Name: Rachel Benton's review of The Road to Camelot by Thomas Oliphant
Item: The Road to Camelot
Rating: 4
Author: Rachel Benton

Thomas Oliphant

Curtis Wilkie

John F. Kennedy and his young warriors invented modern presidential politics. They turned over accepted wisdom that his Catholicism was a barrier to winning an election and plotted a successful course to that constituency. They hired Louis Harris -- a polling entrepreneur -- to become the first presidential pollster. They twisted arms and they charmed. They lined up party bosses, young enthusiasts, and fellow Catholics and turned the traditional party inside out. The last-minute invitation to Lyndon B. Johnson for vice president in 1956 surprised them only because they had failed to notice that he wanted it. They invented The Missile Gap in the Cold War and out-glamoured Richard Nixon in the TV debates. Now journalists Tom Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie provide the most comprehensive account, based on a depth of personal reporting, interviews, and archives. The authors have examined more than 1,600 oral histories at the John F. Kennedy library; they've interviewed surviving sources, including JFK's sister Jean Smith, and they draw on their own interviews with insiders including Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. From the start of the campaign in 1955 when his father tried to persuade President Johnson to run with JFK as his running mate, The Road to Camelot reveals him as a tough, shrewd political strategist who kept his eye on the prize.

Inside JFK’s Five-Year Campaign

The Road to Camelot

Rachel Benton

The Road to Camelot tells gives an indepth account of JFK’s five year campaign. I first found out about this book through Amazon. I was looking at the new releases and upcoming releases and then I spied. 

I was super excited because this is not the first book I have read on Kennedy’s campaign. The last book that I read was the “Irish Brotherhood by Helen O’Donnell, which I enjoyed alot. 

I think that I was being unfair to this books because I was having expectations for it that it couldn’t possibly meet. I wanted this book to be more like the Irish Brotherhood. But after thinking about it I am glad that it’s not. 

The Road to Camelot was well written and very detailed, which I liked. I have to admit that it took me longer to get through this and absorb the information. I do recommend that if you get this book plan on trying to re-read it again. 

The book gives a fair account of JFK. I get the sense that they admired him and his accomplishments but they were not afraid to point out some of his faults either. Like his extramarital affairs that could and sometimes did put his campaign at risk. 

The writers wanted to debunk the myth that the only reason JFK ran for President was due to his father. The writers state that the only reason that JFK was for him, and from the sounds of it he would listen to his father but if he disagreed he go and do his own thing regardless of what his father said. 

This book covers the five year Kennedy campaign. 

The main thing I liked about this book was that we got more detailed account on certain events. 

 Like the events that took place during the 1956 Democratic convention. Which Kennedy was setting his sites on the VP position, but things fell through with that and it was during this time that Kennedy decided that he was going to run for President himself. 

I can’t help but wonder how things would be different had Kennedy had gotten the VP Position with Adlai Stevenson. 

 I also liked how they covered Johnson in this as well. We see him from the perspective of the Kennedy Camp and then we see the Kennedy camp from Johnson and his supporters viewpoints. Which I loved, because it gives a broader view. Plus it don’t make it seem like the writers are bias to one side. 
 I highly recommend this book if you're interested in reading about the Kennedy campaign. I also recommend the Irish Brotherhood by Helen O’Donnell as well.

Rachel Benton &
The Road to Camelot by Thomas Oliphant

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Rachel Benton &The Road to Camelot by Thomas Oliphant

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Rachel Benton &
The Road to Camelot by Thomas Oliphant