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The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed
by Maureen Callahan
"The must-read book of the summer" (Megyn Kelly) from New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan: a "harrowing, incendiary" exposé of the real Kennedy Curse—the family's generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem (Karen Abbott).
The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation's wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys' hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty's story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren't nearly as well known but should be.
Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys' orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.
"A stinging portrait of the depredations of not just John F. Kennedy but of three generations of Kennedy men ... Callahan delivers." ―The Washington Post
"Callahan profiles 13 women, some famous, some infamous, some conveniently unknown, who had the misfortune of falling into the Kennedy orbit…. The Kennedys, Callahan asserts, are the epitome of men behaving badly. Taken as a whole, their decades-long misogynistic and malevolent exploits must be recognized as being as legacy-defining as their political successes." ―Booklist
"A sharp-edged exposé of Kennedy men… An informative and gossip-filled history of a notorious clan." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Bold, brave and original, Ask Not takes a sledgehammer to the myth of Camelot. This is an unforgettable book—a necessary reckoning that will forever change the way I view modern American history." ―Susannah Cahalan, author of The Great Pretender and the #1 New York Times bestseller Brain on Fire
This information about Ask Not was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Maureen Callahan is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author of the New York Times bestseller American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century. Her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Spin, New York Magazine, the New York Post, and the Daily Mail, where she currently has a column. She lives in New York.
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