John F. Kennedy

Vivid, gripping and surreal: a new slice of Ellroy madness

23 September 2023 9:00 am

A labyrinthine plot involving Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy clan form the basis of the latest in James Ellroy’s planned new ‘LA Quintet’

The sexploits of Mariella Novotny

26 June 2021 9:00 am

Orgies! Gangsters! Drugs! Spies! Scandals! This biography promises much but I’m not sure it actually delivers, or not in any…

How the third world war was narrowly averted

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Nuclear weapons carry a payload of cold logic: if both sides have them, neither will ever use them. But in…

nixon

Richard Nixon took the high road in 1960. Donald Trump should now

7 November 2020 6:58 am

‘You gotta swallow this one, they stole it fair and square.’ That’s a Republican hack speaking to Richard Nixon, as…

The magic of JFK remains undimmed

12 September 2020 9:00 am

It’s easy to forget that John F. Kennedy lived such a short life. At 43, he was the second youngest…

democrats

The Democrats have learned nothing in four years

19 August 2020 3:31 pm

On night two of the Democratic National Convention, Jack Schlossberg, son of Carolyn Kennedy and grandson of President John F.…

Gore Vidal, wannabe aristocrat and proud degenerate

5 September 2015 9:00 am

History for Gore Vidal was a vehicle to be ridden in triumph, perhaps as in an out-take from Ben-Hur, which…

From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major, the truth is often very strange

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…

All Worsthorne’s men: Hoover, surprisingly nice; Truman, smiling until Perry spoke; Eisenhower, who mocked his name; Kennedy, a hero; LBJ, a boor; Nixon, a friend; Reagan; and the first Bush

Bourbon from Bush, envy from Nixon… and running into Herbert Hoover: encounters with eight presidents

25 October 2014 9:00 am

Encounters with leaders of the free world – as a journalist, as a friend, and as a boy running in the hallway

Why is Doris Kearns Goodwin raking up old muck?

14 December 2013 9:00 am

Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era are well-worn subjects for both professional and amateur historians, so it’s pertinent to ask…