The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign

A "provocative reconstruction of John F. Kennedy's 'five-year campaign' for the White House" (The New Yorker), beginning with his bold, failed attempt to win the vice presidential nomination in 1956 and culminating when he plotted his way to the presidency and changed the way we nominate and elect presidents. John F. Kennedy and his young warriors invented modern presidential politics. They turned over accepted wisdom that his Catholicism was a barrier to winning an election. They hired Louis Harris to become the first presidential pollster. They twisted arms and they charmed. They turned the traditional party inside out. They invented The Missile Gap in the Cold War and out-glamoured Richard Nixon in the TV debates. Now "Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie, both veteran political journalists, retell the story of this momentous campaign, reminding us of now forgotten details of Kennedy's path to the White House" (The Wall Street Journal). The authors have examined more than 1,600 oral histories at the John F. Kennedy library; they've interviewed surviving sources, including JFK's sister Jean Smith, and they draw on their own interviews with insiders including Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. From the start of the campaign in 1955, "The Road to Camelot brings much new insight to an important playbook that has echoed through the campaigns of other presidential aspirants as disparate as Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The authors take us step by step on the road to the Kennedy victory, leaving us with an appreciation for the maniacal attention to detail of both the candidate and his brother Robert, the best campaign manager in American political history" (The Washington Post). "A must-read for fans of presidential history" (USA TODAY), this is "an excellent chronicle of JFK's innovations, his true personality, and how close he came to losing" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

About the Author :
Thomas Oliphant is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Washington columnist for The Boston Globe. A regular commentator on PBS NewsHour, he is the author of four books, including The Road to Camelot. Al Franken says "Oliphant brings more to the table than anyone I know." Madeline Albright called him "the Will Rogers of our times." Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote that his book Praying for Gil Hodges was a "small masterpiece." Curtis Wilkie was a national reporter and correspondent for The Boston Globe. He teaches journalism at University of Mississippi. He is the author of The Fall of the House of Zeus, which The Wall Street Journal wrote "reads like a John Grisham novel." Tom Brokaw described Wilkie as "one of the best journalists of our generation."

Review :
-A spellbinding story of the brash young scion of a wealthy Catholic family plotting his way to the presidency. Kennedy created the modern campaign while cajoling the canny and still-controlling party bosses. Though we know the ending, it's a nail-biting and well-told tale.---Cokie Roberts, author and political commentator for ABC News and NPR -Oliphant and Wilkie's evocative, behind-the-scenes account goes beyond what we knew from Teddy White and others about how a youthful senator beat the political establishment and won the presidency. Their portrait of Kennedy shows him to be -part gambler but also part cold realist- whose political instincts served him well and broke new ground in presidential campaigns that his successors have followed.---Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief, USA TODAY -Two of our most gifted reporters have found the perfect subject to match their love of politics, their interviewing skills, and their literary talents. The result is a freshly told, endlessly riveting story that captures the reader every step along the way.---Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of The Bully Pulpit and Team of Rivals "A spellbinding story of the brash young scion of a wealthy Catholic family plotting his way to the presidency. Kennedy created the modern campaign while cajoling the canny and still-controlling party bosses. Though we know the ending, it's a nail-biting and well-told tale."--Cokie Roberts, author and political commentator for ABC News and NPR "Oliphant and Wilkie's evocative, behind-the-scenes account goes beyond what we knew from Teddy White and others about how a youthful senator beat the political establishment and won the presidency. Their portrait of Kennedy shows him to be "part gambler but also part cold realist" whose political instincts served him well and broke new ground in presidential campaigns that his successors have followed."--Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief, USA TODAY "Two of our most gifted reporters have found the perfect subject to match their love of politics, their interviewing skills, and their literary talents. The result is a freshly told, endlessly riveting story that captures the reader every step along the way."--Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of The Bully Pulpit and Team of Rivals -The Road to Camelot grabs you on the first page and never lets go. Two of our country's finest journalists, take us deep inside John F. Kennedy's at once old-fashioned and brilliantly innovative political operation and show how it made him president. Along the way, they teach us a lot about our country. This book is a gift to history, to all who love politics, and to anyone who likes a good story, brilliantly told.---E. J. Dionne Jr., author of the New York Times Bestseller Why The Right Went Wrong -Two of the best political reporters around tell the story of an ambitious young senator who would not wait his turn and changed all the old rules to become our 35th president. The Road to Camelot is a wonderful narrative of the self-driven campaign of the man who became President Kennedy. An exciting time. A great read.---Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power and President Reagan: The Triump of Imagination "The Road to Camelot grabs you on the first page and never lets go. Two of our country's finest journalists, take us deep inside John F. Kennedy's at once old-fashioned and brilliantly innovative political operation and show how it made him president. Along the way, they teach us a lot about our country. This book is a gift to history, to all who love politics, and to anyone who likes a good story, brilliantly told."--E. J. Dionne Jr., author of the New York Times Bestseller Why The Right Went Wrong "Two of the best political reporters around tell the story of an ambitious young senator who would not wait his turn and changed all the old rules to become our 35th president. The Road to Camelot is a wonderful narrative of the self-driven campaign of the man who became President Kennedy. An exciting time. A great read."--Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power and President Reagan: The Triump of Imagination "Two of the best political reporters around, Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie, tell the story of an ambitious young senator who would not wait his turn and changed all the old rules to become our 35th president. The Road to Camelot is a wonderful narrative of the self-driven campaign of the man who became President Kennedy. An exciting time. A great read."--Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power and President Reagan: The Triump of Imagination