

They acted and stood by their conscience belief of what was best for the country.

JFK doesn’t say that each act of courage was successful or even right.

The author provided a brief discussion of eight United States Senators in their moment of courage. This book was written in 1955 about the most admirable of human virtues -courage. I normally do not like abridged books but I have found them useful as a quick review of a book I had read years ago and want to refresh my memory. I saw this abridged audiobook on Audible and decided to use it for a review of the book. Perhaps, I'm too narrow, but it seems more contrived than commendable, more packaged than pleasurable, and more directed at increasing Kennedy's profile than increasing American courage.* * This comes from a comment often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that she wished "Kennedy had a little less profile and more courage". It certainly was brilliant in providing more light and more prestige on this young Senator from Massachusetts, but it is hard to also take the book completely serious as history. This doesn't mean the book isn't good and interesting. The book also won the Pulitzer Prize, but when viewed objectively is best seen as more hype than history. While Kennedy largely wrote the beginning the end of the book, the profiles of the senators profiled in this book were largely written by Ted Sorenson. Profiles in Courage, however, was one of the earliest and most successful of these campaign books. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage It is now almost tradition that presidential candidates will publish a book prior to campaigning for the highest elected office. "A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.” ― John F. What happens to the country, to the world, depends on what we do with what others have left us". It is, as Robert Kennedy states in the foreword, "not just stories of the past but a hook of hope and confidence for the future. Taft.Īwarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1957, Profiles in Courage - now reissued, featuring a new introduction by Caroline Kennedy as well as Robert Kennedy's foreword written for the memorial edition of the volume in 1964 - resounds with timeless lessons on the most cherished of virtues and is a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit. These heroes include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, and Robert A. Kennedy, then a US senator, chose eight of his historical colleagues to profile for their acts of astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. And these are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States senators and the grace with which they endured them." (John F. 'Grace under pressure', Ernest Hemingway defined it. "This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues - courage.
