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""Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." On the morning of January 20, 1961, when John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency and spoke these words, cold-war tensions were rapidly escalating. War seemed imminent to the millions listening as the new president began to describe his vision of the future." "What his listeners heard, across the land and around the globe, were words that instilled fresh hopes, calling all to "bear the burden of a long twilight struggle . . . against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." Kennedy's address - considered by many to be the finest since Lincoln's at Gettysburg and the most memorable of any twentieth-century American politician - did more than reassure: it changed lives, ushering in a brief but memorable period of optimism." "Thurston Clarke has created a detailed rendering of the Kennedy inauguration: Ask Not takes us into the lives of the man, his family, and his advisers as they prepare for power at the dawn of an era they would make their own. At the heart of the story is Kennedy's quest to create an address that would distill American dreams, ensure his place in history, and inspire a new generation." "Beginning with JFK's first sustained work on the speech - during a flight on his private jet to his family's Palm Beach mansion - Clarke shows how JFK struggled to find words to define his great ambitions and introduces new evidence establishing that JFK and not his speechwriter, Theodore Sorenson, was the creator of the inaugural's most stirring and poetic passages. And he brings to life the dramatic occasion that was the inauguration day itself." "Thurston Clarke's portrait of JFK during what intimates call his happiest days reveals this ultimate politician at his most dazzlingly charismatic and cunningly pragmatic. For everyone who seeks to understand an era and the endless fascination with all things Kennedy, the answer can be found in Ask Not."--BOOK JACKET.
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Previews available in: English
Showing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?
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1
Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America
August 25, 2005, Holt Paperbacks
Paperback
in English
080507936X 9780805079364
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2
Ask not: the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the speech that changed America
2004, Henry Holt and Co.
in English
- 1st ed.
0805072136 9780805072136
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3
Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America
September 9, 2004, Audio Renaissance
Audio CD
in English
- Abridged edition
1593975511 9781593975517
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4
Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America
September 9, 2004, Henry Holt & Company
Hardcover
in English
0805072136 9780805072136
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5
Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America
September 9, 2004, Audio Renaissance, Macmillan Audio
Audio cassette
in English
- Abridged edition
1593975503 9781593975500
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- Created April 30, 2008
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June 8, 2011 | Edited by OCLC Bot | Added OCLC numbers. |
August 10, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 30, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |