FromNew York Timesbestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposĂŠ of the real Kennedy Curseâthe familyâs generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem.
The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, andâabove all elseâintegrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generationâs wake. Through decades of scandal after scandalâfrom sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughterâthe family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedysâ hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynastyâs story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names arenât nearly as well known but should be.
Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedysâ orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.
FromNew York Timesbestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposĂŠ of the real Kennedy Curseâthe familyâs generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem.
The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, andâabove all elseâintegrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generationâs wake. Through decades of scandal after scandalâfrom sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughterâthe family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedysâ hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynastyâs story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names arenât nearly as well known but should be.
Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedysâ orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.