I really enjoyed this book; it’s an alternative history based on the premise that JFK survived the assassination attempt in Dallas on November 22, 1963. It is an interesting exploration of the politics of the early and middle 1960’s; including a few scandals which were buried after Kennedy’s death. What people tend to forget is that JFK was a very cautious politician – he was keenly aware of his narrow mandate and never really acted unless he had to. Also, unlike his youngest brother, JFK was not particularly liberal.

Of course the most interesting question is what would have happened in terms of the US involvement in Vietnam, which the author handles in a believable way and shows an interesting connection to the civil rights movement. Granted, we’ll never know what really would have happened, but it’s a plausible story.

Jeff Greenfield is a well-known political writer and is the author of Then Everything Changed which is a collection of alternate history stories. He does a good job with this book, but once we get to 1966 or so, things start to drift a bit. Part of that is of course that the big questions have been answered by then. The book ends right before the presidential election in November 1968. If you like alternative histories, this is a good one.