Camelot's Court
Inside the Kennedy White House
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Narrated by:
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James Lurie
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By:
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Robert Dallek
About this listen
Fifty years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls "Kennedy's leading biographer", delivers a riveting new portrait of this president and his inner circle of advisors, their rivalries, personality clashes, and political battles. In Camelot's Court, Dallek analyzes the brain trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy's administration - including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam - were indelible.
Kennedy purposefully put together a dynamic team of advisors noted for their brilliance and acumen, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, and trusted aides Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger. Yet the very traits these men shared also created sharp divisions. Far from being unified, this was an uneasy band of rivals whose ambitions and clashing beliefs ignited fiery internal debates.
Robert Dallek illuminates a president deeply determined to surround himself with the best and the brightest, who often found himself disappointed with their recommendations. The result, Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House, is a striking portrait of a leader whose wise resistance to pressure and adherence to principle offers a cautionary tale for our own time.
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Ronald Reagan today is a conservative icon, celebrated for transforming the American domestic agenda and playing a crucial part in ending communism in the Soviet Union. In his masterful new biography, H. W. Brands argues that Reagan, along with FDR, was the most consequential president of the 20th century. Reagan took office at a time when the public sector, after a half century of New Deal liberalism, was widely perceived as bloated and inefficient, an impediment to personal liberty.
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Very little about Reagan
- By Jack Merritt on 07-30-15
By: H. W. Brands
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Magnificent Delusions
- Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding
- By: Husain Haqqani
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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A character-driven history that describes the bizarrely ill-suited alliance between America and Pakistan, written by a uniquely insightful participant: Pakistan's former ambassador to the US. The relationship between America and Pakistan is based on mutual incomprehension, and always has been. Pakistan - to American eyes - has gone from being a stabilizing friend to an essential military ally to a seedbed of terror.
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It it Delusions or Sleeping with the Enemy
- By Shah Alam on 01-28-14
By: Husain Haqqani
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Japan 1941
- Countdown to Infamy
- By: Eri Hotta
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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When Japan attacked the United States in 1941, argues Eri Hotta, its leaders, in large part, understood they were entering a conflict they were bound to lose. Availing herself of rarely consulted material, Hotta poses essential questions overlooked by historians in the seventy years since: Why did these men - military men, civilian politicians, diplomats, the emperor - put their country and its citizens in harm's way? Why did they make a decision that was doomed from the start?
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Japanese viewpoint
- By Jean on 01-01-14
By: Eri Hotta
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Kissinger's Shadow
- The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman
- By: Greg Grandin
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A new account of America's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of America's current imperial stance. In his fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin argues that to understand the crisis of contemporary America - its never-ending wars abroad and political polarization at home - we have to understand Henry Kissinger.
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A Rehash of Rehashes...nothing new
- By A. M. on 10-06-19
By: Greg Grandin
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Doomed to Succeed
- The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama
- By: Dennis Ross
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
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In Doomed to Succeed, Ross takes us through every administration from Truman to Obama, throwing into dramatic relief each president's attitudes toward Israel and the region, the often tumultuous debates between key advisers, and the events that drove the policies and at times led to a shift in approach.
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Even Handed Report
- By Jean on 11-21-15
By: Dennis Ross
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The End of the Cold War 1985-1991
- By: Robert Service
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 21 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War - the first to give equal attention to the internal deliberations from both sides of the Iron Curtain - opens a window onto the dramatic years that would irrevocably alter the world's geopolitical landscape and the men at their fore.
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Behind the scenes look at a pivotal period of time
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-20-16
By: Robert Service
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Losing an Enemy
- Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy
- By: Trita Parsi
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
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This timely book focuses on President Obama's deeply considered strategy toward Iran's nuclear program and reveals how the historic agreement of 2015 broke the persistent stalemate in negotiations that had blocked earlier efforts. Drawing from more than 75 in-depth interviews with key decision-makers, including Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry, this is the first authoritative account of President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement.
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required reading
- By Seth K on 07-18-19
By: Trita Parsi
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When the World Seemed New
- George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
- By: Jeffrey A. Engel
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of the Cold War was the greatest shock to international affairs since World War II. In that perilous moment, Saddam Hussein chose to invade Kuwait, China cracked down on its own pro-democracy protesters, and regimes throughout Eastern Europe teetered between democratic change and new authoritarians. Not since FDR in 1945 had a US president faced such opportunities and challenges. As the presidential historian Jeffrey Engel reveals in this hard-to-pause history, behind closed doors, George H. W. Bush rose to the occasion brilliantly.
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The Right Man at the Right Time in the Right Job
- By A. M. on 09-12-18
By: Jeffrey A. Engel
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The Crusader
- Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
- By: Paul Kengor
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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God and Ronald Reagan made presidential historian Paul Kengor's name as one of the premier chroniclers of the life and career of the 40th president. With The Crusader, Kengor returns with the one book about Reagan that has not been written: the story of his lifelong crusade against communism and of his dogged and ultimately triumphant effort to overthrow the Soviet Union.
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Whether you like Reagan or not....
- By Daryl on 10-20-13
By: Paul Kengor
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JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated
- By: Douglas Horne
- Narrated by: Larry Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since researchers and commentators began questioning the conclusions of the Warren Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the response has been: Why would the US national-security establishment - that is, the military and the CIA - kill Kennedy? As Douglas P. Horne details in this audiobook, JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated, the answer is because Kennedy's ideas about foreign policy collided with those of the US national-security establishment during the height of the Cold War.
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FINALLY THE TRUTH!
- By Helen Williamson on 05-28-16
By: Douglas Horne
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Roosevelt's Second Act
- The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War
- By: Richard Moe
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On August 31, 1939, nearing the end of his second and presumably final term in office, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was working in the Oval Office and contemplating construction of his presidential library and planning retirement. The next day German tanks had crossed the Polish border; Britain and France had declared war. Overnight the world had changed, and FDR found himself being forced to consider a dramatically different set of circumstances.
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Puts listener in the moment.
- By Jake on 05-16-14
By: Richard Moe
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Not bad but,
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For more than half a century, Americans have been captivated by the Kennedys - their joy and heartbreak, tragedy and triumph, the dark side and the remarkable achievements. In this ambitious and sweeping account, Taraborrelli continues the family chronicle begun with his best-selling Jackie, Ethel, Joan and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the years "after Camelot."
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Talented writer and narrator, but too biased/long
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At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy's change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence.
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One Book EVERY AMERICAN Needs to Read
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Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. served as special assistant to President John F. Kennedy throughout his presidency—from the long and grueling campaign to Kennedy's tragic and unexpected assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald. In A Thousand Days, Schlesinger combines intimate knowledge as one of President Kennedy's inner circle with sweeping research and historic context to provide a look at one of the most legendary presidential administrations in American history.
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Not bad but,
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As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and author. In this New York Times bestselling biography, Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer's life—the theologian and the spy—and draws them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil.
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What listeners say about Camelot's Court
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Joseph
- 10-17-20
Okay
Not worth the read unless you are very interested specifically in the Vietnam War which predominates the book’s content. Not a good biographical resource on Kennedy.
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- theProfessor
- 05-28-21
Not Much New Here
If you familiar with this time frame and Kennedy administration, you will not likely find anything new More just a straightfoward chronological history, nothing really indepth about the personalities , dispositions or motivation of the people in "Camelots Court." Heavey emphais on Cuba and Vietnam, but you did not get the feeling you were actually there while the decision were being made.Narrator has a pleasant voice, but does not infuse the book with any energy, emotion, tension, or passion.
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- izic
- 03-17-15
Incredibly in depth in the best and worst ways
The book is an intensely in depth look at the Kennedy White House's decision making process regarding almost exclusively Vietnam and Cuba. Though it is very detailed, it lacks the narrative appeal that "An Unfinished Life" possessed. As a big fan of nonfiction, American history, and JFK, this book was undoubtedly informative, but struck me as a bit dry, and focused almost entirely on the excruciating minutiae of what every person around Kennedy thought at every moment.
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1 person found this helpful
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- brent lloyd
- 02-08-22
Well Researched but Critically Flawed
Robert Dallek’s return to the world of John F Kennedy and his presidency is once again a well-researched and intimate look at the men and the issues that defined the era and the decisions that have consequences lasting to this day. Dallek’s amount of research and comprehension is made clear throughout this book, and he pays close attention to the details surrounding the Kennedy presidency as well as to the opinions and backgrounds of the men who Kennedy brought in to advise him. The conflicts between these men and with Kennedy himself are fascinating and provide excellent insight into the battles of opinions that led to specific decisions that shaped both the presidency of Kennedy as well as the presidency of his successor. Dallek also does an excellent job of reflecting on this period with a modern lens, while still taking great pains to emphasize the zeitgeist of the era rather than condemn actions that were understandable at the time but have aged poorly in the passage of time.
This book has one critical flaw however that prevents it from rising to a higher level of respect and reverence in the history of political biography. Dallek focuses, almost exclusively, on the foreign policy of the Kennedy administration, specifically on Vietnam, Cuba, and the USSR, the last of which is most often reflected on through the Cuban issue. Dallek’s repeated returns to these issues quickly become worn, with the same issues and the same decisions recurring time and again, and there is a great deal of time spent on events that could be summed up in a paragraph. These extended, repetitive dialogues about the same issues bog down this book, and take what starts out as an intriguing look into the presidency and turns it into a philosophical “what if” regarding the administration’s decisions in Southeast Asia and Cuba. The book would have done better to focus on more domestic problems, and be less repetitive about the goals and observations of administrative efforts in foreign policy.
In general, the research conducted for this book must be respected for the diligence paid, but the excessive focus on just a few subjects and the repetitive observations by Dallek and outcomes by Kennedy advisors drags down the book and doesn’t give any unique insights when the same things happen over and over but are described in unnecessarily long detail. Worth reading for insights in the Kennedy administration’s foreign policy, but as a study of the administration as a whole, this book is lacking.
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- D M BOYCE
- 09-17-18
Essential
For one would knew quite well the Kennedy presidency this was a very enlightening endever. Would absolutely recommend this book and a good listen. Heartbreaking as looking back know ing the future it still remains worth the journey.
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- Larry David Fuller
- 11-25-17
Flawed Men and Impossible Choices
An enduring picture of leadership and all that goes with it. I truly enjoyed it.
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