The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign

After his unsuccessful attempt to earn the vice presidency in 1956, John F. Kennedy arguably served as a principal strategist, constructing a winning coalition of young campaigners, union members, party bosses, and fellow Catholics, among others. Included in this group of followers was Lou Harris, the first on-staff presidential pollster. Boston Globe journalists Oliphant (Utter Incompetents) and Wilkie (The Fall of the House of Zeus) provide an in-depth narrative based on oral histories, personal interviews, and secondary sources. After campaigning on the Cold War missile gap and a lackluster economy, Kennedy, an inexperienced but persuasive senator from Massachusetts, become U.S. president in 1960. This analytical rather than celebratory work suggests Kennedy's win offers a replicable template of preparing early, securing print bylines and TV advertisements, serving as an agent for change, and quickly responding to verbal attacks. The authors add a new perspective to literature on Kennedy by focusing on his electioneering efforts rather than his persona and policy outcomes.