We tend to think that history is written in stone, that it's unchanging, immutable, fixed. But history isn't a one-way conversation; it's a continuing dialogue between the past and the present. Dutch historian Pieter Geyl once wrote that history is "an argument without end." And it's fair to say that historians have been arguing about John F. Kennedy's presidency from the moment it tragically ended.
Kennedy went from being perceived as a reflexive cold warrior to the golden prince of Camelot to a less than sure-handed Commander in Chief. At the same time, Kennedy's hold on the popular imagination has remained...