The Death of a President

November 20 - November 25, 1963

By: William Manchester

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 33 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

As the world still reeled from the tragic and historic events of November 22, 1963, William Manchester set out, at the request of the Kennedy family, to create a detailed, authoritative record of President John F. Kennedy's death, including the days immediately preceding and following the assassination. Through hundreds of interviews, extensive travel, and first hand observation, and with unique access to the proceedings of the Warren Commission, Manchester conducted an exhaustive historical investigation, accumulating 45 volumes of documents, exhibits, and transcribed tapes. His ultimate objective - to set down as a whole the national and personal tragedy that was JFK's assassination - is brilliantly achieved in this galvanizing narrative, a book universally acclaimed as a landmark work of modern history.

©2013 William Manchester (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

Its like stepping through a portal into 1960s USA

If you could sum up The Death of a President in three words, what would they be?

The definitive account of the JFK assassination.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Death of a President?

When Dean Rusk is notified of the murder, the other folks on the plane interpret his reaction as indicating a nuclear war has started.

Have you listened to any of Joe Barrett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I havent heard him, but he was excellent.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me both laugh and cry.

Any additional comments?

Its a bit of a hagiography. I think Gore Vidal called it a historical novel. But Manchester nearly worked himself to death writing and researching it. It was a great listen.

Btw, I really liked the narrator - his take on Johnson, the Dallas police chief, the Kennedy staff, Jackie, Secret Service agents.

Fascinating and Full of Information

I've been a student of the Kennedys since I fell in love with history and this book brought about so much new information (aka things I didn't know). It was fascinating. I was worried that the length would make it hard for me to get through but it didn't. It's made me want to get more books about the Kennedy family, the Johnsons and those few days. My own dislike was the narrator using accents/voices for the different people.

Great story, but...

Terrible narration. He was fine when he was reading text, but when he would read quotes and try to imitate voices/accents he sounded ridiculous!

WELL-DONE

Excellent, detailed events of the terrible events in our Nation's history of 22-25 November 1963. Great narration, too.

Amazing

Simply the best book ever written about the days leading up to, during, and after the Kennedy assassination.

Stop with the accents...

particularly the southern accent.
The book is very interesting...takes you through the assassination in a personal up close view point

The detail provided makes you feel as if you were there

I thought I knew everything about the assassination of President Kennedy. this book/reading showed me I had more to learn. i foundbit emotrional on so many levels, yet insightful and historical. highly recommend. i wish only that our current leaders would re visit Kennedy's speeches esp. regarding UN, Nuclear treaty and Mrs. Kennedy's letter to Russian Premier.

Great book. Off-putting "folksy" narration

I'm very glad Audible has provided this book in an unabridged audio version. It's a fantastic book. An engrossing, well written, comprehensive look at JFK's death. Reading the book is painful, as Mr. Manchester's writing pulls you right into the events of November, 1963. Listening to the book is a bit painful as well, but for a vastly different reason. The accents Mr. Barrett uses in the book range from strange to annoying to just plain odd. They add up to off-putting. This is a long book. It is worth listening to, but would be so much better served by a narrator that gave the book proper respect in his tone and read it with a more respectful tone, not the folksy narration of someone weaving an old yarn by the fireside.

Insulting Southern accents

The voice actor's execution of the Southern accents of Lady Bird Johnson and Rufus Youngblood was ignorant and insulting to me, a Southerner. Dialects vary per region in the South and are not always "drawn-out stupid."

William Manchester: The Best

Anyone who reads this will be in awe of the meticulous research Manchester did for this opus. Joe Barrett did an excellent job of reading this.