essays on jfk

JFK's Very Revealing Harvard Application Essay

At 17 years old, the future president seemed to understand that the value of an elite education is in the status it offers.

John F. Kennedy is one of the most mythologized figures in contemporary American history. At age 17, though, he was just a kid trying to get into college (a kid with a wealthy, famous father, of course).

The Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has a digitized version of Kennedy's 1935 Harvard application, which includes his grades and his response to the essay prompt, "Why do you wish to come to Harvard?" Here's how the future president answered:

The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college , but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "Harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain. April 23, 1935 John F. Kennedy

Business Insider dismisses the essay for being five sentences long (I'm not sure how much more he could have written given the space) and implies that his answer wasn't carefully considered. That's probably true—Kennedy's grades show that he wasn't an especially good student in high school, and there's not much evidence that he took his education seriously at this point in his life. Plus, as Gawker points out , Kennedy wrote nearly exactly the same essay for his Princeton application.

Still, Kennedy's essay shows a profound, if implicit, understanding of the primary value of attending an elite school: status and personal connections, rather than mastery of academic skills and knowledge. Notice that he only makes one mention of the education he'd receive at Harvard—a passing reference to the school's superior "liberal education." The rest of the paragraph focuses on the the non-academic benefits: having a "better background," sharing the same alma mater with his dad, and enjoying the "enviable distinction" of being a Harvard Man.

And it is, indeed, an enviable distinction. Harvard has produced eight United States presidents, more than any other school. The school's website has a whole section devoted to all the alumni who've won Nobel prizes. Two of its dropouts are among the richest people in America. Whether these glories are due to the school's excellent education or its impressive alumni network and name recognition, who knows? But Kennedy clearly thought he knew the answer.

Help inform the discussion

John F. Kennedy: Life in Brief

John F. Kennedy was born into a rich, politically connected Boston family of Irish-Catholics. He and his eight siblings enjoyed a privileged childhood of elite private schools, sailboats, servants, and summer homes. During his childhood and youth, “Jack” Kennedy suffered frequent serious illnesses. Nevertheless, he strove to make his own way, writing a best-selling book while still in college at Harvard University and volunteering for hazardous combat duty in the Pacific during World War II. Kennedy's wartime service made him a hero. After a short stint as a journalist, Kennedy entered politics, serving in the US House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 and the US Senate from 1953 to 1961.

Kennedy was the youngest person elected US president and the first Roman Catholic to serve in that office. For many observers, his presidency came to represent the ascendance of youthful idealism in the aftermath of World War II. The promise of this energetic and telegenic leader was not to be fulfilled, as he was assassinated near the end of his third year in office. For many Americans, the public murder of President Kennedy remains one of the most traumatic events in memory; countless Americans can remember exactly where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. His shocking death stood at the forefront of a period of political and social instability in the country and the world.

Marc J. Selverstone

Associate Professor of History Miller Center, University of Virginia

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• The Speech – The Politician’s Poetry
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• Selected Speeches
• Development of the Poet
• Robert Frost, The Teacher
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• Frost’s Legacy
• Selected Poems
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Winner of 1st Place in the 27th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards

“This is by far the coolest book I’ve ever read because of the parallel between a president and a writer. I love the authenticity that this book offers, as well as the rich history behind each entry. My favorite was the essay about going to Amherst College, how the author gave a declaration of disagreement at the beginning, and then gave a declaration of agreement at the end, which made for a very comical ending, even though the entry was very compelling… A beautiful tribute to two of America’s best-loved icons…”  –  Judge, 27th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.   December 2019

Outstanding. Excellently told and constructed story.

A tale of two giants of history, John F. Kennedy and Robert Frost, one representing the power of the spoken political word, the other the power of the written poetic word, both persons of deep conviction. JFK’s speech at the groundbreaking of the Robert Frost Library on October 26, 1963 at Amherst College was a seminal moment for the attending Amherst College classmates, one that continues to resonate today as they continue to pass on to future generations Kennedy’s call to social action and self-sacrifice. A supreme example of how benefits bestowed on a select few can lead to benefits for all humankind through personal interaction, sharing and mentoring. Though focused on a singular event from 1963, the impact of this event extends to countless acts of good works today and future days to come. The Amherst examples are inspiring, as is the book. – Review on Barnes and Noble

Advance Praise for JFK: The Last Speech

“When President Kennedy headed to Amherst College for a dedication ceremony, he might have expected to be a big voice in national affairs for decades to come. Instead, we got an unexpected valedictory, a statement of values at the end of a man’s life. In this book you’ll travel to a small town in Massachusetts in 1963, and see how this speech from JFK echoed through the lives of the young men there to hear it. Sometimes small events end up being big ones.”  — RAY SUAREZ, Journalist, author, visiting professor at Amherst College

“A heart-warming book that recreates for a new generation an optimistic young president honoring an aging poet’s art and combines youthful reactions of students who were there with mature stories from the paths they followed in their own creative lives.”  — ALICE M. RIVLIN, Senior fellow in Economic Studies and the Center for Health Policy at the Brookings Institute

“At a time when political morality, civility, and fidelity to a common destiny are brutally trampled, day by day, this volume on JFK’s call for the cultivation of civic virtue is welcome nourishment for our democracy. Kennedy’s final speech not only affirms the value of a liberal arts education as the seedbed for public service but serves as timely inspiration for Americans aching to restore and reclaim the American dream.” — HEDRICK SMITH, Author of Who Stole the American Dream?, executive editor of reclaimtheamericandream.org

“This book sounds a much-needed non-partisan call for public service and civic engagement.” — JAMES HARDING, Major General, USA (ret)

“JFK: The Last Speech is a project that could not have come to a boil at a more appropriate time in our nation’s history nor been presented in so compelling a way. At its heart it is a call to arms in the battle to preserve and enhance civic life, a challenge the project meets in film, on its website and—most ambitious—as a book. Essayists from academia, journalism, the arts, and from a distinguished array of the country’s deepest thinkers offer thoughts provoked by John F. Kennedy’s last speech. The speech reminds us what an inspiration a president can be and each of these essays proves it. It is a volume to be read, reread, and then read yet again.” — DOUG CLIFTON, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, former Executive Editor of the Miami Herald, and Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

“Over a half a century later, John F. Kennedy’s October 1963 visit to Amherst College still resonates. The many legacies of Kennedy’s soaring speech and brief appearance are captured wonderfully in these fascinating pages.” — ELLEN FITZPATRICK, Historian, specializing in modern American political and intellectual history. Author of nine books including Letters to Jackie and The Highest Glass Ceiling.

“The arrival of this documentary film, book and website could not be more timely. Our deeply divided nation needs more humanistic reflection, not less; more art, not less; more attempts to understand ourselves and each other, as we try to reach some agreement about what truly matters. That is what is championed in this outstanding collection of essays.” — DAVID TEBALDI, PhD. Executive Director of MassHumanities since 1985. Editor of Reflecting on Values, The Unity and Diversity of the Humanities. 2017 recipient of the Commonwealth Award for Leadership in improving civic life in Massachusetts.

A month before he died, President Kennedy gave a stirring speech to the students at Amherst College as he dedicated a library named for Robert Frost. JFK called that generation to lives of civic action that would be guided by the insights of liberal arts education and would challenge entrenched power appropriately. JFK: The Last Speech reissues his challenge to a nation that sorely needs it. The book is a rich, diverse, and moving collection of original materials from the dedication (and then memorial) events of the fall of 1963 at Amherst, stories of how the speech galvanized students in the audience to lead lives of civic commitment, and reflections on these themes by a set of distinguished commentators. The book is a civics course in a nutshell.” — HAROLD BRUFF, J.D. Former Dean of the University of Colorado Law School. Former senior attorney and advisor for the Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Dept. of Justice. Author of Untrodden Ground: How Presidents Interpret the Constitution (2015).

“In a time when the value of contributing to the common good must return to the political foreground, this book and the man it details serve as reminders of the power of service. JFK, the builder of the Peace Corps and the inspiration of a generation, is set as a model and challenger for current and future generations, posing the timeless and urgent question: “for what do we use our powers, or does power use us?” — ROSANNE HAGGERTY, Founder and CEO of Community Solutions; a leader in solving problems that create and sustain homelessness; MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Ashoka Senior Fellow, recipient of Jane Jacobs medal for New Ideas and Activism.

“Required reading for anyone who wants to learn about the power of words in providing political and civic leadership. President Kennedy mastered the art of language in conveying a timeless message about our nation and its highest principles. Like Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, he used language to reinforce our loftiest ideals.”  — KENNETH FEINBERG, Former Administrator of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, Former Chairman of the Board of Directors for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, author of What Is Life Worth? and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval.

“Politics and poetry are interwoven in this rich description of one of President John F. Kennedy’s last speeches, at the dedication of the Robert Frost Library, a month before his untimely assassination.

The personal interplay between Robert Frost and John F. Kennedy serves as a backdrop to a perceptive description of the interplay of the arts and modern day politics. JFK’s words, “Where power corrupts, poetry cleanses” still rings true today. This timely analysis of JFK’s last speech amid the background of 1963, remains timeless in its message and observations.” — The Honorable Thomas M. Davis III, Former Member of Congress (VA)

“The volume features pieces that reflect on Kennedy’s political legacy and the tumultuous times within which he governed and meditations on the core message of his speech—the profound significance of liberal education for a flourishing democracy.

The editors curate … illuminating essays on Frost’s career and his shifting relationship with Kennedy … and furnish a kaleidoscopic view of the event, its historical and political context, and personal ramifications. Some of the essays speak to the inspiration Kennedy provided….

The book crescendos into a discussion of the political significance of a liberal education, with commentary supplied by well-known luminaries, like journalist/author Fareed Zakaria and actor/director Robert Redford… Economist [and Amherst ’64 graduate] Joseph Stiglitz: after observing the ways in which college education will necessarily have to change in order to meet new fiscal realities and technological innovations, argues … the humanist core of a liberal arts education remains unchanged. It is the outgrowth of the Enlightenment, the view that through disciplined reasoning we can come to a better understanding of our world, of our society, and of ourselves.

All the relevant primary source documents are included as well, including Kennedy’s handwritten edits of the speech originally prepared by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.” — Kirkus Reviews. Read the full Kirkus Review

NOTE FROM CULLEN MURPHY

Chair of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College

  By the time I was an undergraduate, John F. Kennedy’s visit to the campus was a decade in the past.  And that decade had seemed like a century. But the visit itself remained fresh in many minds.  And the message can never be dimmed by age.  Has any president spoken more eloquently about the critical role of literature and the arts in the life of our republic?  Or about the critical responsibilities that go with privilege?  I use the word “critical” in all senses of that term.  To deliver this message at Amherst was especially appropriate – a college with a long tradition of service, one that would be revitalized by many of the students who heard Kennedy speak.  To hear Kennedy’s words—and to see the copy of the speech he revised by hand, which shows him to have been a superb literary craftsman—is to connect with a moment that transcends the conventional unfurling of time.  Amherst College is proud to congratulate all who played a part in creating JFK: The Last Speech.

Introduction to the book

The documentary film and book, JFK: The Last Speech , emerged from the 50th reunion project of the Amherst College Class of 1964. The film and book describe the background of Kennedy’s relationship with Robert Frost, the challenge President Kennedy presented to students at Amherst College, how some of those students responded over the following half-century, and the relevance and haunting irony that JFK’s words bring to the problems of now. When civic culture is fractured and the value of the liberal arts is questioned, this message from 1963 has particular resonance

For the first time in our American history, Kennedy invited a poet, Robert Frost, to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. Their relationship continued through most of JFK’s term, until a schism in the fall of 1962. Nonetheless, President Kennedy accepted an invitation to speak at a convocation at Amherst College to dedicate the Robert Frost Library. That speech, little noticed at the time, has since been recognized as Kennedy’s finest. We heard that speech firsthand; we wanted a new generation to hear those words. Our classmates’ stories show the impact that Kennedy’s speech —and College President Plimpton’s eulogy — had on our lives; these stories demonstrate how to put ideas into action. Finally, and more importantly, we wanted to show that Kennedy’s message is more relevant than ever before to contemporary life.

The first part of  the book,  JFK: The Last Speech , “October-November 1963,” introduce contemporary readers to both Robert Frost and John F. Kennedy and provide critical source documents: the text of Kennedy’s speech, his remarks at the groundbreaking, and Amherst president Calvin Plimpton’s brief eulogy for the fallen president on November 22, 1963. First-person accounts of the president’s visit from a variety of perspectives round out the story, and an annotated timeline adds the context of national and world events at the time.

In the second part, “Let us go and do the work he couldn’t complete,” the four individuals featured in the documentary film, Ted Nelson, Steve Downs, Gene Palumbo, and George Wanlass, tell their remarkably different stories in greater depth. Nelson, a lifelong activist, describes his experiences with the Peace Corps in rural Turkey; Downs, an attorney, recounts his efforts to bring justice to wrongly accused immigrants; Palumbo, who reports for the New York Times, witnesses the ravages of war on life in El Salvador; Wanlass, a rancher, tells of collecting the art of the American West for the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University. Seven additional classmates tell their stories as well; stories that illustrate the lifelong impact of Kennedy’s speech and Plimpton’s eulogy.

In the third and final part, “Poetry, Power, and Citizenship in the Modern World,” distinguished individuals have contributed their thoughts on the role of education and the liberal arts in our world today. Poets, artists, writers, political and religious leaders, all have been in the forefront of the effort to clarify our values. Jon Meacham examines Kennedy’s leadership; Jay Parini brings Frost’s poetry to a contemporary audience. Robert Redford graciously allowed us to reprint his essay, “Society’s Questioner,” and Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III gave us permission to reprint his remarks at Amherst College, October 28, 2017, at a symposium titled “Poetry and Politics: A Celebration of the Life and Legacy of President John F. Kennedy.”

These collected stories, from various perspectives, recall or revisit a towering speech. The reader can find the background of the Frost-Kennedy relationship and the words the audience heard, see the words in action over five decades, and then explore the lessons that they hold for us today.

If these stories — the memories of one fall day and a presidential speech, the lives our classmates lived, and the reflections of historians and scholars — stimulate well-informed, civil, serious discussions and renewed civic engagement, then we have done what we set out to do.

On April 9, 1963, President Kennedy issued a presidential proclamation that made Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States. In that proclamation, Kennedy stated that Churchill “… mobilized the English Language and sent it into battle.” In the spirit of John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill, in our own modest efforts to bring light to darkness, we send our words into the breach. — Ted Nelson, Roger Mills

“I look forward to an America, which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well.”

— President Kennedy at Amherst College

JFK: The Last Speech

Edited by neil bicknell, roger mills and jan worth-nelson.

NOTE FROM CULLEN MURPHY: Chair of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College

FOREWARD: “Poetry and Politics” — Biddy Martin, President of Amherst College

INTRODUCTION: Ted Nelson, ’64, Roger Mills, ’64, and Reunion ’64

PART 1: Fall 1963 on Campus.

CHAPTER 1: One Fall Day: Frost and Kennedy — Roger Mills, ’64

CHAPTER 2: Robert Frost: The Poet as Educator — Paul Dimond, ’66 and Roger Mills, ’64

CHAPTER 3: Those Who Were There — Vignettes

Cheering Loudly, Fearing Quietly — James T. Giles, ’64

The Vigil Outside Kirby — Mitch Meisner, ’64

Noises Off — Chatland Whitmore, ’64

The President and the Poet — Mark J. Sandler, ’64

Kennedy Has Been Shot — Robert Knox, ’64

Communal Guilt? — David Pearle, ’64

Do the Work He Couldn’t Complete — Rip Sparks, ’64

CHAPTER 4: Kennedy on Campus

The Convocation Address — John F. Kennedy, October 26,1963

The President’s Remarks at the Library Groundbreaking

Frost and Stone: The Convocation Address — Archibald Macleish

President Plimpton’s Address to the College

Poetry, Stalinism, and the Cuban Missile Crisis — Stewart L. Udall

JFK’S HANDWRITTEN EDITS to the Speech Drafted by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

CHAPTER 5: Annotated Timeline — Rip Sparks, ’64

PART 2: Doing the Work He Couldn’t Complete.

CHAPTER 6: The Life of an Activist — Ted Nelson, ’64

CHAPTER 7: Truth to Power — Steve Downs, ’64

CHAPTER 8: Given to Me — Gene Palumbo, ’64

CHAPTER 9: “With Privilege Goes Responsibility” — George Wanlass, ’64

CHAPTER 10: Carrying the Torch — Vignettes

My Year in Vietnam with MILPHAP Team 20 — Thomas P. Jacobs, ’64

From Art History to Biomedical Research — Doug Lowy, ’64

A Continuing Journey –Pat Deleon, ’64

Kennedy, the Liberal Arts, and My Path — Paul Stern, ’64

You Go to Amherst College. Period. — Stephen Eaton Smith, ’64

Late Bloomer — Don Lombardi, ’64

Meeting Kennedy’s Challenge in the Private Sector — Steve Drotter, ’64

Privilege and Responsibility — Jesse Brill, ’64

“The World We Inherited; The World We Will Bequeath” and What We Can Do About It — Charles Stover, ’64

Part 3: Looking Backward with pride … forward with hope.

CHAPTER 11: The President and the Poet

On Arts and Politics — Joseph Kennedy III

Frost and Kennedy on Poetry and Power in a Democracy — Robert Benedetti, ’64

A Witness to History Robert Frost and Jack Kennedy, Then and Now — Paul Dimond, ’66

CHAPTER 12: A Lover’s Quarrel

Robert Frost and the Nature of New England — Jay Parini

Poetry, Power and High School English — David Stringer, ’64

The Cultural Implications of Post-1970 Art: End of The Enlightenment? — Bradford R. Collins, ’64 (See with art referenced)

CHAPTER 13: Lifting the Human Spirit

When a President Dared to Go to Amherst — Nicholas Zeppos

Society’s Questioner — Robert Redford

The Touchstone of Our Judgment — Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein

CHAPTER 14: Aspirational Leadership

The World of Thought and the Seat of Power: The Leadership of John F. Kennedy — Jon Meacham

The Personal Presidency: John F. Kennedy’s Legacy — Mickey Edwards

My Dream for America: A New Generation of Leadership — Steven Olikara

CHAPTER 15: “A College Such as This”

What is the Earthly Use of a Liberal Arts Education?– Fareed Zakaria

Liberal Arts: The Acquisition of Languages– Mark J. Sandler, ’64

Addressing Inequality: Education for the Information Age– Joseph Stiglitz, ’64

Answering President Kennedy’s Challenge — Dakota Foster, ’18

AFTERWORD: The Solace from Well-Chosen Words — Bestor Cram

APPENDIX A: Discussion Questions on Kennedy, Frost and Civic Engagement

APPENDIX B: Peace Corps Service — Amherst Class of 1964

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A golden age of poetry and power

Of which this noonday’s the beginning hour..

—Robert Frost, “Dedication”

The people of this countryside, may forget in ordinary human course what anyone says on this occasion, but they will remember for many, many years that a young and gallant president of the United States, with the weight of history heavy upon his shoulders, somehow found time to come to our small corner of the world to talk of books and men and learning.

—Archibald MacLeish  

An essential quality of the learned then is generosity of the soul, for without it, knowledge becomes a tool for control and even oppression.

— Farzam Arbab, BA (physics) magna cum laude Amherst, 1964; PhD (elementary particle physics) University of California, Berkley, 1968: DSc (hon), Amherst, 1989. Knowledge and Civilization

Photo Credits:

1964 Classmates at 50th Reunion. Judy Bicknell photo.

Robert Frost at the Podium. Courtesy of University of Arizona Libraries, Stewart L. Udall Papers, az 372, box 105, with permission of the Robert Frost Estate.

JFK at Convocation. Courtesy of the Amherst College Archives and Speial Collections, Amherst College Library

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False Mystery: Essays on the Assassination of JFK Hardcover – June 1, 2004

• Print length 213 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Square Deal Press
• Publication date June 1, 2004
• ISBN-10 0975494104
• ISBN-13 978-0975494103
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From the inside flap.

Salandria is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia and an avid tennis player. Nicknamed "Hank" for his boyhood admiration of slugger Hank Greenberg, his favorite baseball team remains the Detroit Tigers.

About the Author

Salandria is a former ACLU lawyer and is presently an attorney in the Philadelphia school system, a position he has held since 1967.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

So, the Commission ignored all of the above in so far as the evidence reveals auditory, visual, and olfactory stimuli reception incompatible with the source of shots exclusively from the Book Depository Building. Needless to say, this aforementioned evidence does not rule out additional shots having been fired from the building in question. But it certainly supports the conclusion that one or more shots originated from the tree and fence area north of Elm Street.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Square Deal Press; First Edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 213 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0975494104
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0975494103
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
• Best Sellers Rank: #3,691,777 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books )

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John F. Kennedy Assassination Essay

Introduction, works cited.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination is considered to be one of the most mysterious events in the history of the United States of America. The date — November 22, 1963 — is known to everyone as a shocking and tragic day. It was found out that the gunman who shot John F. Kennedy (JFK) was Lee Harvey Oswald. There are a lot of theories why he did it, who were his companions, and what was the reason for the murder. John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Some scholars consider that there are no conspiracy theories. All of them are nothing else but just hoaxes. Researchers prefer to believe that the only conspiracy may be the fact that a small number of organizations rule the whole world (Marshall 1). Nevertheless, the reality shows that conspiracy theories do exist and that they are controversial. Conspiracy theories are easy to claim, but it is also difficult to dethrone them. Some people consider them to be simply entertainment. The word “conspiracy” means something secret, a hidden plan to conduct an illegal activity (Goertzel par.11).

The conspiracy theory of the JFK assassination may be further subdivided into many branches. Every separate branch represents a particular version of who, how, and what for has organized the crime. The number of culprits is immense. The list has been filled up for almost fifty years. The details of John F. Kennedy’s death were unknown, and they were turned into speculations and conspiracies immediately after the shot. A lot of reporters were eager to write the best reporting in their lives. That is why they started investigating and finding out what were the possible theories. They were the founders of the whole culture and cult, which entwined the assassination (George 136).

The Central Intelligence Agency belongs to the group of one of the most popular suspects. This version was developed based on the intense relations between the President and the director of the CIA of those times — Allen W. Dulles. The theory came into existence because John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, thought at first that the CIA handled the assassination. However, he changed his mind later. The aim of the CIA under Dulles was to fight and win the leadership in some of the foreign countries (Iran or Guatemala, for instance). The means of achieving goals were mainly armed attacks. When Kennedy became the president, everything became different. He preferred more diplomatic ways and at the same time, Kennedy was not absolutely against the CIA’s actions. The first great division of interests took place when Kennedy refused to support the Bay of Pigs invasion, the primary target of which was Fidel Castro. Dulles’ failure cost him his position. It was also noted, that once John F. Kennedy made a statement in a New York Times, introducing the idea that he would break the CIA into thousands of pieces. Thus, it would be no surprise that the CIA would choose its method of doing things and getting rid of a person, who stood in their way (Burgos 1). It is only one part of the conspiracy theory surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Leroy Fletcher Prouty was a Chief of Special Operations under Kennedy’s presidency. He was the colonel of the US Armed Forces. After Party had retired, he became a critic of the foreign policy of the U.S. He also made a significant claim about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Colonel Fletcher Pourty had a real knowledge of what was going on in the government. He acknowledged that the President was killed because of his policies concerning Vietnam. John F. Kennedy was a wise man, who understood that the invasion of Vietnam would become a disaster. Unfortunately, he was the only one who thought so among other officials.

John F. Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum 263, the central point of which was the total withdrawal of the U.S. military groups and all other personnel from Vietnam by 1965. This order did not coincide with the interests of the military and the CIA officials. That is why, according to Prouty’s claim, an organized group was formed to remove Kennedy from his position. The Vietnam War was an extremely profitable operation. The United States could not afford to start a large-scale war in the age of nuclear weapons. The only possible decision was starting a small, unimportant one for the rest of the world war. There was no significant object or city in Vietnam, the siege of which might have led to the declaration of a great war. Such activity is also called “stateless terrorism.” One can only imagine how Vietnam could resist a highly developed U.S. Armed Forces. John F. Kennedy understood all of this and was against those policies. Military commanders urged Kennedy several times to change his policies, but the President constantly refused (Prouty 8). Probably, he had to pay his life for this decision.

The conspiracy theory of the CIA involvement in the JFK assassination still lacks one part — the connection with the gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. He may be regarded as the last constituent of this jigsaw puzzle. The most important question was whether Oswald was the CIA agent. According to Newman, Oswald has always been interested Central Intelligence Agency since he defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and till the end of his life. Of course, the CIA officials refused the claim that Oswald was somehow connected with the agency. On the contrary, the testimony of James Willcott, the CIA finance officer, proved the fact that a kind of relations took place (Newman 12). During the time spent in USSR, Lee Harvey Oswald might become a KGB agent, or just interested in communist ideas.

The conspiracy theory under consideration should be thought of as a controversial one. The claim that the JFK assassination was organized by the CIA is of great significance. That is why it was impossible to prove it. In my opinion, the creators of this theory were looking for success and popularity. On the other hand, there could be a significant number of other ways to present the assassination. Such facts as Prourty’s evidence, Willcott’s testimony, and the simple observation of history make one think that the claim may be right.

There is no doubt that such statements are made with special purposes. Maybe some researcher has been looking for truth, and that is the main reason why the JFK assassination conspiracy theory exists. The CIA has its enemies as well. Probably such avouchment should have undermined the CIA’s reputation.

In my opinion, too many years have already passed to find out the truth. The described conspiracy theory has the right to existence, but I will not affirm that it represents the truth.

Burgos, Evan 2013, An inside job: CIA a suspect for some in JFK’s killing . Web.

George, Alice. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American Memory , London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Goertzel, Ted. “The Conspiracy Meme.” Skeptical Inquirer 35.1 (2011): n.pag. Web. 2015.

Marshall, Andrew 2012, No Conspiracy Theory — A Small Group of Companies Have Enormous Power over the World. 2015. Web.

Newman, John. Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth About the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK , New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013. Print.

Prourty, Leroy Fletcher. JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy , New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013. Print.

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — Presidents of the United States — John F. Kennedy

Essays on John F. Kennedy

The choice of john f. kennedy essay topics.

When it comes to writing an essay about John F. Kennedy, there are countless topics to choose from. Whether you're interested in his presidency, his policies, or his personal life, there's no shortage of material to explore. In this article, we'll discuss the importance of the topic, provide advice on choosing a topic, and list recommended essay topics, divided by category.

John F. Kennedy was a pivotal figure in American history. As the 35th President of the United States, he faced a number of significant challenges, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Civil Rights Movement. His presidency was marked by both triumph and tragedy, and his legacy continues to influence politics and society to this day. By studying and writing about Kennedy, students can gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of leadership, the impact of historical events, and the enduring power of charisma and vision.

When choosing a topic for your essay, it's important to consider your interests and the specific aspects of Kennedy's life and presidency that you find most compelling. Are you interested in his foreign policy, his domestic agenda, or his personal life? Are there specific events or decisions that you find particularly intriguing? By choosing a topic that resonates with you, you'll be more motivated to conduct thorough research and produce a thoughtful and engaging essay.

Recommended John F. Kennedy Essay Topics

Presidential leadership.

• The Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy's handling of the standoff with the Soviet Union
• The Bay of Pigs Invasion: Assessing the success and failures of the operation
• The Civil Rights Movement: Kennedy's role in advancing civil rights legislation
• The Space Race: Kennedy's commitment to landing a man on the moon

Domestic Policy

• The New Frontier: Evaluating Kennedy's legislative priorities and accomplishments
• Economic Policy: Analyzing Kennedy's approach to taxes, spending, and economic growth
• Healthcare Reform: Exploring Kennedy's efforts to expand access to healthcare
• Education Initiatives: Assessing Kennedy's impact on education policy

Foreign Policy

• The Vietnam War: Examining Kennedy's decisions and strategy in Southeast Asia
• The Alliance for Progress: Assessing Kennedy's efforts to promote economic development in Latin America
• The Berlin Crisis: Kennedy's response to the construction of the Berlin Wall
• The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: Evaluating Kennedy's pursuit of nuclear disarmament

Personal Life and Legacy

• The Kennedy Family: Exploring the dynamics and influence of the Kennedy family
• Assassination Conspiracy Theories: Investigating the various theories surrounding Kennedy's assassination
• Public Perception: Analyzing how Kennedy's image and legacy have evolved over time
• Impact on American Culture: Examining Kennedy's influence on art, literature, and popular culture

These are just a few examples of the many possible essay topics related to John F. Kennedy. Whether you're interested in his presidency, his policies, or his personal life, there's no shortage of material to explore. By choosing a topic that resonates with you, conducting thorough research, and crafting a well-structured and thoughtful essay, you can gain a deeper understanding of this influential figure in American history.

Kennedy Vs. Lincoln: Parallel Lives Examined

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The Influence of The Cold War Concerns on The Vietnam Policy of President Kennedy

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Released on the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, this an expanded digital edition of False Mystery: Essays on the Assassination of JFK by Vincent J. Salandria, edited by John Kelin.

The book cover is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin of Pierre De Wissant, a man who chose to sacrifice himself in the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War to save his town from destruction. He was one in a group of six that Rodin was commissioned in 1884 by the Major of Calais, France to create a monument for as a tribute to the citizens of the French port town.[ † ][ ‡ ] Photograph by Joe Green .

Articles and Research on the JFK Assassination by David W. Mantik M.D, Ph.D.

Announcement:.

Please note that the title of this book has been changed to THE JFK ASSASSINATION DECODED: Criminal Forgery in the Autopsy Photographs and X-rays . Several ardent supporters of my book have suggested that my original title was too banal—and also misleadingly benign. The new title is no longer benign—and it is surely more uncompromising. David W. Mantik January 9. 2023

It concerns the conclusions (after 30 years) on the Scope of the 1963 Taxpayer-Supported Cover-up: the Windshield is a Paradigm...

Download the JFK Pending Tasks at NARA document here

New Book Reviews

Astounding, from other countries, paradoxes unpacked in the mantik panoply, the capstone to a lifetime of research into the jfk assassination medical evidence, click here to read more reviews, about dr. david mantik.

David W. Mantik, MD, PhD is a radiation oncologist from Rancho Mirage, CA, USA. He received his doctorate in physics from the University of Wisconsin and then did a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Next came a tenure-track faculty position in physics at the University of Michigan, after which he left for medical school at the same institution. After internship and residency in radiation oncology at the LAC/USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, he joined the faculty at the Loma Linda University, where he held a fellowship from the American Cancer Society.

For over 40 years, he has treated cancer patients with X-rays, electrons, and protons. This requires meticulous knowledge of both external and internal anatomy—in the only medical specialty in which this is critical (or else tumors will be missed). In 1993, he visited the National Archives on four separate days to examine the autopsy X-rays and photographs. Altogether he has visited nine times over multiple years. Whilst there he used a technique called optical densitometry—to study the X-rays.

This technique has been available for many years but had never been applied to the JFK autopsy X-rays. It measures the transmission of ordinary light through selected points of the X-ray film. In principle, by using thousands of such points, a three-dimensional topographic map of the X-rays could be constructed. The higher points on this map would represent the blackest areas of the X-ray film and would correspond to areas in the body where the most X-rays had struck the film.

Such a map would be much richer in its details. For a normal human skull, the range of peaks and valleys on such a map should fall within a well-defined range. Any exceptional values—and especially those that lay unnaturally far outside would raise questions of authenticity. Based on three powerful clues from the extant autopsy X-rays at NARA, this data shows that the three skull X-rays are copies and that each one has been critically altered. One change was done quite specifically to incriminate Oswald. For further discussion, see his e-book, JFK’s Head Wounds.

Here are his comments about historians.

Between 1994 and 1998, the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) processed for release approximately 60,000 JFK assassination documents. Read More

David Mantik Presentation The National-Security State and the Kennedy Assassination

After my lecture ends, go to about 1:30 for the video testimony of chief autopsy pathologist, James Humes, MD, before the HSCA, where he lied about the entry wound site on the back of JFK's head.

There is a blank segment of several minutes before that, which occurred while we tried to activate the video, so skip that useless part.

During the QandA, I forgot to look at the camera--so my apologies. I suspect I was distracted by the moderator's image in a corner of my screen.

David Mantik

Re: A Prosecutor [Bugliosi] Takes on the JFK Assassination

March 25, 2009 [email protected]

Letters to the Editor:

Sheldon M. Stern is now “absolutely convinced” that Vincent Bugliosi got it right—Oswald alone killed JFK. Inexplicably, though, Stern admits that Bugliosi “does not pretend to be objective.” Every issue of Skeptic Magazine state: “Skepticism is a provisional approach to claims. It is the application of reason to any and all ideas… It is a method, not a position.” So why has Skeptic abruptly abandoned skepticism in the JFK case? Stern quotes two prominent “researchers” as asking Bugliosi what would convince him of conspiracy. Bugliosi’s reply: “Only evidence.” The person who asked that question was me. In my view, Bugliosi can recite the correct sound bites, but he fails utterly to deliver. (See my online review — “Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi: A Not-Entirely-Positive Review.” ) At his request, I gave Vince a laundry list of critical issues. ( Twenty Conclusions after Nine Visits ) Nonetheless, he chose to evade them. That is not merely my opinion. During several phone calls to me, initiated by Vince, he advised me that I was the only reviewer he had contacted. He also volunteered that he should have paid more attention. Of course, none of that is in print. All that remains is my glowing dust cover praise of his prosecutorial skills. Vince simply cannot stop playing prosecutor. But that is exactly what this case no longer needs. What it does need (especially the Oswald evidence) is a thorough-going skeptic, for which Vince has no professional preparation (nor does Stern).

My review cites The Two Cultures (1959) by C.P. Snow (a physicist): there is an unbridgeable chasm between the sciences and the arts (or in this case, between science and the law). My background in both physics (Ph.D.) and medicine (certified by the American Board of Radiology) permitted me to play the skeptic to the hilt. For example, any disciple of the Warren Commission (Stern included) is required to pledge allegiance to the following;

• Bugliosi believes that JFK was struck high on the posterior skull. Therefore, he must also believe that all three pathologists—and the radiologist—were wrong by 4 inches (sic).

• He must next believe that an internal cross section of this bullet (6.5 mm diameter) was sliced out, descended 1 cm lower and lodged near his entry site. (The nose and tail of this bullet were supposedly found inside the limo.)

• In addition, he must believe that the trail of metallic debris still lay well above his entry site. No ballistics expert has ever seen so much nonsense from one bullet (Murder in Dealey Plaza, edited by James Fetzer, p. 400).

Even worse, the congressional ballistics expert, Larry Sturdivan, has insisted that the 6.5 mm object could not be an authentic metal fragment, thereby depriving the official investigations of their chief linchpin. My optical density data (from the extant JFK X-rays) now explain why no one saw this bizarre object during the autopsy. To highlight this farce, my then six-year-old son immediately identified this object (in photos of the X-ray)—without any prompting.

So, who is the true skeptic—the prosecutor who tilts second-hand data to fit his pre-ordained case, or the scientist with hundreds of first-hand data points (on the extant JFK X-rays), who has also performed appropriate control experiments?

The interested reader can consult Skeptic magv6n4: “JFK—Case Still Open” by Arthur Snyder (another physicist). He can also peruse an entire raft of new books—Brothers by David Talbot; Oswald and the CIA (updated) by John Newman; JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglas; and Breach of Trust by Gerald D. McKnight. Meanwhile, for the medical evidence, we all await the magnum opus by Douglas P. Horne, an insider at the Assassination Records Review Board (and a somber skeptic).

In summary, Stern is hopelessly, and astonishingly, mired in the remote past and seems quaintly obsessed with a work of fiction—a movie of all things. The true skeptic can do far better. And so, can the editors of Skeptic Magazine.

These comments (see below) have been de-activated--because they violated "community standards."

James Moore must have inside knowledge: The JFK murder conspiracy is like QAnon

See Article

Moore: Government papers have been released, ballistics experts and, yes, physicists, have looked at the evidence and concluded that the fatal bullet came from the Texas Book Depository building.

MANTIK: I had not known this. It is amazing what one can learn from a Journalist who cannot cite a single fact. Virtually every expert I know has concluded exactly the opposite. Moore really should share his Incontrovertible sources with us.

Moore: It has become increasingly hard for the woman or the man in the street to discern between genuine scandal and partisan hokum whipped up for political purposes.

MANTIK: I already knew this, but I also knew that Journalists—inevitably with no training in physics or in medicine were equally Ignorant.

Moore: The “fact” is that this case, at its core, is backed by little more than the “feeling” that one man simply couldn’t have, on his own, changed history as Oswald did.

MANTIK: This is the first I’ve learned that my optical density measurements were so deeply affected by my “feelings.” it is also astonishing to learn that for nearly 30 years I have missed this. likewise, it is enlightening to learn that every single one of my fellow warren commission critics (many with PhDs and MDs) were also overwhelmed by their mere “feelings.”

MANTIK: Is this the same Jim Moore (or perhaps his son) who wrote this lone assassin book? Conspiracy of One: The Definitive Book on the Kennedy Assassination by Jim Moore

A long list of "Believers in a JFK Conspiracy" can be found in Murder in Dealey Plaza here (page 404) :

John Barbour

Today, John Barbour and I were together on a 5-person panel for CAPA. Here

His film is absolutely marvelous—jam packed with rare historical footage and ancient interviews. Here

A Meeting of the Minds

Included in this video the JFK Assassination autopsy research is discussed. The panel consists of Dr. Mike Chesser, Dr. David Mantik , William Matson Law and James C. Jenkins. Filmed on location in Dallas, TX Go Here to watch .

Black OP radio

David recently featured on Black Op Radion Listen here

Responce to show from Jefferey Roger Sundberg

Great work - you remain at the top of your form - cogent, conscientious, competent, persuasive. And of course Len knows how to bring out

Not that Litwin, floundering in the ocean of facts and observations you set forth, needs anybody to throw him an anchor, but on page 935 of his opus Doug makes the following point on the various opinions in the official record that Dr. Humes offered on the actual location of the entry wound, which I don't think has been given sufficient play in the struggle against the Litwins, Bugliosis, Posners etc:

“Humes has now gone from omitting any mention of the beveled notch on the skull plate (in the autopsy report) to denying that such evidence existed in the periphery of the skull defect (in his Warren Commission testimony), to describing the photos of it as the posterior skull (in November of 1966), to acknowledging that it is indeed evidence of exit and stating that it is in the right parietal region (in the Military Review report), to abandoning that position and agreeing with the HSCA panel’s consensus that the exit wound in photograph no. 44 is in the frontal bone forward of the coronal suture. This is not the behavior of a man sure of his convictions; rather, it is the sorry behavior of a man involved in a coverup who, once caught in a lie, feels he has no choice but to continue lying and modifying his answers to save his skin, and thus avoid admitting he was involved in the coverup of the 35th President’s assassination. The reader will have noticed by now that at no time during the interview did Humes volunteer the information that he had originally described the photographs in which the beveled semcircular notch appears as representing the posterior skull."

Again, fantastic work on the podcast last night, and in the long and substantive review that it was based on!

Jefferson Morley

On April 29, my attorney Dan Hardway filed a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review my case, Morley v. CIA. When I filed this Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit 16 years ago, I sought certain files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Perhaps the biggest single revelation generated by Morley v. CIA was the medal given to Joannides. Inside the agency, one might say that Joannides protected the agency’s “sources and methods” around the Oswald/AMSPELL/FPCC operation. Outside the agency, you could say he was honored, at least in part, for perpetuating the JFK cover-up. House Select Committee on Assassination general counsel G. Robert Blakey, now emeritus professor at Notre Dame law school, told PBS Frontline that Joannides had obstructed Congress’ investigation, a felony. Was he concealing the existence of a CIA operation to falsely blame Oswald for killing JFK? Or just CIA incompetence? Absent full disclosure, definitive conclusions are elusive. Morley v. CIA fell short of getting the whole story. The agency identified but never released 330 Joannides files I sought. These include 44 documents from 1963 and 1978, which concern Joannides’ cover and “intelligence methods.” They are key to the JFK story. I suspect they identify the senior agency officers who authorized psychological warfare operations that linked Oswald to Castro’s Cuba before and after JFK was killed. According to the agency, not a single word contained in these antique records – even with any potentially appropriate redactions for sources and methods – can be made public in 2019 without threatening “national security.” Given that most of the records in question are more than 50 years old, the claim seems far-fetched, if not suspicious. Nonetheless, the federal courts agree it is accurate. ‘Entirely Unreasonable’ The question now before the Supreme Court is not conspiracy. The issue is accountability and how the FOIA seeks to insure it. In the July 2018 majority opinion, Kavanaugh ruled the CIA acted “reasonably” in spurning my JFK queries. Judge Henderson countered that the government’s actions were “entirely unreasonable” and I should be awarded court costs. The high court now has the opportunity to decide. The answers are a long time coming. By Jefferson Morley April 30, 2019 See Here

Jim DiEugenio

The reason for the JFK Records Act was not to minimize government secrecy or to increase government transparency, but rather to “tamp down some of the assassination conspiracy theories. It is always astonishing to see one's fundamental beliefs corrected by the media. See Here

Dr. Malcolm Perry

Malcolm Perry lied to the Commission about the throat wound - From a newly released file. *The Journal follows the tenets of the Creative Commons Attribution License providing open access to scholars through the use of a Digital Objective Identifier (DOI) by Google Scholar. See Here Further Update on Malcolm Perry's lie (about the throat wound) to the Commission... See Here Of course the throat wound was an entry (perhaps a glass shard from the windshield?):The loyalists' persistent claim that ER doctors consistently misinterpret wounds (e.g., entrance vs. exit) cleverly evades these facts: 1. Such a tiny wound could not be duplicated in experiments by the Commission; 2. Milton Helpern, who had done 60,000 autopsies, had never seen an exit wound that small; 3. Before political leverage was exerted, the NPIC's first scenario included a throat shot at Z-190; 4. During a Commission Executive Session (December 18, 1963), John McCloy, Hale Boggs, and Gerald Ford actually discussed a possible frontal shot from the overpass. For further details, see my discussion under the paragraph, "The Throat Wound," See Here

John F. Kennedy's Head Wounds:

A final synthesis — and a new analysis of the harper fragment by david mantik. buy it here:, jfk assassinated november 22 1963 12:30 p.m..

Exhibitions, free museum days and more: Art Week and Museum Mondays return in May

As exhibitions go up, gallery talk notes are finalized and hosts prepare for Cape Cod ArtWeek , here’s everything you need to know before the main event kicks off on May 3. 

Through May 12, museums, galleries, libraries and other creative institutions across the Cape are hosting exhibitions, demonstrations, fairs and other events in celebration of the Cape’s local arts community. The event marks the third Cape Cod ArtWeek sponsored by the Cape Cod Museum Trail . 

“The event is held to generate excitement and promote the local art culture that has grown on the Cape,” said Ryan Normand, program manager for the Cape Cod Museum Trail, in an email. “Our promoted events for ArtWeek go beyond supporting just museums, as this is a special occasion where we want to focus on the flourishing creative spark in our local art community.”

What’s happening at this year’s Cape Cod ArtWeek?

In the spirit of celebration, the Cape Cod Art Center is showing love to its Master Artists this art week with an exhibition of works across all mediums from its top-tier members. 

 In order to become a “Master Artist,” according to Roberta Miller, executive director of the Cape Cod Art Center, members must be with the center for at least five years and have proof of exhibiting work and winning awards in nationally advertised shows. 

“We're celebrating them this art week with the exhibition of, I believe, 60 beautiful pieces hanging on the wall,” Miller said. 

The center also hosts a free lecture on plein air painting at noon on May 3. 

Both the exhibition and lecture are free to attend. The exhibition runs through May 10 in both galleries of the Cape Cod Art Center (3480 Main St. in Barnstable.)

The Cahoon Museum of American Art is opening its doors for a free spring open house on May 4. 

The day begins at 10 a.m. with a communal drawing project for families followed by a talk at 11 a.m. with artist Don Nakamura on his and fellow artist Sarah Peters’ exhibition “Bold Women and Vivid Dreams,” on display at the museum through June 2. 

“Everyone's invited to come celebrate and enjoy the museum,” Leslie Goldman, the Cahoon’s education programs manager, said. 

A reception for their works and for the artists featured in “Writing in Pictures,” the other exhibition currently on at the Cahoon, will commence at 1 p.m. The open house is open to the public and free to attend. The Cahoon Museum of American Art is located at 4674 Falmouth Road in Cotuit. 

Further down the Cape, the Addison Art Gallery presents “Essay on Renewal,” a special exhibition of photographs from the Cape Cod Viewfinders , a photography club on the Cape. The exhibition opens on May 3, with a reception for the artists at 4 p.m. on May 4 with music from guitarist Jim Skinger, and flutist Vicki Goldsmith. 

The show runs through May 9 and is open to the public. The reception is open to the public and free to attend. The Addison Art Gallery is located at 43 South Orleans Road in Orleans. 

Then later in the week, Meetinghouse Clay Center hosts its fourth spring pottery market at 10 a.m. on May 11. The market features handmade jewelry, pottery, crafts and other handmade works from local artists and Meetinghouse students and residents. 

“The variety and quality of the ceramics that our artists have are really top-notch,” Sarah Caruso, owner of Meetinghouse Clay Center said. 

Live demonstrations from Meetinghouse artists and music from Birch Swart will also provide entertainment during the outdoor market. 

“It's a rain or shine event so if it is raining, bring a slicker and raincoat but we'll be there," Caruso joked. “Hopefully, we'll get nice weather … It's just a nice place to hang out.”

The market runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Meetinghouse Clay Center (1340 County Road in Cataumet). 

Museum Mondays in May return May 6 

Amid ArtWeek, the Museum Trail’s “Museum Mondays in May” returns on May 6. On May 6, 13 and 20, select museums across the Cape have free admission to celebrate the Cape’s arts community.

“Museum Mondays offers a chance for local members of the Cape Cod community to visit museums near to them that they may have never even realized were just down the street,” Normand wrote. 

Here’s the full list of museums participating in Museum Mondays: 

• Cape Cod Museum of Art
• Historical Society of Old Yarmouth/Bangs Hallet House Museum and Wetu 
• JFK Hyannis Museum
• Sandwich Glass Museum
• Falmouth Art Center
• Provincetown Art Association and Museum
• Cultural Center of Cape Cod 
• Toad Hall Sports Car Museum 
• Atwood Museum
• Chatham Marconi Maritime Center
• Atlantic White Shark Conservancy
• Cahoon Museum of American Art

For a full listing of Cape Cod ArtWeek events, visit www.capecodmuseumtrail.com/ . 

Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at  [email protected] .

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription.  Here are our subscription plans .   

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A Conversation With

Beth Linker Is Turning Good Posture on Its Head

A historian and sociologist of science re-examines the “posture panic” of the last century. You’ll want to sit down for this.

By Matt Richtel

For decades, the idea of standing properly upright carried considerable political and social baggage. Slouching was considered a sign of decay.

In the early 20th century, posture exams became mainstays in the military, the workplace and schools, thanks in part to the American Posture League, a group of physicians, educators and health officials that formed in 1914. In 1917, a study found that roughly 80 percent of Harvard’s freshman class had poor posture. Industrialists piled on with posture-enhancing chairs, products and gadgets.

But the actual science doesn’t support the conventional wisdom about proper posture, Beth Linker argues in her new book, “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America.” Dr. Linker, a historian and sociologist of science at the University of Pennsylvania, recently sat for an interview with The New York Times; the conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Nice to meet you.

Your posture looks pretty good. And it doesn’t matter — that’s the whole point of my book. It’s fake news.

Our obsession with great posture is fake news? I’m off the hook!

Concern for posture, as a matter of etiquette, has been around since the Enlightenment, if not earlier, but poor posture did not become a scientific and medical obsession until after the publication of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” in 1859. He posited that humans evolved through natural selection, and that the first thing to develop was bipedalism; in other words, standing upright preceded brain development.

This idea was controversial because convention taught that higher intellect distinguished humans from nonhuman animals, and now it appeared that only a mere physical difference, located in the spine and feet, separated humankind from the apes.

In other words, bad posture was primitive.

Actually, quite the opposite. Bad posture was assumed to primarily affect “civilized” individuals — people who no longer engaged in physical labor but instead enjoyed the fruits of mechanized transportation, industrialization and leisure.

With the rise of eugenics in the early 20th century, certain scientists began to worry that slouching among “civilized” peoples could lead to degeneration, a backward slide in human progress. Posture correction became part of “race betterment” projects, especially for white Anglo-Saxon men but also for middle-class women and Black people who were trying to gain political rights and equity. Poor posture became stigmatized and defined as a disability. As I show in my book, people with postural “defects” were regularly discriminated against in the American workplace, educational settings and immigration offices. People with disabilities had no legal protection at the time.

Also, this was an era when physicians and public health officials began to focus more on disease prevention to control the spread of infectious contagions like tuberculosis. Good posture was understood to be an effective way to stave off deadly diseases, leading to campaigns that taught Americans how to stand up straight.

When tuberculosis rates declined in the 1940s — partly as a result of the discovery of antibiotics — scientists and physicians began to draw a causal link between poor posture and back pain. President John F. Kennedy, who had chronic back pain and his own posture guru, reinvigorated the President’s Council on Physical Fitness in order to promote uprightness and strength among the nation’s citizens.

For much of the 20th century, posture awareness campaigns were seen as an inexpensive way to improve national health, especially compared to costlier health investments such as improvements in housing, infrastructure and nationalized health insurance coverage. Posture crusaders also tended to hold individuals accountable for their own failing health, rather than looking to structural problems. For example, they would blame a back pain sufferer for having caused the problem, for failing to sit and stand properly, for being a slouch.

And you contend that was unfair.

There was really no proof of causality, then or now.

But the belief gained traction because it legitimized age-old assumptions about the importance of upright posture to human ability. Posture assessments became a quick and efficient way to size up another person’s character, intelligence and health — all in one fairly simple exam.

I’m not a posture denier. I think posture therapy can be a powerful tool when used to alleviate existing back pain. I myself frequent a physical therapist for my own back pain, and I use standing desks, ergonomic chairs and yoga to contribute to my sense of well-being. But these devices and remedies offer much more than a fixed notion of good posture.

What I question is how much posture correction can do for a healthy, pain-free person in terms of preventing future ills and the inevitability of aging. The posture panic created over 100 years ago, and the simplistic message behind it, was good for self-discipline and for business. In a certain respect, manufacturers of ergonomic chairs, back braces, bras and shoes, even today, want to keep the panic alive.

Do we even have a good definition of what is good or bad posture? We don’t. No one can agree on what the standards are. Also, the human body is incredibly dynamic, and each of our anatomies are, to some extent, distinct. To say that there’s, like, some kind of static norm is not in keeping with the reality.

It’s not just standing as erect as possible with your chin tucked back?

Plumb-line verticality is what it’s called; that’s one way to assess posture. You have certain anatomical markers in line with each other. But we’re never static. How long can you really hold a posture that is “good”?

Until we get off this Zoom call and I can relax.

The scientific study of the effectiveness of posture correction has been hindered by a scandal that was covered by The New York Times Magazine in the 1990s. The article reported that for several decades until the 1970s, Ivy League schools took nude pictures of undergraduates to check their posture, and that these pictures still existed in the Smithsonian Archives. My own research has shown that posture photography happened not just at elite universities but at colleges, hospitals and prisons across the country. The practice of taking nude posture pictures largely came to an end in the early 1970s because of concerns about propriety and personal privacy.

After the Times exposé, entire archival holdings containing a century’s worth of posture science data were burned or shredded.

The scandal did not question the presumed benefits of posture correction; rather, it took issue with the conventions of measuring posture. So the health belief that posture is an indicator of future health — that it can be a predictor of back pain and neck pain — remained in place. Not until recently have certain studies shown that you can adopt all kinds of posture, even the occasional slouching, and be just fine.

In sum, you argue that there’s no connection between a person’s posture and morality, and that there may be no connection to long-term health.

In some ways, it’s the phrenology of the 20th century. We use posture to judge character, intelligence and physical ability. Like, if you’re a slouch, that also means that you’re somehow lazy.

It’s shallow and ableist to estimate what another person can or cannot do based on their posture. In terms of long-term health, I think the jury is still out on that.

Matt Richtel is a health and science reporter for The Times, based in Boulder, Colo. More about Matt Richtel

Final thesis: Harvard copy

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