Hugh Kennedy reassesses JFK for the Profiles series. Neither hagiography nor demolition job, the book examines this key presidency with the scholarly detachment distance now allows. Brogan concentrates on the major themes: Kennedy's successful candidacy for office; his foreign policy; his part in the civil rights revolution; his handling of economic affairs; his agenda as a reformer; and, of course, the significance of his murder. Hugh Brogan succeeds admirably in his object of presenting Kennedy as a credible statesman and human being, not as a figure of legend - nor, in the modern way, as a figure of legend to be debunked. Kennedy emerges as a man of solid achievement, who grew and deepened as a statesman. His record as President was, broadly, impressive and would have been more so had he lived.

This is a crisp, elegant, witty book, written with both sympathy and detachment. Anyone interested in the Kenedy years - and admirers of Hugh Brogan's celebrated bestseller, the Longman/Penguin History of the United States - will not be disappointed.