Kennedy Books

I can't count the number of copies of this book I have given away over the years. Eugene Kennedy's "The Joy of Being Human" is a straight talking book for people of faith who are open to the wisdom of psychology as well as theology. The readings are organized in sections for each day and provide encouraging and thought provoking material for the modern reader. Great for one's own prayer time and perfect as gifts for friends.

The Career Book leads the reader into an understanding of how to make good career decisions, get training, and find jobs. Once these career strategies and processes are understood you can utilize this knowledge to make relevant life-satisfaction decisions, for now and later. The reader will learn how to acquire facts; become more aware of their own interests, abilities, and values; how to set goals and techniques to reach them; how to make effective decisions; involve family and friends; make appropriate educational choices, become an expert job seeker; and acquire success in getting a job.

Just Call Me Eva is the extraordinary story of an extraordinary woman. Who, in these days of instant gratification, would take years to accept the marriage proposal of the man she dearly loves? Who, in these days of self above all others, would answer the needs of her community by turning her residence into a nursing home--while raising a family of six? Who, in these days of "No, my son is not going to risk HIS life by serving his country--especially in another country," could countenance sending three sons to so serve?

Author Kennedy's meticulous research renders this book an educational experience as well as a wonderful journey into the soul of a fascinating human being. "By their works you shall know them", indeed, and by their diaries and letters as well, augmented by overviews of contemporary world events. If you long for those days of yesteryear, when honor reigned supreme--and, yes, you skeptics, it did, in this instance, at least--do yourself the favor of reading this book. You won't be able to put it down. It is a compelling account of life as it should be lived.

In this profound and thoughtful book, Baroness Kennedy defends civil society against the Blair government's growing authoritarianism. She covers a huge range of topics, approaching each with a well-argued point of view. She is never neutral, but never dogmatic either.

On international law, she passionately upholds Britain's common law against the `fallacious ideas that a new hybrid should be created, marrying up European civil law approaches to our common law system without any thought as to the consequences'. She notes that the attack on and occupation of Iraq breached international law, and that the government sought the opinion of one of only two international lawyers who thought the attack legal.

Even before the 9/11 attacks, Blair imposed draconian laws against our freedoms: the Terrorism Act of 2000, for instance, reversed the burden of proof. Since 9/11, Blair has abused the attacks to limit our freedoms yet more. In December 2001, the government gave Home Secretary David Blunkett the power to detain foreign nationals indefinitely without charge or trial: as of May 2003, 13 were thus detained. This arbitrary preventive detention is no better than hostage-taking. Blunkett refused to rule out relying on intelligence obtained by torture in other countries when he decides who to detain. (Incidentally, under the Terrorism Act of 2002 it is an offence to incite or plot the overthrow of a foreign government - why does Iraq come to mind?)

The Criminal Justice Act of 2003 allowed people to be held without charge for interrogation for up to 14 days. Kennedy points out that state terrorism has killed more people than individual terrorism: "Huge attention is given to subversive terrorism, yet in fact the majority of innocent victims of indiscriminate political violence worldwide in the past forty years have been killed by state forces."

The war in Ireland led to broken rules, miscarriages of justice, and the undermining of the whole Irish community. The same is happening with Muslims today: 500 have been arrested, but only four have been charged with a criminal offence.

Kennedy describes what she calls the `legal limbo' in which the US state is holding 660 prisoners of war in cruel and degrading conditions at Guantanamo Bay. But it is not a legal limbo: the US state is illegally detaining them, in ways that breach the US constitution, US law and the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war.

With the EU's new Eurowarrant, a British citizen can be arrested here for actions not criminal here, on a warrant issued in any EU member country, then deported and held months in prison awaiting trial, as happens all too often in Italy, for example.

Kennedy believes that the government wants to restrict trial by jury because juries are independent and beyond state control. She observes that the government attacks legal aid and legal aid lawyers, that it cut benefits for lone mothers and imposed a pitifully low minimum wage, and that its vaunted family tax credits subsidise low wages.

The government wants to dissolve the rights of the accused, on the pretext of helping the victim. But in criminal courts, the victim is a witness for the state, so `rebalancing' in favour of the victim favours the state. She advocates keeping the double jeopardy rule and opposes the introduction of ID cards. Altering the law to make it easier to convict the guilty also makes it easier to convict the innocent.

On asylum and immigration, Kennedy acknowledges, "We are not in fact bound by treaty to admit genuine refugees if we can find them somewhere else to go, a country other than the one from which they have fled, and one where they will be treated humanely and sympathetically." She opposes `sucking the talent out of developing countries for whom skilled workers are a precious resource'. But she evades the questions of how we put these ideas into practice.

She advocates defending judicial independence against the executive. She opposes the government's wish to let the Prime Minister have the final say in appointing judges to the highest courts.

She is against charging smokers or obese people for treatment: should the NHS only be allowed to treat healthy people? The NHS's duty is to preserve life, not make moral judgements on how life is lived. This is just as true of social security: as she observes, the punitive use of benefits harks back to the Vagrancy Acts of the early 19th century.

She strongly backs prisoner education, a strengthened Probation Service, and the provision of more nursery education, youth clubs, youth workers, sports pitches, gyms and voluntary parenting classes. She supports residential drug rehabilitation centres, and detoxification beds in the NHS. But as she notes, the greatest contribution to crime reduction would be full employment.

Kennedy proposes necessary reforms: take children under 14 out of the criminal justice system; sharpen the crimes of corporate manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud; abolish crown immunity; outlaw the use of DNA without proper consents; end the mandatory life sentence; and apply restorative justice, especially for children, where the offender has to take responsibility for, and put right, what he has done.

In all, this is a sparkling and hard-hitting book, which should be essential reading for all Britain's citizens.

This book goes beyond the contemporary stereotypes that go with the legacy of JFK. The author deals with the subject of the life and times of President Kennedy in a way that is sure to interest both the academic and casual reader.

Chris Matthews, MSNBC news host, has written a book about the Nixon/Kennedy rivalry. This book is very good at what it attempts to do: an introduction into who these men were, where they came from, and what made them fall.

The book reads more like a courtroom drama than a dusty textbook. I find this feature appealing. If you want a more scholarly work, pass this book up.

"Kennedy and Nixon" is very interesting to anyone who wants to know more about the 60's, the Post-War generation, or the events leading up to Vietnam and Watergate.

The rivalry that existed between Kennedy and Nixon is still relevant. It is the classic rivalry of Caesar and Brutus: friends at first, enemies in the end.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any of the aforementioned interests.

I bought this book for my 11 year old daughter who has a keen interest in history. I think I enjoyed it as much as she did. I highly recommend it for any child interested in recent American History, but the price is a bit steep. I'd love to have the whole series of these books if the price ever comes down!

I highly recommend that you find a copy of this book. Luckily the going price has dropped a bit in recent years. It is a well researched look at the Jim Garrison investigation of what is, despite what many high profile writers (Vincent Bugliosi anyone?) have claimed, an unsolved crime.

This is a good starter to the authors' series of oral history books on Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan. I hope to see one on GW Bush and Clinton 20 years from now when people can speak more candidly.

Anyway--I think the other two books are far better, simply because JFK wasn't a very interesting person. But there is some great historical insight here.

The Reagan and Nixon books give you way more detail on how the presidency works, and how each respective president ran his White House. Plus, the scandals were juicier and they had more time to leave their mark.

The Kennedy assassination is an open chapter in the history of the US. The Warren Report has been the official version of the tragic events in Dallas all these years. The investigation conducted by Congress concluded that there were more than one shooter. The American public did not believe the findngs in the Warren Report but there was not enough proof that the investigation done by Congress found the truth either.
Kennedy Saga presents texts dictated by the people personally involved in the tragedy, which made it their tragedy, as well. The story behind the story of Dallas is revealed. At long last the terrible truth about this event, which touched the lives of so many is told. At long last everything makes sense. The Conspiracy and the Cover Up involved top US Government officials. The CIA prepared the killing ground and made sure the assassins could escape. The FBI was in charge of the massive Cover Up, which cost the lives of many who could have revealed the truth. The man in charge of the operation was the Attorney General of the United States, Robert Kennedy, the victim's brother. His was the worst and most devastating tragedy of all.