logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2023
46m 58s

JFK: The Most Popular President?

History Hit
About this episode

Who was JFK? How popular was he in his lifetime? And how did his untimely death impact the world's memory of him?


In this first of two episodes to mark 60 years since President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, we are exploring his personality and popularity.


Don is joined by Fredrick Logevall, Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. Fredrick's most recent book is 'JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century'.


Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Joseph Knight. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.


Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.


Don’t miss out on the best offer in history! Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 for 3 months with code AMERICANHISTORYHIT1 sign up now for your 14-day free trial https://historyhit/subscription/


You can take part in our listener survey here.

Up next
Aug 21
American Traitors: Axis Sally
Is contributing to enemy propaganda treason? In this second episode on American Traitors, we are meeting 'Axis Sally', real name Mildred Gillars.Professor Michael Flamm joins us to explore the life of this American citizen who broadcast American music, scripted dramas and hateful ... Show More
44m 36s
Aug 18
What If Lincoln Hadn't Been Shot?
It's the biggest 'What if?' in American history: What if Lincoln hadn't been shot? The assassination could so easily have failed and things went so wrong in the aftermath (looking at you Andrew Johnson). Could Reconstruction have looked different with Abraham Lincoln at the helm? ... Show More
56m 26s
Aug 14
American Traitors: Benedict Arnold
Is Benedict Arnold the biggest traitor in American History? In this episode, Don is joined by author Stephen Brumwell to examine how Arnold went from hero to villain.How important was he to the Revolutionary cause? Why did he decide to go against it? And do his actions even count ... Show More
53m 38s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
John F Kennedy
The second of nine children from a well-to-do family in New England, John F Kennedy fought his way up to become the most powerful man on the planet. After claiming a narrow victory in the 1960 election, Kennedy and his glamorous wife, Jacqueline, led the country on a wave of opti ... Show More
1h 1m
Feb 2025
The forgotten JFK assassination plot
In December 1960, as president-elect John F Kennedy made his way to church in Florida, a would-be assassin waited nearby, preparing to detonate a bomb that would end the Democrat's presidency before it began. Elinor Evans speaks to Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, authors of The JFK ... Show More
43m 39s
Aug 2024
Encore: Presidential Assassinations | Protecting POTUS (NEW) | 1
The job of guarding the President’s life belongs to the men and women of the United States Secret Service. There have been many highs and lows in the agency’s more than 150-year history – most poignantly the assassination of JFK in 1963. On today’s show Pulitzer Prize-winning Was ... Show More
52m 45s
Oct 2024
Introducing... Legacy
Listen to Legacy from Wondery and Goalhanger Podcasts. Each season, historian Peter Frankopan and broadcaster Afua Hirsch tell the wild stories of the most extraordinary men and women to have ever lived – and ask whether they have the reputation they deserve. Born into great priv ... Show More
10m 19s
Apr 2024
Conspiracy Revisited: The JFK assassination – 95 per cent certain?
The killing of President John F Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963 is one of the defining events of the 20th century and the subject of multiple conspiracy theories. In part one of a special bonus episode of our Conspiracy series, Rob Attar rejoins the investigative journalist Ge ... Show More
43m 1s
Nov 2022
S2E1.1: The Eerie Ties Between Lincoln & JFK's Assassinations
In this Kennedy Family Meeting episode, Cassie and Bethany discuss the pedigree of the most prominent and powerful family in America during the 20th century... how the Kennedy Family, within two generations, went from poverty to presidency... and how one person "made the whole th ... Show More
57m 30s
Apr 2024
Conspiracy Revisited: The JFK assassination – Oswald’s second murder
In part 2 of a special bonus episode of our Conspiracy series, Rob Attar and Gerald Posner delve deeper into the questions surrounding the assassination of JFK. Who did Lyndon Johnson think was behind the murder? Why do so many people believe in a conspiracy theory? And why is Le ... Show More
32 m
Aug 10
590. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Death at the Theatre (Part 1)
After passing the 13th amendment, in the closing weeks of the brutal American Civil War, what did president Abraham Lincoln - recently re-elected - do next to inflame his detractors? Crippled with guilt for the death and destruction of the war, was he indeed a unionist tyrant? Wh ... Show More
1h 2m
Aug 13
591. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Manhunt for the Killer (Part 2)
How was President Abraham Lincoln murdered on Good Friday 1865, at Ford’s Theatre, just five days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender? Who was John Wilkes Booth, the racist actor with southern sympathies, who assassinated him? How did he escape before the shocked eyes of the packed t ... Show More
1h 7m
Apr 2025
Bob Dylan (Pt.2): BREAKING–New JFK Files Link Dylan to Richard Nixon’s Watergate Scandal
Within the recently released "JFK Files” there is a reference to a “Bobby Dyllon” and informant number “T-3390-S." This recent discovery has led to a quick consensus among many JFK assassination scholars that “Dyllon” is the lynchpin between an unknown FBI informant at the heart ... Show More
1h 9m