The Afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy A Biography

In his new book, Michael J. Hogan, a leading historian of the American presidency, offers a new perspective on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, as seen not from his life and times but from his afterlife in American memory. The Afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy considers how Kennedy constructed a popular image of himself, in effect, a brand, as he played the part of president on the White House stage. The cultural trauma brought on by his assassination further burnished that image and began the process of transporting Kennedy from history to memory. Hogan shows how Jacqueline Kennedy, as the chief guardian of her husband's memory, devoted herself to embedding the image of the slain president in the collective memory of the nation, evident in the many physical and literary monuments dedicated to his memory. Regardless of critics, most Americans continue to see Kennedy as his wife wanted him remembered: the charming war hero, the loving husband and father, and the peacemaker and progressive leader who inspired confidence and hope in the American people.

1. The afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: an introduction; 2. All the world's a stage: constructing Kennedy; 3. From history to memory: assassination and the making of a sacred symbol; 4. Ritual and remembrance: cultural trauma, collective memory, and the funeral of John Fitzgerald Kennedy; 5. In death there is life: monuments of paper and pen; 6. In death there is life: monuments of glass, steel, and stone; 7. The memory wars: contesting Kennedy; 8. Gone but not forgotten: history, memory, nostalgia.

Michael J. Hogan is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Springfield, and Emeritus Professor of History at the Ohio State University. Past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Hogan served for fifteen years as editor of Diplomatic History, the journal of record for scholars of American foreign relations and national security studies. He is the author or editor of ten books, notably his prize-winning history The Marshall Plan (Cambridge, 1987) and A Cross of Iron (Cambridge, 1998), his book on the origins of the national security state, and he has written numerous essays and articles in leading professional journals, including The American Historical Review and The Journal of American History.