Dallas 1963

De: Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis

Narrado por: Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis, Tony Messano

In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered. On the same stage was a compelling cast of marauding gangsters, swashbuckling politicos, unsung civil rights heroes, and a stylish millionaire anxious to save his doomed city.

Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis ingeniously explore the swirling forces that led many people to warn President Kennedy to avoid Dallas on his fateful trip to Texas. Breathtakingly paced, Dallas 1963 presents a clear, cinematic, and revelatory look at the shocking tragedy that transformed America. Countless authors have attempted to explain the assassination, but no one has ever bothered to explain Dallas-until now.

With spellbinding storytelling, Minutaglio and Davis lead us through intimate glimpses of the Kennedy family and the machinations of the Kennedy White House, to the obsessed men in Dallas who concocted the climate of hatred that led many to blame the city for the president's death. Here at long last is an accurate understanding of what happened in the weeks and months leading to John F. Kennedy's assassination. Dallas 1963 is not only a fresh look at a momentous national tragedy but a sobering reminder of how radical, polarizing ideologies can poison a city-and a nation.

Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Research Nonfiction
Named one of the Top 3 JFK Books by Parade Magazine.
Named 1 of The 5 Essential Kennedy assassination books ever written by The Daily Beast.
Named one of the Top Nonfiction Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews.

Great On Dallas Extremists; Cartoonish on Oswald

Would you consider the audio edition of Dallas 1963 to be better than the print version?

Great Discussion about Ted Dealey, H.L. Hunt, General Walker, the John Birch Society, Cold War paranoia, fear of desegragation and how JFK's policies ran a collision course. "Lone nut" Oswald doesn't explain his close ties to CIA asset George De Mohrenschildt and Russian right wing in Dallas, not to mentoin or Anti-Castro David Ferrie and Clay Shaw in New Orleans. Should either have left Oswald out entirely or addressed the historical record as developed by declassified documents under the JFK Records Act.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dallas 1963?

The coverage of Adalai Stevenson's trip to Dallas in October, 1963 was very well done and adds meat to a frequently referenced foreshadowing event.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

A strong, intelligent voice.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Dallas Putsch.

Awesome history lesson

I was reading this as part of a book club. I thought it would just focus on the assassination of JFK. I was pleasantly surprised to get a Great history lesson from right before JFK ran for president to when Jack Ruby killed Oswald. I was only 5 when JFK was killed but remember how it affected the US. This book really helped give me the context around his death as well as all of the politics going on between the Democrats and Republicans back then. I know we have 2 parties; I just wish they weren’t so violently opposed to each other sometimes-just like today with everything that is happening in our country. It’s very sad. We need to come together as a nation.

A well-researched and stunning story of the 1960s

History written almost as if it were a novel, with well-developed characters and extraordinary events, leading up to a climax of hatred that leads almost inevitably to the murder of a President.

How Dallas could have allowed itself to be seduced by the political ambitions of a corrupt few is a story that is relevant in 2020s American, and a lesson for all of us.

I couldn't stop listening.

Great story and narration

Describe in great detail the environment of Dallas prior to 1963 that led to the assassination

Today's headlines ripped straight from this story

Absolutely stupendous book, hitting the mark on all counts: plot, background understanding, and intellect. Dallas in the early 1960s somehow was remarkably arch conservative, even reactionary. Now that I have learned the back story, the assassination takes on a whole new light. This book tells history as it was a story, which is the best kind of history lesson. You learn personalities of the players and vivid detail. One small caveat: I felt as if Oswald's story, in the days leading up to the assassination, was somehow dropped out of the story-telling. Would have liked to read more on that. But small concern in an overall outstanding book. More than ever, learning history helps us understand today.