Dallas 1963

ISBN 10: 147898077X ISBN 13: 9781478980773

Publisher: Hachette Book Group, 2013

Synopsis

[Read by Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis, and Tony Messano]

In the early 1960s, Dallas was brewing with political passions and full of extreme and unlikely characters, many of them dead set against a Kennedy presidency -- rabid politicos like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; oil baron H. L. Hunt; W. A. Criswell, leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world; and fanatical congressman Bruce Alger; along with a host of gangsters, unsung civil rights leaders, strippers, billionaires, and marauding police. Beginning with the campaign for Kennedy's election and set against a nation in transition, Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis ingeniously explore the swirling forces that led numerous friends and aides to warn the president against stopping in Dallas on his fateful trip to Texas. -- Breathtakingly paced, this book presents a clear, cinematic, and revelatory look at the twentieth century's most significant and terrifying political event. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, Dallas 1963 is not only a fresh look at a momentous political tragedy but a sobering reminder of how radical ideology turns ordinary Americans extraordinarily violent.

About this title

About the Author:

BILL MINUTAGLIO has been published in the New York Times, Esquire, Newsweek, Texas Monthly, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. A professor at the University of Texas at Austin, he worked at the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, and San Antonio Express-News. He has written acclaimed books about George W. Bush, Molly Ivins, Alberto Gonzales, and America's greatest industrial disaster. He lives in Austin, Texas.

STEVEN L. DAVIS is the author of two highly praised books on Texas, and his work has appeared in several magazines and journals. Davis is a curator at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos, which holds the literary papers of Cormac McCarthy and many other writers. He lives in New Braunfels, Texas.

Review:

''Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis's DALLAS 1963 is a brilliantly written, haunting eulogy to John F. Kennedy. By exposing the hatred aimed at our 35th president, the authors demonstrates that America--not just Lee Harvey Oswald--was ultimately responsible for his death. Every page is an eye opener. Highly recommended!'' --Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University and author of Cronkite

''All the great personalities of Dallas during the assassination come alive in this superb rendering of a city on a roller coaster into disaster. History has been waiting fifty years for this book.'' --Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and Going Clear

''Minutaglio and Davis capture in fascinating detail the creepiness that shamed Dallas in 1963.'' --Gary Cartwright, author and contributing editor at Texas Monthly

''In this harrowing, masterfully-paced depiction of a disaster waiting to happen, Minutaglio and Davis examine a prominent American city in its now-infamous moment of temporary insanity. Because those days of partisan derangement look all too familiar today, DALLAS 1963 isn't just a gripping narrative -- it's also a somber cautionary tale.'' --Robert Draper, contributor, New York Times Magazine and author of Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives

''The authors skillfully marry a narrative of the lead-up to the fateful day with portrayals of the Dixiecrats, homophobes, John Birchers, hate-radio spielers, and the 'superpatriots' who were symptomatic of the paranoid tendency in American politics.'' --Harold Evans, author of The American Century

''Texas-based authors who have written extensively about state and national issues, Davis and Minutaglio portray Dallas at the time of Kennedy's assassination as seething with political extremists of every stripe, along with (darkly) colorful characters from strippers to billionaires. Great background reading.'' --Library Journal

''A thoughtful look at the political and social environment that existed in Dallas at the time of the president's election... a climate, the authors persuasively argue, of unprecedented turmoil and hatred.'' --Booklist

''Chilling... The authors make a compelling, tacit parallel to today's running threats by extremist groups.'' --Kirkus

''After fifty years, it's a challenge to fashion a new lens with which to view the tragic events of November 22, 1963 yet Texans [Minutaglio and Davis] pull it off brilliantly.'' --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

''In this harrowing, masterfully-paced depiction of a disaster waiting to happen, Minutaglio and Davis examine a prominent American city in its now-infamous moment of temporary insanity. Because those days of partisan derangement look all too familiar today, DALLAS 1963 isn't just a gripping narrative -- it's also a somber cautionary tale.'' --Robert Draper, contributor, New York Times Magazine and author of Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives

''The authors skillfully marry a narrative of the lead-up to the fateful day with portrayals of the Dixiecrats, homophobes, John Birchers, hate-radio spielers, and the 'superpatriots' who were symptomatic of the paranoid tendency in American politics.'' --Harold Evans, author of The American Century

''Texas-based authors who have written extensively about state and national issues, Davis and Minutaglio portray Dallas at the time of Kennedy's assassination as seething with political extremists of every stripe, along with (darkly) colorful characters from strippers to billionaires. Great background reading.'' --Library Journal

''A thoughtful look at the political and social environment that existed in Dallas at the time of the president's election... a climate, the authors persuasively argue, of unprecedented turmoil and hatred.'' --Booklist

''Chilling... The authors make a compelling, tacit parallel to today's running threats by extremist groups.'' --Kirkus

''After fifty years, it's a challenge to fashion a new lens with which to view the tragic events of November 22, 1963 yet Texans [Minutaglio and Davis] pull it off brilliantly.'' --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hachette Book Group
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 147898077X
• ISBN 13: 9781478980773
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 1