as soon as he returned from Texas in Nov. 1963. Lucky for his legacy death was an effective way to whitewash a reputation. Had no idea how much this country owed MacMillan, then Prime Minister of England who acted as Kennedy's political conscious during some of the most critical moments of the Kennedy administration.
Patty palmer
3.0 out of 5 stars The author has and attitude.
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2022
I noticed the author seemed to have a general negative curve for Mrs. Kennedy.

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