the kennedy family

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.

Up until the 1960s and 70s, there had been few, if any, human beings who were forced to live their lives under such intense media scrutiny as John F.…

Told in full for the first time, “Camelot’s End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party” is a carefully threaded narrative of…

In the new book, "Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples Of Hope," Kerry Kennedy pays homage to her father’s life and legacy through incisive interviews with heads of…

While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter Eunice was tapping her father’s fortune and her…

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…

History remembers Robert F. Kennedy as a racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But…