An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 1
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 2
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 3
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 4
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 5
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 6
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 7
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 8
An early draft of his Harvard thesis - photo 9
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An early draft of his Harvard thesis

Starting price
$ 8 000
Auction dateClassic
25.04.2022 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 743830
Lot 170 | An early draft of his Harvard thesis
[KENNEDY, John F. (1917-1963).] Typescript with extensive autograph corrections and emendations, [Cambridge, c.1940]. Ten pages (9 leaves), 280 x 200mm. Handwritten notes in pencil and ink with file holes at left margins (slight age toning to margins). Hand-corrected typescript notes for John Kennedy's 1940 Harvard senior thesis—which formed the basis for his 1940 bestseller Why England Slept. Being the son of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom provided the young Jack Kennedy a front-row seat to the leadup to war in Europe in September 1939. Those events had a deep impact Kennedy, spurring him, for the first time in his life, to delve deeply into a major research project. With the help of his father's diplomatic connections, which allowed him easy access to official documents as well as a copious supply of secondary source material, Kennedy composed a lengthy thesis in early March 1940 entitled Appeasement at Munich (The Inevitable Result of the Slowness of Conversion of the British Democracy from a Disarmament to a Rearmament Policy).Kennedy's first published remarks on the subject appeared as an unsigned editorial in the 9 October 1939 issue of the Harvard Crimson entitled "Peace in our Time." And during that fall semester, his full course load included Principles of Politics, Elements of International Law, Comparative Politics, and Modern Imperialism, which helped prepare him for the ambitious project, undertaken in earnest from January to March 1940. The present typescript appears to be a very early draft of the thesis—consisting of casual observations, likely dictated or written out for a professional typist, that would have been expanded upon in greater detail in subsequent versions. The following excerpt is typical of the informal style found within: "Dilemma in England of the Conservative Party was similar to the Labour Parties [sic] dilemma over disarmament. They felt it O.K. for Germany to rearm – for her to grab Austria, but they couldn’t agree to the method. They wanted to appease her – felt she had rights – but felt manner she did so wrong. Therefore, not willing to fight as long as the only thing they were doing was grabbing things belonging to her anyway. It was when she continued her method of grabbing things in a bad manner but in addition grabbed something that didn't belong to her that England got ready to fight. This viewpoint had effect on rearmament program – that is why I discuss it." The handwritten portions are written in a similar style (for example): “Demo[cracy] can’t change its ideas overnight unless severely shocked—not shocked as Germany did not do anything that England did not regard as something that while unfortunate in name was allright in principle. The persecution of the Jews aroused more animosity than the march at the Rhineland…Frequent articles showing Ger[many] could not win any war etc & victory in World War gave feeling of confidence. Took time to change—Abyssinia same—not ready till Munich. Up to 1936—good but have & reassured. Now they were converted but only to the need for it. Not willing to make sacrifices until 1938. This 1/2 attitude spelt disaster as…would take 3 years. What’s the solution—acknowledge I dictator in changing P.O. & also in putting his energies and effort to work. How can you have democ complete. Looks as though you cant. They have not had our natural resources made them willing to accept it. Maybe in the future we will have England too rich & well off to accept the hardships in 1936.” Other portions offer more fully-developed prose, though could have still benefited from consulting a thesaurus. Mindful of his father's divisive comments on the war, Kennedy strove to demonstrate impartiality: "I am trying to be as impartial as I can as I am merely trying to interpret how the different groups felt and I felt that my contribution can consist in that I am in a impartial position and nothing that I found written on the subject at least recently has been from that angle."Over the years, critics, citing the very short 10 week period in which the final thesis was completed, charged that Kennedy's father had ghostwritten it for his son. This draft would suggest otherwise—a conclusion also reached by Nigel Hamilton in his damning 1992 biography, JFK Reckless Youth. Although he benefited greatly from his father's connections, who supplied him with copious amounts of source material, the final product "was very much Jack's own work, even down to the spelling." (p. 315).
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