The No 1 Sunday Times Bestseller A Waterstones Best Politics
Book 2024 A Mail on Sunday ‘Best Holiday Read 2024’‘A searing exposé’ Glamour‘ A
timely reminder of the dangers posed by men who crave power’ – Observer From
New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposé
of the real Kennedy Curse―the family's generations-long legacy of misogyny,
murder, and mayhem―and the women who have paid the price for our obsession with
Camelot.
For decades, the Kennedy name has been synonymous with
wealth, power, and―above all else―integrity. But this carefully constructed
veneer hides a dark truth: the Kennedy men's legacy of physical and
psychological abuse of women, part of a tradition of toxic masculinity that
spans generations and has ruined untold lives.
Through scandal after scandal, the family and their
defenders have managed to keep this shameful story out of the spotlight.
Now, in Ask Not, bestselling journalist Maureen Callahan
reveals the Kennedys'' hidden history of abuse and exploitation, laying bare
their rampant misogyny and restoring women to the center of the dynasty's
story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Mary
Richardson, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren't nearly as well
known – but rightfully should be.
Drawing on years of fierce reportage and written in electric
prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled American family,
showing how the Kennedy myth and their raw political power has enabled the clan's
many predators while also silencing generations of traumatized women and girls.
At long last, Callahan also redirects the spotlight to the
women in the Kennedys'' orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves―and
giving voice to the countless others who could not do the same.