BG: How about her view of women? In the tapes, she tells the interviewer that she gets all of her opinions from her husband and that women should never be in politics.

EF: These comments, which sound so antiquated to modern ears, reflect, obviously, Mrs. Kennedy's perspective at this moment in her life. Undoubtedly they were derived in part from her background, her class, her sensibility,chanel bags. But they also capture views that were shared by many in her generation. The women's movement of the later 1960s transformed our sense of women's place in politics and society. But it was preceded (and necessitated) by very traditional notions of women's roles that are captured in these statements. They underscore the fact that the "feminine mystique" was not a figment of Betty Friedan's imagination!

At the same time, the tapes themselves are replete with examples of Mrs. Kennedy's independent thinking and ironically, she describes again and again incidents when her views diverged from those of her husband,coach factory online. Her comments on women in politics, in fact, follows her observation that she found it difficult to forgive politicians with whom JFK had crossed swords while her husband saw such conflicts as very much a part of the business of politics,coach factory store. She observes: "Jack would never — he'd often say that — never get in anything so deep that you've lost all chance of conciliation. ... I mean, I'd get terribly emotional about anyone, whether it was a politician or newspaper person who would be unfair, but he always treated it so objectively, as if they were people on a chess board — which is right. . ... [I]f he'd gotten so mad at all those people, then you may need to work with them again later. So, it's the only way to be effective." It is, of course, a stereotype to ascribe such differences in temperament to gender. She admired his equilibrium and ability to be dispassionate and clearly thought it came more easily to him and to all men than it did to her and other women.

BG: Kennedy worked hard during her life to carefully craft her family's image. She was, after all, the first person to compare the Kennedy presidency to Camelot. Are these tapes a rare example of the unvarnished Kennedy, or are they just another example of calculated myth making?

EF: I think it would be very cynical — and completely wrong — to see her remarks on these tapes as calculated myth making. There is an off the cuff quality to these conversations,gucci outlet, a rambling, even at times disjointed mood that shows Kennedy in a reflective mood. Much of what we hear is quite unvarnished,chanel purses. The conversations range over several days and many hours.The sound bites that have gotten the most media attention were stripped of their context and when that is provided, as it is in the tapes, one gets a sense of a person who intensely enjoyed some of her experience in the White House and was overwhelmed by and even abhorred some of what she saw. She does not, it is true, share with Schlesinger any doubts about or criticism of her husband. That isn't surprising.

BG: How should Americans react to and absorb that fuller picture of Kennedy,coach outlet online? It seems many are disappointed to see an icon in a more human light,beats headphones.

EF: Those who admired Jacqueline Kennedy will, I suspect, continue to do so. Those who didn't will retain their views. One thing that fuels fascination with these figures is that President Kennedy was both our first "television" president — someone we felt we came to know through the immediacy of mass media — and the last president to enjoy what would soon became an outmoded deference from the press who avoided publishing stories about the president's health, private life, and personal foibles that are covered widely today. So he had the benefits and few of the liabilities of extensive media coverage. In addition, the Kennedy's brought the youngest children to the White House of any presidential family in modern history at a time when the World War II generation was raising the baby boomers. Many identified with them despite their unusual wealth and movie star good looks. Finally, the tragic circumstances of President Kennedy's death created a profound grief in the nation and joined,coach outlet, in some sense, Americans who lived through this exper