Fountaindale Public Library

The first Kennedys, the humble roots of an American dynasty, Neal Thompson

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-323) and index

collective biography

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index present

non fiction

The first Kennedys

bibliography

1224247015

Neal Thompson

the humble roots of an American dynasty

The iconic Kennedys are known for their political power, wealth, and style. For generations, they were America's royal family. But before the remarkable assents of JFK, RFK, and others, and long before the myth of "Camelot," there was the poor Irish refugee couple who escaped famine to start a new life in a city hostile to Irish, immigrants, and Catholics. Patrick and Bridget arrived penniless, hungry, and hopeful, like many mid-1800s immigrants. They met, married, and had five children together, losing their firstborn son as an infant. Three years later, Patrick got sick and died of consumption. This left Bridget to raise four children single-handedly in the slums of East Boston, the island across from Boston proper that was thick with poor Irish newcomers. Showing uncommonly shrewd business acumen, Bridget rose from housemaid to hairdresser to shop owner. Her success in the face of rampant poverty and discrimination kept her family intact, clearing a path for her surviving son, Patrick Joseph, or P.J., to make his own extraordinary ascent from dockworker to saloonkeeper to banker, becoming the first Kennedy elected to public office and a highly influential powerbroker - the first of many. P.J.'s political power capped a phenomenal trajectory made possible by the tenacious and strong-willed Bridget, the overlooked Kennedy matriarch. Written by the grandson of an Irish immigrant couple and based on first-ever access to P.J. Kennedy's private papers, The First Kennedys is a story of sacrifice and survival, resistance and reinvention: an American story

adult