One Brief Shining Moment: Remembering Kennedy

by William Manchester

Enriched with anecdotes, this portrait of John Kennedy explores his relationships with his father, brother Robert, family, friends, and confidants and discusses his use of an old political machine in an attempt to create a new vision of society

Genres: Biography, History, Politics, Presidents, Nonfiction, American, Memoir

280 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1983

About the author

William Raymond Manchester was an American author and biographer, notable as the bestselling author of 18 books that have been translated into 20 languages.He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award.

Reviews

[Nicole Marble · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who were not there and for whom JFK is just a bunch of initials - this is the book that conveys the hope we who were there felt.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t understand why the author chose to write in the second-person. He consistently wrote such lines as “Jack planned to spend the evening with you. You were sitting in the west sitting room, reading, and without intending to eavesdrop you overheard the conversation”. I clearly wasn’t there with the president in the White House and found it very disconcerting to suggest I was. Unfortunately, this annoyed me to the point that I was unable to enjoy the book.

[Nancy Garlit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who John F. Kennedy

I believe John F. Kennedy was the greatest President this century has had. I gave this book a 5 star rating because the author was present during this presidency and experienced sitting in the same room with President Kennedy. He writes words straight from Kennedy's mouth.

[Pushpa Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is, a form of torture and a delight. Torture for what we lost in 1963 (when I was barely aware of it) not just in leadership but in national character. JFK’s aspirations carried us for a while until Watergate exposed the paranoid cupidity at the heart of the American psyche, the rampant greed and corruption of the ruling class. It’s only gone downhill from there with a few brief shining moments in 2008. I needed a dramatic renewal of purpose so—JFK—an obscenely wealthy man who could still feel empathy for the downtrodden of his country. A clear-eyed aspirational leader when the world was tottering on the brink of nuclear war. A war veteran who having experienced war, hated it and worked to minimize the potential for mass carnage. His last unforgettable American University speech about how our similarities must outweigh our differences is even more relevant today. Unfortunately, we are living at the mercy of self-absorbed greedy oligarchs who have more money than should be possible and who thrive on division.
William Manchester uses a unique literary device to put the reader in the action. You are the recipient of JFK’s observations and wit. You are the witness to the events in his life, his constant struggle with pain from back injury and multiple unsuccessful surgeries. You are privy to his stoic acceptance that he was living his life on a knife’s edge, his knowledge that life was likely to be cut short at any time. He knew he had limited opportunities to make a difference and he took them—sometimes ruthlessly. At each point in his life we read of his gallantry, his dry humor knowing that he is doomed. It’s heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.
We need a JFK now—again.

Enjoyably painful read.

[William Trently · Rating 5 out of 5]

In reading this book, I felt as if I were having a beer and sitting with the author, who knew JFK very well (they met while both were still recovering from injuries suffered in the Pacific during WWII), in the summer sun at the ocean’s edge, listening to him go on about JFK. And just like in normal conversations, people omit things and the stories are not presented like a history text or an objective appraisal. This is exactly the effect the author intended; his purpose was to recreate the past and make you feel part of it. He succeeded. As the book cover states, the author “recalls boisterous family gatherings at Hyannis Port, grueling campaign trips, and quiet evenings alone with the President in the White House family quarters.” There are more than 180 black-and-white photographs and 16 pages of color. And something that really stood out was the stark contrast between JFK’s intellectual vigor, compassion, empathy, maturity, and grasp of a larger world picture when compared with that of current leadership in the United States in 2025. Given that, I can better appreciate the "one brief shining moment," and only hope to see it again someday in some form or other.

[Laura Pether · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting book without any of the negative stories or rumors cluttering it up. It was a quick reminder of how much history took place during his brief 3 years as President... Bay of Pigs, meeting with Khrushchev, Cuban Missile Crisis, integration in the south, Freedom Riders, murder of Medgar Evers, James Meredith (first Af/Am student to go to University of Mississippi). Manchester writes about the Kennedy family and the dynamics there. It's a heartfelt telling from someone who admired the President and his family. He uses the second person (you) to tell the stories that came from a very long list of people he describes in the Author's Note. It's an interesting writing device and did cause me to pause sometimes to stay on track, but it was not particularly disturbing and I think relayed the memories better than having each memory credited to someone at the time of the telling.

[T. Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great book I read from the bookshelves of my grandmother's library. She was a big fan of the Kennedy family, especially Rose (my grandmother's n as me was Rosie, so she was proud to be a rose like Mrs. Kennedy). I remember the sadness I felt as I read this book, for JFK's loss, and the pride I held for this American president.

[Jeffrey Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book on JFK

I picked this book up on sale and because I am a big admirer of JFK. While it is a different kind of writing (use of the word "you" in most cases is the author putting you in his shoes), it was a great early writing of first hand account of Kennedy and those great times. I highly recommend this book to Kennedy fans.

[Mary Vogelsong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manchester is a historian in a class by himself, and he seems to have known Kennedy personally. I was confused by some of the shifts in POV.

[Stephy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this book probably six times. The life and hope brought to The United States of America by John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his lovely and articulate wife Jacqueline cannot be understood by anyone who was not there. To say that the Kennedy Family were beloved by the ordinary people of my country is a masterpiece of understatement.

That the dreams of millions were devastated by his assassination is well established. I'm just one of the many, and every now and then I like to visit a time in my life when I truly believed that the political process could work great changes in the lives of the American people. I'm not sure I believe that any more.

People with power rarely give it up willingly, and in those times, people deprived of power and hope and human dignity arose and confronted a system which deserved to die. JFK's death has never felt settled and solved to me, in spite of having seen Lee Harvey Oswald killed, live on television, by Jack Ruby.

It has been over forty years since the Kennedy era, and even now, I'm still trying to puzzle it out. It's not so much that I want to recapture innocence that is gone forever, as much as I still don't understand this, and probably never will.

[Scot Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad, very sad.