An historian at the University of Notre Dame Australia has scooped her American colleagues with a fascinating “micro-history” of the renowned Kennedy family.
At the centre of The Kennedys at Cape Cod, 1944: The Summer That Changed Everything is the tragic moment when patriarch Joe and matriarch Rose and their eight children learned that the oldest boy, Joe Jr, had been killed in a World War II bombing mission.
Thereafter the aspirations of the fiercely ambitious father centred on his son Jack, who eventually became the 35th president of the United States, the youngest and the first Catholic.
Associate Professor Leigh Straw launched the book in Boston, Washington DC, and Hyannis, the location of the Kennedy family home on Cape Cod. It has been endorsed by leading Kennedy scholars.
In the summer of 1944 the Allies had successfully invaded Normandy, marking the beginning of the end for the Nazi regime. Joe Jr was entitled to return home after surviving 25 bombing missions.
But he volunteered for a 26th, a cockamamie attempt to fly a decommissioned bomber packed with explosives straight into a heavily fortified German base, the crew parachuting out beforehand. But the plane exploded before it had even crossed the English Channel, killing Joe Jr and his co-pilot.
The book gives an insight into the Kennedy family before they become the larger-than-life, heroic and tragic figures in history books and popular culture.
“I’ve been interested in the Kennedys since I was a teenager and have spent years researching them,” Prof Straw told The Catholic Weekly.
“While my other books have been on Australian crime history (and crime biographies), this book has always been brewing away in my mind.”
Sixty years after the assassination of JFK, many Americans are still besotted with the Kennedys. Why?
“Few American families are as iconic—or as scrutinised—as the Kennedys,” said Prof Straw. “From the ‘Camelot’ era of the 1960s to the countless books and documentaries that followed, their story is legendary.
“While ‘Camelot’ has been challenged in recent decades in terms of being a part of a constructed public mythology, the Kennedys continue to fascinate people around the world because of the immense heights to which they rose in the political world but also the awful tragedies experienced across generations.
“Their story is also an inspiring one in terms of going from poor Irish Catholic origins in Boston (after fleeing the Irish Famine in the late 1840s) all the way to the White House.”
Joe Sr was determined to see a son of his become president. Would Joe Jr have made a better president?
Prof Straw has her doubts. The older son had a more conservative temperament and was probably less politically astute, she believes.
“If Joe Jr. had lived, gone into politics and run for the same House of Representatives seat as Jack did in 1946, I don’t think he would have been as successful as Jack.”
For Americans and for star-struck fans of the Kennedy clan everywhere, The Kennedys at Cape Cod is bound to be mesmerising. Any plans for a film, The Catholic Weekly asked.
Prof Straw the book would make a brilliant mini-series or movie.
“I would love to see that happen but the book has only just come out, so no optioning offers yet. I hope there is one as I’d like to see it brought to life beyond the written page as well.”
