Let The Word Go Forth

Collected in one illuminating volume, the writings and speeches of John F. Kennedy reveal the man and president who inspired a generation. Here are the words that propelled a nation and moved the world, offering an important portrayal of the 35th president's entire career. Photographs throughout.

The rise of the media presidency through radio and television broadcasts has heightened the visibility and importance of presidential speeches in determining the effectiveness and popularity of the President of the United States. Not surprisingly, this development has also witnessed the rise of professional speechwriters to craft the words the chief executive would address to the nation. Yet, as this volume of expert analyses graphically demonstrates, the reliance of individual presidents on their speechwriters has varied with the rhetorical skill of the officeholder himself, his managerial style, and his personal attitude toward public speaking. The individual chapters here (two by former White House speechwriters) give fascinating insight into the process and development of presidential speechwriting from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to Ronald Reagan’s. Some contributors, such as Charles Griffin writing on Eisenhower and Moya Ball on Johnson, offer case studies of specific speeches to gain insight into those presidents. Other chapters focus on institutional arrangements and personal relationships, rhetorical themes characterizing an administration, or the relationship between words and policies to shed light on presidential speechwriting. The range of presidents covered affords opportunities to examine various factors that make rhetoric successful or not, to study alternative organizational arrangements for speechwriters, and even to consider the evolution of the rhetorical presidency itself. Yet, the volume’s single focus on speechwriting and the analytic overviews provided by Martin J. Medhurst not only bring coherence to the work, but also make this book an exemplar of how unity can be achieved from a diversity of approaches. Medhurst’s introduction of ten “myths” in the scholarship on presidential speeches and his summary of the enduring issues in the practice of speechwriting pull together the work of individual contributors. At the same time, his introduction and conclusion transcend particular presidents by providing generalizations on the role of speechwriting in the modern White House.

A Treatise on White Magic is a book by Alice Bailey. It is considered to be among the most important by students of her writings, as it is less abstract than most, and deals with many important subjects of her works in an introductory, even programmatic fashion. Bailey promulgated White Magic as a discipline to serve humanity. It is an esoteric text, which Bailey said was dictated telepathically by the Tibetan Master, Djwal Khul. It is offered as a "basic textbook" for the Western aspirant to initiation, and is divided into fifteen rules of magic, each one taking the reader further into the mysteries of spirituality. Topics discussed include: how an aspirant can best prepare himself for service, the various ray types of their influences, the relationship between the macrocosm and microcosm, the spiritual, causal, astral and physical realms and their interactions, the spiritual psychology of man, The Hierarchy of Masters, esoteric groups and schools, the spiritual centers (or chakras), the occult concept of the Seven Rays, meditation work and much more. One of the main themes is that of soul control.

A Treatise on White Magic is a book by Alice Bailey. It is considered to be among the most important by students of her writings, as it is less abstract than most, and deals with many important subjects of her works in an introductory, even programmatic fashion. Bailey promulgated White Magic as a discipline to serve humanity. It is an esoteric text, which Bailey said was dictated telepathically by the Tibetan Master, Djwal Khul. It is offered as a "basic textbook" for the Western aspirant to initiation, and is divided into fifteen rules of magic, each one taking the reader further into the mysteries of spirituality. Topics discussed include: how an aspirant can best prepare himself for service, the various ray types of their influences, the relationship between the macrocosm and microcosm, the spiritual, causal, astral and physical realms and their interactions, the spiritual psychology of man, The Hierarchy of Masters, esoteric groups and schools, the spiritual centers (or chakras), the occult concept of the Seven Rays, meditation work and much more. One of the main themes is that of soul control.

Before John F. Kennedy became a legendary young president he was the junior senator from Massachusetts. The Senate was where JFK's presidential ambitions were born and first realized. In the first book to deal exclusively with JFK's Senate years, author John T. Shaw looks at how the young Senator was able to catapult himself on the national stage. Tip O'Neill once quipped that Kennedy received more publicity for less accomplishment than anyone in Congress. But O'Neill didn't understand that Kennedy saw a different path to congressional influence and ultimately the presidency. Unlike Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic leader in the Senate, JFK never aspired to be "The Master of the Senate" who made deals and kept the institution under his control. Instead, he envisioned himself as a "Historian-Scholar-Statesman" in the mold of his hero Winston Churchill which he realized with the 1957 publication of Profiles of Courage that earned JFK a Pulitzer Prize and public limelight. Smart, dashing, irreverent and literary, the press could not get enough of him. Yet, largely overlooked has been Kennedy's tenure on a special Senate committee to identify the five greatest senators in American history—JFK's work on this special panel coalesced his relationships in Congress, and helped catapult him toward the presidency. Based on primary documents from JFK's Senate years as well as memoirs, oral histories, and interviews with his top aides, JFK in the Senate provides new insight into an underappreciated aspect of his political career.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham reveals how the Founding Fathers viewed faith—and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics–from John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil War; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Amendment to the Constitution to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan. Debates about religion and politics are often more divisive than illuminating. Secularists point to a “wall of separation between church and state,” while many conservatives act as though the Founding Fathers were apostles in knee britches. As Meacham shows in this brisk narrative, neither extreme has it right. At the heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin called “public religion,” a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights while protecting private religion from government interference. It is a great American balancing act, and it has served us well. Meacham has written and spoken extensively about religion and politics, and he brings historical authority and a sense of hope to the issue. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation’s best chance of summoning what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In looking back, we may find the light to lead us forward. Praise for American Gospel “In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book.”—David McCullough, author of 1776 “Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the spiritual foundation of the early days of the American republic. It is especially instructive reading at a time when the nation is at once engaged in and deeply divided on the question of religion and its place in public life.”—Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation