This campaign book by historian James MacGregor Burns was researched as Kennedy was running for president and was published as JFK entered the White House. Burns had access to JFK's congressional files, family records and letters, and conducted lengthy interviews with Kennedy and his family, friends, colleagues and adversaries. Consequently, it has a wonderful "what he was really like" quality. The reader should know the book was authorized by Kennedy, and he lobbied Burns aggressively to revise parts of the manuscript before it was published. The book provides a kind but revealing profile of Kennedy.