Harvard professor Fredrik Logevall has spent seven years combing through material unused or unseen by previous biographers, searching for and piecing together the 'real' John F. Kennedy. The magisterial result is a sweeping two-volume biography that, for the first time, paints the full picture of JFK and of his role in the international events of the twentieth century. This first volume spans the first thirty-nine years of his life, from sickly second son of a wartime ambassador to Britain and politics-obsessed mother, through playboy Harvard undergraduate, bestselling author and World War II hero, to young Senator—ending with his decision to run for president. In chronicling Kennedy's extraordinary life and times, with authority and novelistic sensibility—putting the reader in every room where it happened—this landmark work offers the clearest portrait we have of one of the most fascinating figures in history, who still inspires individuals around the world.