OLLI101307 - OLLI EXTRA - The Ambassador: Joseph P Kennedy at the Court of St. James, 1938-40

Course Description

OLLI Extra - The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James's, 1938-1940

Author: Susan Ronald
Friday, August 6 from 10:00AM - 11:00AM
(Registration closes August 5 at NOON)

About the author: Born and raised in the United States, Susan Ronald is a British-American biographer, historian, and author of several books, including Condé Nast, A Dangerous Woman, Hitler's Art Thief, and Heretic Queen. This will be Susan's four appearance at OLLI.

Susan will be talking about her new book, The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James's, 1938-1940, where she examines the truth behind Joseph P. Kennedy's deeply controversial tenure as Ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II. The book is a thorough and utterly readable account that is sure to generate attention and controversy.

Through meticulous research and many newly available sources, Ronald confirms in impressive detail what has long been believed by many: that Kennedy was a Fascist sympathizer and an anti-Semite whose only loyalty was to his family's advancement. Believing firmly that Fascism was the inevitable wave of the future, he consistently misrepresented official US foreign policy internationally as well as direct instructions from FDR himself. The Americans were the first to disown him and the British and the Nazis used Kennedy to their own ends.

Ronald also reveals the ambitions of the Kennedy dynasty during this period abroad, as they sought to enter the world of high society London and establish themselves as America's first family.