The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy

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Several months ago I chanced upon a Chicago Public Television interview in which Nasaw glibly dismisses "the myth" of Joe Kennedy's bootlegging. (at 2:40 of the video at http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2012/1... ) NASAW: Well, you know, Kennedy believed that all's fair in business. You know, he's going to try to take advantage of you, you're going to try to take advantage of him. He's got his lawyers and accountants; you've got your lawyers and accountant. And, you know, may the better businessman or businesswoman win. In this case he won everything. All in all a very good book. I very much enjoyed listening to this, and so it gets four stars regardless of the error mentioned and even if deeper analysis of disputed information could have been explored. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance. DAVIES: Now, of course, the other thing that was happening in the late '30s here in addition to Hitler's aggression and territorial demands was the increasingly well-known persecution of Jews in Germany and other areas occupied by the Reich. And Joe Kennedy doesn't come out too well on this, as history has written, either. I mean what were his views about the role and influence of Jews in the United States in these events and their persecution in Europe?

Joe Kennedy grew up a privileged child of East Boston aristocracy. Everybody knew who he was, everybody knew who his family was. He was a sports star, he was handsome, articulate ... His greatest tragedy was not making the varsity [Harvard] baseball team because he was too slow. It was only when he graduates from Harvard that he begins to understand what it means to be an Irish Catholic from East Boston, whose father is a local ward leader. He wants to go into banking or finance. He cannot get a job. Cannot get an interview. His friends, who happen to be Protestant with the same degree that he has and not as good a head for numbers as he has, they have no problem getting jobs. ... So it's at that moment in 1912 that he realizes — really for the first time — that there are going to be a lot of doors closed to him, and only because he is Irish Catholic in Boston." And he says to the industry, and he says it over and over and over again, he says it in the trade press, he says it in private, he says it in public: You guys need me, a Boston banker who's not a Jew, as the face of the industry, because you're going to be in trouble. You're already in trouble. Board". Center for the Humanities. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012 . Retrieved July 31, 2012. While not a big fan of the Kennedy legacy or The Camelot myth, I was very interested in reading this book because so much of the history of the Kennedy family begins and ends with Joe Kennedy Sr.

The Patriarch is a story not only of one of the twentieth century's wealthiest and most powerful Americans, but also of the family he raised and the children who completed the journey he had begun. Of the many roles Kennedy held, that of father was most dear to him. The tragedies that befell his family marked his final years with unspeakable suffering. GROSS: David Nasaw will continue his interview with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies in the second half of the show. Nasaw's new biography is called "The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. And, you know, we forget, we know about the men who went into politics, but Eunice Kennedy Shriver I think 50 years down the road is going to be as remembered or should be as remembered as her brothers were because she invents, she constructs the disability rights movement. Jean Kennedy Smith is the ambassador to Ireland during the critical time in which the English negotiate a new relationship with Northern Ireland that ends the troubles. Each of the children embarks on a career in public service, because they knew that's what their father wanted and because they knew that's what they owed him and the owed nation that had been so kind to all of them. NASAW: And he had a fifth child who suffered the consequences of a botched lobotomy and ended up unable to communicate or speak, as her father later did from the stroke. So when Kennedy dies, Kennedy has outlived four of his children. A fifth is in an institution and only four of the nine are healthy. I am still reading this, even after the blooper mentioned below in chapter three. I am very much enjoying it. Very interesting and not hard to follow.

DAVIES: If you're just joining us, our guest is historian David Nasaw. He's completed a biography of Joseph Kennedy called "The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy."Nasaw, David (2020). The last million: Europe's displaced persons from World War to Cold War. Allen Lane. Hitchens, Christopher (December 2006). "Rich Man's Burden: The Steely Resolve of Andrew Carnegie". Atlantic Magazine . Retrieved June 2, 2012. In this pioneering new work, celebrated historian David Nasaw examines the life of Joseph P. Kennedy, the founder of the twentieth century's most famous political dynasty. Drawing on never-before-published materials from archives on three continents and interviews with Kennedy family members and friends, Nasaw tells the story of a man who participated in the major events of his times: the booms and busts, the Depression and the New Deal, two world wars and the Cold War, and the birth of the New Frontier. In studying Kennedy's life, we relive the history of the American century. NASAW: Felix Frankfurter, who would soon become a Supreme Court justice. And he blames the Jews. And at one point in 1940, he goes to Hollywood - this is after Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" movie, which makes fun of Hitler - and he says, to a room full of Jewish studio executives, you guys are going to be responsible for pushing the United States into war against the Nazis unless you stop your anti-Nazi films, your anti-Hitler propaganda, your anti-German propaganda. When war breaks out, the American people are going to turn on American Jewry, and there's going to be an outbreak of anti-Semitism like you've never seen, because the Jews are going to be held responsible for the death of every American soldier and the destruction of the American economy. The Kennedy family is undoubtedly one of the most famous, if not the most famous, family of 20th Century America. Most who even follow the family at a distance know that their story is a harsh one. Even the most skeptical people around are tempted to believe in something such as a “family curse” when hearing their family story. This is a very well written, and heavily detailed book on the father, or “patriarch” of the family, Joseph P. Kennedy.

DAVIES: So Kennedy does well in finance, goes to Hollywood, does even better, (unintelligible), and plays the market very well in the Roaring '20s. How did he do in the crash of 1929? Born in 1888 to a well-off Irish Catholic ward leader, educated at elite Boston Latin and Harvard, Kennedy was driven to excel at all he tried—sports, making money, bedding women, public service, tending his brood—and usually succeeded. But, Nasaw explains, his success came with an added twist: “He fought to open doors that were closed to him [as an Irish Catholic], then having forced his way inside, refused to play by the rules.” Before Kennedy was 40, he became a Wall Street multimillionaire. After the 1929 crash, as the first chairman of FDR’s new Securities and Exchange Commission, he fought to regulate the market, implacably closing loopholes he’d exploited. The good is mixed with the bad. This is particularly applicable in Joseph’s relations to his wife and children. He was tied to his family, to his kids and to the “family’s good name”. His own career accomplished, he focused on what he could do for his kids. The extent to which he helped them is quite extraordinary. He was loving and caring…….but very often not home. The relationship between Joseph and his wife Rose is perhaps the hardest to understand. He was clearly a skirt-chaser. This is not swept under the mat. Actress Gloria Swanson and Clare Boothe Luce, wife of Henry Luce who launched and supervised the magazines Time, Life and Fortune, are two of the several named. Joseph’s wife, she was no better, year after year vacationing alone for extended periods of time. Jobs were split between husband and wife, little shared or discussed. This poor family. They may have had money, power and status, but the kids’ health problems abound, two assassinations in one family, the eldest son killed in the war, a daughter killed in a plane crash, not to mention the fate of the eldest daughter Rosemary! No, nothing to envy. Emotionally, the reader cannot help but empathize. In addition to writing numerous scholarly and popular books, he has written for publications such as the Columbia Journalism Review, American Historical Review, American Heritage, Dissent, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The London Review of Books, and Condé Nast Traveler. In this Nasaw's highly cited history, Nasaw "unearthed the long-forgotten story of the Newsboy Strike." [37] The book inspired the Disney film Newsies and the subsequent Broadway musical. [38]

Nasaw describes Kennedy as an “active, loving, attentive, somewhat intrusive father.” He corresponded faithfully with all of his children when he was not at home (most of the time). However, he was a far cry from a model husband. He had affairs with countless women, the most notorious of these with actress Gloria Swanson, whom he often invited to be with him on family occasions that included his wife, Rose. By the time he turned 40, Joseph Kennedy was a millionaire many times over and the head of what would soon become one of America's greatest political dynasties. In his new biography of the senior Kennedy, The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy, David Nasaw charts Kennedy's life and trajectory from Boston society boy to Hollywood bigwig to controversial ambassador to Great Britain as World War II unfolded on the European stage. The author has obviously brushed over some of the more negative aspects of Kennedy's life. For example, at Bethlehem Steel he apparently caused a huge strike and was forced into a lesser position, despite the achievements Nasaw points out. And his homelife wasn't so simple either. Rose clearly was much more aware of his womanizing than the author lets on and she even left him for a bit before her father convinced her to return. Martin Arnold (February 28, 2002). "Writers Beware: History Is an Art, Not a Toaster". The New York Times.

NASAW: Well, you know, he comes from a family - he is the third generation. His grandparents came from Ireland during the potato famine in the early 1850s. His father did very well for himself. His father was a very well-respected and admired politician. He was a quiet man who did most of his work behind the scenes. He was one of the leading figures in the Boston Democratic Party. Time and time again, Kennedy was wrong. Yet we learn in this bio that he was no Nazi-sympathizer. Instead, he was a businessman and congenital pessimist who did not understand the moral and political consequence of appeasement. He was also, it appears, an anti-Semite who blamed Jews for escalating the conflict with Hitler -- unbelievable, but that's what he thought -- even as he tried to persuade a reluctant Roosevelt and Chamberlain to pressure Hitler to allow Jews to leave Germany for safer ground. He led a charmed life until he got to Harvard, and then at Harvard he did fine. His greatest tragedy was not making the varsity baseball team because he was too slow. It was only when he graduates from Harvard that he begins to understand what it means to be an Irish-Catholic from East Boston whose father is a local ward leader. I cannot complain about Nasaw's writing: he is generous and understanding. I liked Joe Kennedy going in, and he didn't suffer much on the way. Nasaw disposes of the "bootlegger" lie handily; it is too bad he had to bother with that at all. A little more on the Hollywood years would have been appreciated here, but there is only so much you can squeeze into a fat biography.One cannot help but admire a man who from such humble origins became so immensely wealthy, politically powerful and influential. Presidents, popes, actors and journalists came to be his close friends. I admire his outspoken manner. Of course it was at least partially his wealth and financial standing which allowed him to so freely speak his mind. The book peaks when Nasaw is discussing Kennedy's infamous term as Ambassador to Britain from 1938 to 1941. Kennedy's relentless defeatism and sympathy for Fascism makes him an entertaining protagonist for the well known story of Munich, the rise of Churchill and the Battle of Britain. That was invaluable for Roosevelt, and Roosevelt used it, and he in turn used Roosevelt. The relationship between these two men was remarkable. These were two of the most savvy personal politicians. They were good at political - at politics on a private level, on a public level. And yet…this biography often seems more a record of Kennedy’s daily movements and conversations than an analysis of how he shaped (and responded to) events. The reader will eventually feel as though he or she is reading a well-crafted intelligence dossier rather than re-living Joe Kennedy’s life through his own eyes. The narrative describes what he did far more than why. I enjoyed listening to this through to the end. It kept my attention and gives an in-depth portrait of Joseph P. Kennedy's personality, which is what I am looking for in a biography.