An interesting book about the Kennedy dynasty and family. A rare critical account, too, that doesn't rely on conspiracy theories, etc. Definitely recommended for anyone who wants a clear-eyed impression of the Kennedy clan and their impact on US politics.

This book is primarily about the men in the Kennedy Family and their strengths and weaknesses and now they addressed the use of power in a family steeped in money and influence. Each of the males in the family had different personalities and strengths and weaknesses of character. While I learned some new things about them (I have read a number of biographies on all of them), it was concerning that there were some glaring inaccuracies in the book. At times the book bogged down in what is little more than gossip which I am sure engages some readers, but I find somewhat boring. 

Overall, this is simply an okay book, but not one that I would bother purchasing and rereading.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.

I apologise for not having reviewed this title, but it came at a particularly difficult time in my life and I must admit that I forgot all about it. I'm sorry - particularly as it's a subject which interests me.

a nicely written book that gives an interesting and different view into the kennedy family! If you want something different and learn something that is not widely known or constantly talked about with/about the kennedy family, this is a great book for you!

A fascinating treatise on presidential power, featuring the Kennedys. Cuba, Vietnam, Chappaquiddick, and lots and lots of adultery - it’s all in there.

This book an interesting look into the Kennedy family, especially John and Robert. Parts of it seemed a little overly dramatic to me but I guess that’s just the authors style of writing. I learned a lot of things about the Kennedy’s I didn’t know before and I’m glad I got to read this.

“The Kennedy Imprisonment,” is a reissue of Garry Wills’ intriguing 1982 analysis of how the trappings of privilege – including power and corruption – have both propelled and derailed the Kennedy family. Written in the wake of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s floundering 1980 presidential campaign, which Wills seems to see as the inevitable outcome of two generations of moral failing.

Reissued in 2017 after the election of another son of privilege, the story of the Kennedys’ turpitude seems almost quaint, but Wills’ analysis of how the Kennedys’ corruption led to Teddy’s flameout remains a compelling read.

The details in this book – the family dynamics, the women, the politicking, the ruthlessness – will be familiar to anyone who has followed the news (or read the tabloid headlines while standing in the grocery-store checkout line) over the past 50 years. Yet Willis builds a case that makes the path from Joe Kennedy’s early ambitions to Teddy Kennedy’s scandals seem inevitable.

Readers who are fans of Kennedy family will probably be dismayed to see these issues rehashed, but Wills’ analysis of how morality (or the lack of) provides both a convenient way to clear a path to success and a weakness that haunts a generation.

“The Kennedy Imprisonment” is a thoughtful and interesting read.

An insightful, enthralling and provoking analysis of the Kennedy Clan under each aspect: Sex, Family, Image, Charisma and Power. The dark side of an ambitious family that changed the American politics.

With so many books being out there on the Kennedy dynasty and the privileged existence the name apparently guaranteed, it is interesting to read a book where the flip-side of being a Kennedy forms the subject matter. Garry Wills' book clearly explains how Edward [ the youngest - and longest living - brother] was forever burdened with the baggage of Jack, Robert and indeed his father Joe. The book leaves you wondering what Edward might have achieved with a different surname - certainly his life would have been happier and his freedom to express himself infinitely greater. As it was he served his State well as a loyal senator and ultimately came to be regarded as a much respected "father" of the Senate. Joseph Kennedy's unceasing drive to create a dynasty undoubtedly worked but at what cost to his sons. Perhaps he burdened - not blessed - them.

I love to read about the Kennedys but I found this book a bit dry and I didn't finish it.

I received this free ebook from Net Galley in return for an honest review.

I received an advanced copy of The Kennedy Imprisonment, by Garry Wills from NetGalley and OpenRoads Integrated Media in exchange for unbiased review.

This is the third edition (new preface) of this superbly written, scholarly book first released in 1980. It confronts head-on the mythologies that have grown up around various Kennedys. Episodes are documented with verified facts, as are the motives for, and explanations of, the alternative stories that arose.

I’ve read a few Kennedy biographies, both JFK and Jacqueline, and this book includes stories and “behind the stories” that I’ve never known. Two readily come to mind – How Jacqueline used the Kennedy “persuasion” to get the Virginia farm she wanted when the owner was not interested in selling, and how the Kennedy presidential clique – Kenny O’Donnell, Dave Powers, et al., broke the chain of custody when the Dallas coroners wanted to do an autopsy as per protocol, and instead flew the body back to Washington. Who knows what might have been uncovered had they followed the correct procedures. At the very least, this “muscle” provided an avenue to the many conspiracy theories.

Too bad the stories stop with Edward (as of the 1980 Presidential run) and don’t consider the Kennedy grandchildren and their own brand of entitlement.

Unfamiliar words (amphisbaenic) and historical terms, will arouse appreciation for device apps and online dictionaries.

All in all, this was a very worthwhile read, though one that Kennedy- enthusiasts may not applaud..

The author of this book, Garry Wills, wrote an ode to wickedness in The Kennedy Imprisonment. The book is spent portraying all of the members of the Kennedy family as nothing but criminals.

Many historians have written of the flawed Kennedy father and sons, but Wills paints one dimensional characters whom he views with contempt. There is little redemptive qualities.

Ted Kennedy, treated harshly, actually does generate compassion in Wills. It is nice to see him considered as a complex figure with good and bad. Rose Kennedy is upheld as the stereotypical saint that is often portrayed.

Wills argues that the Kennedy phenomenon collapsed into itself, into nothingness, deservedly so.

I found all of the negativity too much, and this kept me from gaining any insight into the Kennedys. It is disappointing.

Garry Wills, who has been described as “a sort of intellectual outlaw” by the New York Times, has written many books related to politics, including Reagan’s America, Nixon Agonistes, Lincoln at Gettysburg (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize), and The Kennedy Imprisonment, originally published in 1982. This 2017 edition of The Kennedy Imprisonment includes an updated preface, but is still essentially Wills taking on the myths surrounding the Kennedy clan and disabusing people of the popular vision of the Kennedy image as viewed through the lens of Camelot.
For Kennedy fans who haven’t done much reading about the reality, this book may be unsettling as it pulls back the curtain and reveals a corrupt and opportunistic political family who valued image over reality, flattering myths and stories over truth, and a world of “almost-Kennedys” and hangers-on who gave up their own integrity for the privilege of basking in the reflected glory of the Kennedy clan.

Wills covers the PT-109 story and the expert manipulation of it in print and film, the question of actual authorship of Profiles in Courage, the story that was presented as historical fact about the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the notorious womanizing of Joe Sr., John, and Teddy (with Bobby allegedly being the faithful one).

The book is divided into five sections, each devoted to a particular aspect of the Kennedy family: Sex, Family, Image, Charisma, and Power. But even before we get to these, the prologue tells us the particular slant of the author: “Because of privilege of various sorts, bad behavior does not have consequences, which means that it continues and becomes more pronounced.” The heavy weight on each of the brothers following the deaths of their siblings culminates in Teddy’s sad comment: “After Robert was killed, he told his aide Dun Gifford: “I can’t let go. We have a job to do. If I let go, Ethel will let go, and my mother will let go, and all my sisters.”” Yikes, what a heavy load he carried…and his dysfunctional, doomed campaign for the Presidency in 1980 is covered in depth, including a good look at poor Joan, who never really made it into the insular inner circle of the clan.

Wills says there was a palpable energy between and among the Kennedys that excluded all outsiders: “When the nurse took the Kennedy children swimming at Taggert’s Pier, back in the thirties, they all wore the same color bathing hats, so they could be distinguished from the other children…Ever since they have been wearing invisible caps that signal to each other on a radio frequency no one else can use.”

I have vivid memories of JFK’s inauguration (when a TV was wheeled into my elementary school classroom so we could watch and hear his speech) and the assassinations, including the televised coverage of the aftermath each time another tragedy unfolded. I admit it was a bit disconcerting to learn the level to which coverage and myth protection was managed and manipulated, but I was still pleased to have the opportunity to read a copy of this edition (thanks to Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley).

For me, the problem is that this book, written as it was in the early 1980s, assumed a familiarity with many of the people and events that was likely appropriate 30+ years ago, but for many of us, memories fade – and for others, there is complete cluelessness about who these people are and what their significance was to the Kennedy story of the 1960s-80s.

In addition to needing to figure out the characters and their roles, the author’s writing became annoying. I appreciate a strong vocabulary, but in several instances, it seemed like a simpler word might have served the purpose: for example, “jansenist,” “circumnambient,””orotundities,””thurible,” and “perdured’ seem a bit over the top (while the less puzzling “circumlocutious,” panegyric,” and “simulacra” seem to adequately demonstrate the author’s fine vocabulary. Or maybe it’s just me, and everyone else is completely familiar with the over-the-top examples listed above? In any case, that detracted from my appreciation of the book. (And spellcheck was equally puzzled by 7 of the 8 words listed above!)

In any case, it is a fine history of the clan and their impact on U.S. history and, while it may provoke a certain level of disappointment for readers to learn about both the human frailties and downright corrupt actions of their heroes, it is hugely entertaining. Political junkies in particular will love this. Four stars.

The Kennedy Imprisonment by Gary Willis is a very good, in depth look at the Kennedy mystique. This work does not just gloss over the surface, or give us an empty comparison to royalty, but instead looks at the patriarch and matriarch of the clan and pulls out from their behaviors, acceptable in their times, how that affected the same for the offspring (the book primarily looks at Jack, Bobby and Teddy) in their times.

Though the work is a reprint it suffers only mildly due to when it was written. For instance in opening up on the failed primary election of Teddy against Carter, the author adeptly illustrates how Ted was in an almost no win situation at a time when he was trying to remain connected to the legacy but distance himself from the same. The author here summarizes how Ted will never be seen as anything more than the younger brother, but those of us who saw him mature into his own man, know that the author's conjecture is not the case.

Rare are those occurrences in the book, and for those who missed it the first time this work will give you a fresh open look into the Kennedy's and raise the curtain behind the continuing mystique about what made them unique.

Re-issued with a new preface, the book looks at the effect of the "Kennedy Mystique" on the President, his brothers and the Presidency itself. The Pulitzer Prize winning author rolls back the mythology and takes a clear, unflinching look at the realities of the premiere political family of the second half of the 20th Century.


Originally published in the aftermath of Edward Kennedy's lackluster run for the Democratic nomination in 1980, Wills carefully disassembles the myth of the American Camelot. While few, if any, of the facts presented here, will come as a surprise, the author weaves them together in a way that shows a side of the late President and those who surrounded him that we rarely if ever see. Working the story from the Kennedy patriarch, Joseph, Sr., through the thousand-day presidency of John, followed by the Presidential aspirations of Robert, and the burden of expectations on the youngest brother, Edward, Wills charts a fascinating tale. But it is not only the Kennedy's and their followers who are imprisoned by the mystique. Johnson would be imprisoned just as much as he attempted to lead the nation in the aftermath of the assassination. Surrounded by Kennedy appointees who had little respect for him, his presidency was hamstrung from the beginning. Nixon was imprisoned as well because of the history between the two Presidents. In fact, Wills implies that the Kennedy imprisonment wouldn't be broke at the Oval Office level until Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.

Wills has written extensively on American History, with a regular turn at examinations of the Presidents, including Lincoln, Nixon, and Reagan. He has also written regularly on matters of faith, especially in respect to his own denomination, the Roman Catholic church. What you can expect from him is excellent writing and a certain "outlaw" approach to mainstream topics.

Why re-issue this book now? In "The Kennedy Imprisonment" Wills portrays JFK as a solitary, charismatic leader. One who relied more on personal loyalty than deeply held policy. As I continued to read the book a variety of similarities between the martyred President and the man currently holding that office.

Both were generally indifferent students at university, both had demanding fathers with somewhat checkered backgrounds, both lost older brothers, both have reputations for a cavalier treatment of women, both arrived in the nation's capital with intense mistrust for government in general, and of the media in general. Both surrounded themselves with people who are longer on loyalty (including family members) than on governmental experience. Both center their power on a personal charisma rather than overwhelming competence. The first inclination would be to say that JFK and Trump are mirror images of one another, meaning that they are exactly opposite. In fact, the mirror image is exactly correct. They are the same, merely reversed left for right. Obviously, it is simple to carry that too far, but there is a frightening similarity in the image presented by Wills.

Kennedy fans will hate this book. Kennedy critics will love it. For the rest of us, it is a compelling look at a Presidency too often lost in the folds of mythology. And it presents a fascinating comparison to the politics of today.

Why You Will Like It - A more starkly lit view of the Kennedys presented in a very readable fashion. For those, like me, who grew up immersed in the mythology, the book is both challenging and disturbing. For those who came later, it offers a deeper look at a pivotal moment in American history.

Rating - **** Recommended

Review will go up on website August 23
https://theviewfromthephlipside.blogspot.com/2017/07/book-kennedy-imprisonment.html

Very good book on The Kennedys. As an avid reader of anything JFK, I found this book a good read. At times, it did seem a little over the top (in the way the material was presented), but it holds your interest. For me a book that makes me want to be reading while I am doing other things, is a good book. This book had me wanting to read while I was doing other things. This book clearly shows the influence that Joe Kennedy had on his family and how they were shaped by him. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.Highly recommended.

Wow! This is the perfect gift for the Kennediophile in your life!

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills first investigated the Kennedy phenomenon when Ted Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980, and ‘The Kennedy Imprisonment’ was first published in 1982. It was clearly intended for the general reader, as it is unburdened by the scholarly apparatus of footnotes, or even a bibliography.

This is a new edition with a very brief new Preface, entitled ‘The View from 2017’, added to the 2002 Introduction to the Mariner edition and the original text. There seems to have been no effort to update the latter by incorporating any of the insights arising from the primary or secondary literature on the Kennedys which has appeared since 1982.

The imprisonment referred to in the title is the gilded cage of privilege, with Wills arguing that thus cocooned the bad behaviour of JFK, Bobby and Ted - apples that didn’t fall far from the morally diseased patriarchal tree - simply grew worse.

With Ted Kennedy having died in 2009, Wills uses his new Preface to be a little more forgiving in his judgment of the youngest of the Kennedy brothers. Whether he sees the Senator as retarding or assisting the Irish peace process by his support for Sinn Féin we cannot tell though, as although a chapter is devoted to the Kennedys’ Irish ancestry and the political use they made of it, the brothers’ actual relationship with the politics of Ireland is not discussed at all.

This book is, moreover, unlikely to tell the reader anything new, if they’re even moderately well versed in the plentiful literature on the Kennedys but it is nevertheless thoroughly deserving of a new print run and readership because it represents such a well-sustained broadside against the way in which the Kennedys are still often eulogised, fuelled by the author’s distaste for such idolatry.

It somewhat resembles ‘The Dark Side of Camelot’ by Seymour Hersh but whereas Hersh employs prose like a fish-eye lens to magnify Kennedy tackiness, Wills prefers to paint a comparable picture of moral turpitude by deploying a well-turned phrase or apt quotation with all the forensic exactitude of a well-briefed barrister.

In short, this is an entertaining representation of a morally corrupt political dynasty.