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At the time of its writing, John F. Kennedy understood that his father, as former ambassador to England, had landed on the wrong side of history when he argued for appeasement with Hitler and Germany.
- (269)
- Hardcover
Why England slept [by] John F. Kennedy
Apr 4, 2016 · In 1940, while acting as secretary to his ambassador father in London, he wrote Why England Slept, an interpretation of England's failure to recognize the danger of the Nazi...
- John F. Kennedy
- reprint
- Stephen C. Schlesinger
- Why England Slept
This folder consists of materials maintained by President John F. Kennedy’s personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, prior to and during his presidency. Materials include reviews and correspondence for the book," Why England Slept," by John F. Kennedy.
- Defining Political Courage
- Popular Quotations and Excerpts
- Chapter Summaries
In the preface to Profiles in Courage, Senator Kennedy discusses the “problems of political courage in the face of constituent pressures, and the light shed on those problems by the lives of past statesmen.’’ He describes the three types of pressure faced by senators as: 1. pressure to be liked 2. pressure to be re-elected, and 3. pressure of the c...
Other often quoted excerpts from President Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book include: “The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people – faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment – faith ...
Chapter II. John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams came to the Senate as a Massachusetts Federalist in 1803. He quickly broke with his party, however, when he was the sole Federalist to vote in favor of the Louisiana Purchase. Adams continued voting against his party, but it was not until 1807 that the final split between Adams and the Federalists occurred. That year, Thomas Jefferson called upon Congress to enact an embargo against Great Britain to shut off international trade to retaliate against British aggression towards...
Chapter III. Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a Massachusetts Senator (Whig) and one of the most distinguished members in Senate history. His trial by fire began in 1850 when he agreed to help Henry Clay of Kentucky push through a compromise bill that would keep the Union together. Webster’s famous “Seventh of March” speech in favor of Clay’s compromise bill asserted that slaveholders were entitled to property rights, that fugitive slave laws should be strengthened, and that the issue of slavery should be put aside in...
Chapter IV. Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton, Senator from Missouri, was included in the book primarily for his actions in 1847-1849 against John C. Calhoun's resolutions to keep Congress from interfering with the introduction of slavery in new territories. Although Missouri was a slave-owning state, and Benton himself owned slaves, he was deeply opposed to the introduction of slavery into new territories. Benton was concerned that the issue was being exploited by Southern and Northern partisans and would be a barrier...
By John F. Kennedy Wilfred Funk, 1940, 252 pp. The son of the recently resigned American Ambassador to England seeks to show that the responsibility for the policies which have led Britain to its present parlous state -- appeasement, pacifism, undue optimism and general muddleheadedness -- rests on the British people as a whole, not on any one ...
Originally published in 1940, Why England Slept was written by then-Harvard student and future American president John F. Kennedy. It was Kennedy's senior thesis that analyzed the tremendous miscalculations of the British leaders in facing Germany on the advent of World War II, and in doing so, also addressed the challenges that democracies ...
