The revealing story of the multigenerational relationship between the British royals (the Windsors) and the closest thing the U.S. has to royalty (the Kennedys)—exploring the surprising ways the two families echoed, imitated, and inspired each other throughout the 20th century and how those choices continue to shape their legacies today.

For nearly a century, two families have captivated the world like no others: the British royal Windsor clan and the American Kennedys. Much ink has been spilled on these two institutions over the years, but no one has examined their powerful and intertwined legacies. Until now.

In The Kennedys and the Windsors, acclaimed journalist Caroline Hallemann unearths the story of two iconic families whose lives, ambitions, and respective reigns have juxtaposed each other in surprising ways. Through rich archival research and fresh interviews from insiders on both sides of the Atlantic, Hallemann reveals how an Irish Catholic immigrant family with little entrée into elite New England society came to host dinner parties for the King and Queen of England, carving their path to the White House. In the process, she draws out some startling parallels between the two families: the early deaths of Princess Diana and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, the frustrated “second sisters” Princess Margaret and Lee Radziwill, the scandal-plagued next generation of Bobby Kennedy and Prince Andrew, and the current generation’s shared struggle to figure out what a monarchy (actual or imagined) means in the 21st century.

From Queen Elizabeth’s coronation to President Kennedy’s historic London visit, from JFK Jr.’s tragic death to Prince Harry’s decisive break with his family, Hallemann traces the key moments of the lives of these two dynasties through a fresh and fascinating lens, showing how they have intersected over the generations in ways that not only shaped their images and legacies, but history itself.