A portrait of the country's favorite political dynasty as the ultimate Irish Catholic family-and a revelatory look at how the American immigrant experience shaped both their stunning success and spectacular tragedies.



For 150 years, the story of the Kennedy family has been inextricably linked to their heritage as Irish-Catholic immigrants- from Patrick Kennedy's 1848 arrival in Brahmin Boston from Country Wexford Ireland, to Joseph Kennedy's Vatican ties and Jackie's thoughts on faith and sorrow, to Kennedy-confidante Father McSorley's religious counsel following the assassination of JFK. Through ground-breaking interviews with Senator Edward Kennedy and other Kennedy family and friends, acclaimed journalist Thomas Maier casts the Kennedy saga in an entirely new light, showing how their Irish catholic heritage influenced their public and private decisions. Released to coincide with a documentary adapted from the book, this edition features a new preface, in which Maier explores the dynamics of the three brothers, Ted Kennedy's legacy, and the 2008 presidential elections that have been touched in so many ways by the Kennedy family.