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Their Irish ancestry was a hallmark of the Kennedys’ initial political profile, as JFK leveraged his working-class roots to connect with blue-collar voters. Today, we remember this iconic American family as the vanguard of wealth, power, and style rather than as the descendants of poor immigrants. Here at last, we meet the first American Kennedys, Patrick and Bridget, who arrived as many thousands of others did following the Great Famine—penniless and hungry. Less than a decade after their marriage in Boston, Patrick’s sudden death left Bridget to raise their children single-handedly. Her rise from housemaid to shop owner in the face of rampant poverty and discrimination kept her family intact, allowing her only son P.J. to become a successful saloon owner and businessman. P.J. went on to become the first American Kennedy elected to public office—the first of many.Written by the grandson of an Irish immigrant couple and based on first-ever access to P.J. Kennedy’s private papers, "The First Kennedys" is a story of sacrifice and survival, resistance and reinvention: an American story.
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Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC’s Hardball. He is the author of "Jack Kennedy - Elusive Hero" and now Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.With his…
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In the new book, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, historian Kate Clifford Larson reveals the what Kennedy matriarch, Rose Kennedy called "the first…
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On May 5, 2006, the New York Times ran two stories, “Patrick Kennedy Crashes Car into Capitol Barrier” and then, several hours later, “Patrick Kennedy…
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Timothy Shriver’s journey begins close to home, where the quiet legacy of his aunt Rosemary, a Kennedy whose intellectual disability kept her far from the…
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When Lions Roar begins in the mid-1930s at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's country estate, with new revelations surrounding a secret business deal…
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Kerry Kennedy is asking again for the dismissal of her drugged-driving case. The charge stems from a 2012 highway collision outside New York City that…
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All month long, we have been speaking with authors, journalists and public figures about their memories of President Kennedy and the dark Dallas day when…
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With the country poised to mark the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, a new round of memorials, conspiracy theories and national…