The Miller Center celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of John F. Kennedy with special guest Thomas Oliphant, former Boston Globe reporter and writer.

His new book with co-author Curtis Wilkie, The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-Year Campaign, begins with a health scare. In 1955, Eisenhower’s heart attack changed the mindset of people like Richard Nixon and JFK. They came to realize the great war hero was mortal. JFK sensed an opportunity. As the authors argue, “The force behind Kennedy’s ambition was Kennedy himself,” not his father, as is often reported. 

History books also tend to begin the story of Kennedy’s 1960 election with his efforts to become Adlai Stevenson’s running mate in 1956. The Road to Camelot, however, takes a different tack. One of JFK’s legacies, it explains, was his masterful use of grassroots campaigning to bypass the Democratic Party system, clinching him the nomination. This primary fight was not easy, and it was not predetermined.

In the video below, Oliphant discusses his new book with two of the Miller Center's Kennedy scholars, Barbara Perry and Marc Selverstone.