Drawing on new primary sources, this biography is the first to detail the influence of British history, literature, and culture--in particular, the ideas of Winston Churchill--on America's thirty-fifth president. For the first time we trace the friendships and forces that led to the White House and shaped Kennedy's actions there. In this intimate portrait of a leader torn between politics and principle, we finally come to know the man Kennedy wanted to be and to understand his long, private struggle to become that man.