Description: In his new book, Michael J. Hogan, a leading historian of the American presidency, offers a new perspective on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, as seen not from his life and times but from his afterlife in American memory. The Afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy considers how Kennedy constructed a popular image of himself, in effect, a brand, as he played the part of president on the White House stage. The cultural trauma brought on by his assassination further burnished that image and began the process of transporting Kennedy from history to memory. Hogan shows how Jacqueline Kennedy, as the chief guardian of her husband's memory, devoted herself to embedding the image of the slain president in the collective memory of the nation, evident in the many physical and literary monuments dedicated to his memory. Regardless of critics, most Americans continue to see Kennedy as his wife wanted him remembered: the charming war hero, the loving husband and father, and the peacemaker and progressive leader who inspired confidence and hope in the American people.
Brief description: Michael J. Hogan is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Springfield, and Emeritus Professor of History at the Ohio State University. Past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Hogan served for fifteen years as editor of Diplomatic History, the journal of record for scholars of American foreign relations and national security studies. He is the author or editor of ten books, notably his prize-winning history The Marshall Plan (Cambridge, 1987) and A Cross of Iron (Cambridge, 1998), his book on the origins of the national security state, and he has written numerous essays and articles in leading professional journals, including The American Historical Review and The Journal of American History.
Review Quotes: 'This is a fabulous book on the 'Kennedy brand, ' and its most meaningful ingredient - JFK himself. Michael J. Hogan is able to show how remembering the former US president in the decades after his death, was not just a matter of political and historical commemoration. Instead, it became an orchestrated effort to create and run a marketable product-person, complete with the continuous repetition of specific characteristics (JFK's style); the link between product and recognition; principal customer orientation and continuous adaptation of the product to contemporary audiences; and the creation of a distinctive 'corporate identity' where assistants and employees (in this case: the Kennedy clan members and officials) were and continue to be required to 'live' the brand. There is a history of political person branding to be written and Hogan shows us how and why.' Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Free University of Berlin