Ask Not
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Political
4.7
Maureen Callahan
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | #1 SUNDAY TIMES (UK) BESTSELLER "The must-read book of the summer" (Megyn Kelly) from New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan: a "harrowing, incendiary" exposé of the real Kennedy Curse—the family’s generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem (Karen Abbott). The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation’s wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys’ hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty’s story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren’t nearly as well known but should be. Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys’ orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.One of Town & Country’s Must-Read Books of Summer 2024
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More Details:
Author
Maureen Callahan
Pages
400
Publisher
Little, Brown
Published Date
2024-07-02
ISBN
0316276421 9780316276429
Community ReviewsSee all
"From the writer of American Predator, this the story of the famed Kennedy family and how so often the women in their lives end up traumatized and sometimes even dead. Quite a wild story but the book was just sort of odd to me. It’s kind of like a big tabloid story. I never thought the Kennedys has a good reputation to begin with and most of this was common knowledge. If you aren’t familiar it will be crazy to read, although it’s hard to follow with all the jumping around. I think if it had more focus it could have been better."
Sheldon Rapoza
"A fascinating book that demythologizes the legacy of the Kennedy family and reshapes popular opinion on the women they harmed. Reading about RFK Jr.’s life long sense of entitlement, his gaslighting of second wife Mary Richardson and his cruel dismissal of her that continued after her death, proves the carefully crafted myth of “Camelot” needs to be replaced with a truer, warts and all, portrayal. "
Brooke Galbreath