The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy Hardcover by David Coleman, Timothy Naftali & Philip Zelikow, editors

Product Details

• Publisher: WW Norton (2016-03-29)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 1728 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780393081244
• Item Weight: 3315.82 grams
• Dimensions: 25.91 x 18.29 x 12.7 cm

This is presidential power in its rawest form, revealed alongside the private vulnerabilities of the world’s most public man.

In the summer of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked the Secret Service to install a hidden taping system in the White House Oval Office and Cabinet Room. Reel-to-reel tape recorders were placed in the basement, connected to concealed microphones, and operated at the touch of an inconspicuous button at the President’s side. Another recorder was connected to the President’s telephone. Kennedy’s secret recordings, most likely collected in preparation for a memoir of his years in office, provide an extraordinarily revealing and intimate view into the White House during some of the most momentous events of the twentieth century.

The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy, Volumes IV–VI continue the ambitious project, undertaken by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, to transcribe and annotate the secretly recorded White House tapes. The tapes presented here begin on October 29, 1962—the first day after the Cuban Missile Crisis—and run through February 7, 1963.

About the Author

The director of the Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings Program, David G. Coleman is a history professor at the University of Virginia. He lives in Arlington.

Timothy Naftali, a frequent contributor to Slate and NPR, is director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Philip D. Zelikow was executive director of the 9/11 Commission. He is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia.