Raffish Royalty

The author, a biographer of Dr. Spock, describes the Irish Catholicism of five generations of Kennedys, whose influence on American religion paralleled Spock’s influence on American children. Maier had full access to the Joseph P. Kennedy papers, and his book is fascinating, if neither novel nor edifying, in linking the “emerald thread” of ethnic and religious attitudes to various political matters. For the first time, an author was granted use of private photographs, among them “swims along the Cape” and “kissing the Blarney Stone,” both of which activities would be engaged in by the Kennedys in later life, with varying results.

This book could have been good at half the length, but, like Madame Recamier, Maier does not seem to have had the time to write something shorter. Six hundred pages allow for a lot of compelling, if sometimes speculative, material along with redundancy and misinformation. A history as dramatic and important as that of Ireland deserves more freedom from cliché; also, the historian should know the difference between Plantagenets and Tudors, and not be under the impression that Oliver Cromwell lived during the reign of Charles II.

FG

About the Author

Fr. George W. Rutler

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The author, a biographer of Dr. Spock, describes the Irish Catholicism of five generations of Kennedys, whose influence on American religion paralleled Spock’s influence on American children. Maier had full access to the Joseph P. Kennedy papers, and his book is fascinating, if neither novel nor edifying, in linking the “emerald thread” of ethnic and religious attitudes to various political matters. For the first time, an author was granted use of private photographs, among them “swims along the Cape” and “kissing the Blarney Stone,” both of which activities would be engaged in by the Kennedys in later life, with varying results.

This book could have been good at half the length, but, like Madame Recamier, Maier does not seem to have had the time to write something shorter. Six hundred pages allow for a lot of compelling, if sometimes speculative, material along with redundancy and misinformation. A history as dramatic and important as that of Ireland deserves more freedom from cliché; also, the historian should know the difference between Plantagenets and Tudors, and not be under the impression that Oliver Cromwell lived during the reign of Charles II.