KENNEDY'S ONLY HERO with Author Joel Nelson

He found the books at seventeen, and by his early twenties the isolationism he had grown up with was gone.

Joel Nelson brings Kennedy’s Only Hero to New Canaan Library, drawing on deep seams of unpublished archival material to trace John F. Kennedy’s preoccupation with Winston Churchill — his career, his policies, his writing, even his daily habits. The two would not meet until late in their lives, but the influence on Kennedy’s campaign tactics, his speeches and his whole worldview was overwhelming. Peace through strength, faith in summits, an understanding of what rhetoric can do, a commitment to service and global engagement: Nelson argues all of it came from Churchill.

About the author. Nelson is a British writer and historian who has advised the Secretary of State for International Development, edited at Foreign Affairs, and directed European policy at a Washington AI think tank. He has a first-class honours degree in History from Oxford, an MPhil from Cambridge, and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. This is his first book.

Check before you go. Registration is required. New Canaan Library does not publish a price for this program — confirm on its event page before you plan around it.