John F. Kennedy: His Inaugural Address (book and DVD)

John F. Kennedy's immortal first words as president
It is one of the shortest inaugural addresses in our country's history, and yet its words have long resonated in the American conscience. John F. Kennedy's first message as president summoned the language of a leader schooled in the oratory of the ages––from Isaiah to Lincoln to Churchill . In our exclusive book, we take you behind the curtain of this famous moment to experience how the ideas became words.

Facsimiles of scribbled and dictated notes, JFK's handwritten version and a marked-up typed draft are among the various documents you'll discover. All are reproduced in full color, and most at the original size. These are authorized facsimiles from the archives of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

To these we add a first: JFK's reading copy, with superimposed edits showing where he changed his speech on the fly as he delivered it. (Among the changes: his famous "ask not" sentence.) On the DVD, you'll experience what the nation did on January 20, 1961, as you watch Kennedy deliver his Inaugural Address and then see the film footage of the Inaugural Parade.

Then Roger Kennedy, Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History, puts JFK's speech in the context of both our past and future history in an insightful and memorable commentary. The words that ignited a generation still enkindle and inspire today. As E. B. White wrote of the President who stood in front of the Capitol and before the world on that bracingly cold day: "He was impatient of topcoats and hats, preferring to be exposed, and he was young enough and tough enough to confront and to enjoy the cold and the wind of these times." Only from Levenger.