Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency

Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency by Mark K. Updegrove

Nearly sixty years after his death, JFK still holds an outsize place in the American imagination. While Baby Boomers remember his dazzling presence as president, millennials more likely know him from advertisements for Omega watches or Ray-Ban sunglasses. Yet his years in office were marked by more than his style and elegance. His presidency is a story of a fledgling leader forced to meet unprecedented challenges and rise above missteps to lead his nation into a new and hopeful era.

Kennedy entered office inexperienced but alluring, his reputation more given by the enamored public than earned through achievement. In this gripping new assessment of JFK's time in the Oval Office, Mark Updegrove reveals how the young president's first months were marred by setbacks: the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, a disastrous summit with the Soviet premier, and a mismanaged approach to the Civil Rights movement. But JFK soon proved that behind the glamor was a leader of uncommon fortitude and vision.

A humbled Kennedy conceded his mistakes and, importantly for our times, drew pivotal lessons from his failures that he used to right wrongs and move forward undaunted. Indeed, Kennedy grew as president, radiating greater possibility as he cooly faced a steady stream of crises before his tragic end.

Incomparable Grace compellingly reexamines the dramatic, consequential White House years of a flawed but gifted leader too often defined by the Camelot myth that came after his untimely death.

DUTTON, HARDCOVER, 1ST EDITION, 1ST PRINTING, 2022