Link so I don't lose it for referencing

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-09-26-jfk-kennedy-mystique_N.htm

First Draft Essay Framework

Introduction:   Defintion of a hero and justification that JFK fills this . Pose question as to whether this is manufactured or naturally occuring based upon success.

Section 1    How myths are created linked in with the creation of Camelot.  

Role of other Kennedy family members- Bobby,  Current generation ( Caroline Kennedy )

Section 2    Other areas which use his image to represent something positive (taking him out of context of man and being associated with movements or ideas  -  Image of generation- good times in early 60s,  LBJ, African American rights.

Section 3   Situations which created further sympathy/ had an impact on the way he was percieved naturally
- Assassination  and Funeral
- negative post Kennedy situation in America

Section 4   Actions during presidency and whether they justify his reputation
- Cuban Missile Crisis vs Bay of Pigs
- Blame for Vietnam
- Inspirational speeches ?

Section 5 /(potentially my conclusion )   Is there an issue with manufacturing a myth if it is just an elaboration of the truth?Remembering people for their best.


I would also like to include discussion on the idea that he was "taken before his time" and the illusion of having greater potential. I'm unsure of which section this fits in best with, either his actions in presidency as to whether they do suggest he had further potential(4)  , linked in with his assassination (3) or linked in with a specific action of a group of people to suggest that he had potential to change the way he is percieved (1).  I'm even debating tying it with the the image of moving forward (2) . Overall it looks like it could go pretty much anywhere so I should stop worrying so much about where to place it!

What we remember

"History is a tissue of such tender episodes, if also an imperfect record of them"

                                   - Paul Maliszewski , Smithsonian magazine, September 2003

I just came across this sentence in an article on Smithsonian.com about iconic images of the 9/11 tragedy, reposted today as part of a remembrance series for the 10th Anniversary. Not only does it echo a lot of my own opinions on the nature of History and how we can manipulate how events are remembered to leave multiple conflicting versions of History, it also links nicely to my project.  History is by no measure always an accurate record of events, particularly when the people and events in question provoke such high levels of emotional involvement of the masses. In fact, I'm not even sure there is such a thing as an "accurate record" as very little of real life is quantitative and therefore to some degree every recollection of history is simply a subjective record, whether innocently in an observer only naturally noticing what they are inclined to notice or more intentionally in the case of propaganda schemes. Overall, just down to way history is recorded to some JFK's hero status will feel truly deserved whereas to others who interpret the same evidence differently it may feel more manufactured. At the end of the day, it's nicer to remember people for the best in their life rather than the worst, and so even though there may be many people out there who equally deserve to have a heroic status it doesn't take a way from the fact that Kennedy, a man whose word's and action have brought inspiration and happiness to many, deserves this status at least to some extent, regardless of the less endearing decisions he made at points in his life

More information sources for now and the future

http://kennedylegacy.tumblr.com/ 
This blog is a collection of old photos and quotes from the Kennedy family, which are quite nice to sift through and look at although not hugely useful for my project. However, the blog posts new Kennedy news as it appears, the majority of which is directly related to maintaining Kennedy's legacy, which is massively helpful! Top of the list of useful things I've found on their recently was news that the Jackie interview tapes from soon after the assassination are going to be released mid-September along with a TV special on them on ABC America.   These tapes have the potential to contain a lot of information of the Camelot myth and could reveal a lot apart the part played by Jackie Kennedy in maintaining her husband's legacy.  She is said to have stated herself that these interviews were done with a leading historian of the time to record information "for history" so hopefully the information they contain will reveal a lot about Jackie's view of her husbands life as well as her mindset for her subsequent actions in maintaining the Camelot myth.

The Kennedy's axed

The broadcast of The Kennedy's television series about the family was cancelled on ABC in America early in the year upon Caroline Kennedy's request. Although the official reason given by the network representative for the cancellation was that ABC  "concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand."  There was a lot of speculation about whether Caroline Kennedy (daughter of JFK and Jackie) might have led the bid to have the series axed as she was unhappy with it's portrayal of her parents' relationship, despite its slightly dramatised but generally historically accurate nature.   The show aired in England on BBC2 and was picked up in Canada by a different network despite the concerns Caroline expressed, however the effort she supposedly went to to get a multimillion dollar project axed says a create deal the continued concerns of the Kennedy's to maintain their positive legacy.


Sources:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1346292/Its-truth-Producer-defends-JFK-mini-series-cancelled-pressure-Caroline-Kennedy.html
http://www.popeater.com/2011/01/11/the-kennedys-miniseries-cancelled/

Action Plan

"The Kennedys" - starting 7th April 2011

A new drama about the Kennedys starts tomorrow on the History channel :) For future reference (never know, I might need it!) the trailer is here . It aired in the states earlier this week and has had mixed reviews, apparently it's quite controversial and its likely truth has been bent for the sake of entertainment in places so I'm not sure how great it will be as a factual source. 

 "Linda Stassi, a critic for the New York Post, lauded the programme with praise, describing it as 'without a doubt one of the best, most riveting, historically accurate dramas about a time and place in American history that has ever been done for TV'."

Okay so I could be wrong. Either way, I'll still check the facts before believing everything it says.  

The History channel have done a video archive of news reports of notable events and a timeline to promote the drama here .   The videos seem quite useful but from first glance the timeline isn't wildly different to the one on the Kennedy 50 year site. Although saying that, they are probably coming from the total opposite angle, one praising and one looking for the drama in Kennedy's life, so that might be worth checking.  

Fingers crossed this drama is good and even if its not as informative as i'm hoping, it helps to confirm what sort of aspects would be interesting to look into to confirm my question a bit more.

My findings so far

So far, I can find very few individuals or opinion polls which do not support Kennedy's great reputation, although there is quite a lot of suggestion that this is not validated by the facts.  Reasons for this repuation that I have found so far seem to revolve around the glamorous lifestyle of the Kennedy family, the tragic nature of his death and the way Kennedy reached and inspired the youth to do big things.  There is suggestions that his good reputation is because of American society declining/ having fewer successes after his death, therefore glorifying him in comparison.
My next area for research comes from the lesson plans here . I want to look into if the way he has been portrayed in films has affected the way he is now perceived, and in effect sort of changed history.  I need to decide the angle of my question asap though, because even at this early stage there are SO many routes I have found that I could research in to but not all are relevant to both angles.
So far, internet sources have been far more useful to my investigation than I originally thought. Although I'm not convinced they will be that useful for in depth factual things such as Kennedy's handling of events, they are really useful at the moment for finding potential research routes, people to contact, and particularly for public opinion through message boards.
The main challenges I think I will have is trying to be balanced in my judgement and not letting my opinion become too set in stone too early. Also, I think selecting specific sources to use as case studies fir propaganda will be really hard as there is such a large variety available, and I might have the same issue with choosing event case studies too as I'm a very indecisive person at times!

Reflection on my project

A working title :   This is where I am really struggling. I need to find something that links the general idea of do his life achievements and his reputation match. I'm still unsure of if I'd rather go down a propaganda angle about how he has maintained this reputation instead. Hmm, I have a lot of thinking to do.


Areas to research: It really depends which angle I choose to which of the following I would need to research

• Public opinion of JFK now and at the time
• JFKs life- probably focussing on the way he dealt with major events and his personality/the way he interacted with people
• Propaganda methods used to maintain this public image
• The effect of his assassination on how he had been remembered
• Possibly the relative achievements and reputations of other presidents in order to have something to compare Kennedy against.

EPQ Presentation Evening review

On 17th February, I attended the Upper Sixth's Presentation Evening which was a useful learning experience, particularly with regard to the EPQ process itself.

Discussion of sources for data collection

JFK ON TWITTER + other slightly less exciting but equally useful links!

The JFK presidential library in Boston have set up a twitter account to chronicle Kennedy's 1000 days in office. The tweets are a mixture of photos, his own words, and explanations of his actions.  There seems to be 2 or 3 tweets a day (sometimes more on busy days!) so this is likely to become an invaluable research source.   Similarly, the presidential library have very very recently digitalised every artifact they possess,which I hope can all be accessed through their website (I need to check that!) - convenient timing or what! 

Useful links relating to the amazing JFK presidential library-  

http://twitter.com/#!/jfklibrary      Twitter account for the library (lots of tweets relating Kennedy to today- useful for legacy maybe ?!)

http://www.jfk50.org/      Website created specifically for 50th anniversary of his inauguration -  includes a really useful interactive time line of major events in his presidency and how this "will shape the world to come". This looks like it will be helpful for getting an overview of major events he was involved in, but I would have to look into his success in such events elsewhere as the site is really biased.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/    The library's website, with access to the digital archive- loads of primary sources which will be useful not only for research into the way he dealt with events, but also for specific propaganda examples

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1197     This is the most useful website I have found so far with regard to finding a starting point. It is an education message board where lots of history teachers or general enthusiasts have offered their opinion on why Kennedy is so highly regarded, and provided other links to websites relating to this idea
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1115  more from the same site here, a thread about how Kennedy is portrayed in film. It provides lots of suggested sources for research

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/01/20/jfk_dallek_anniversary/index.html
Article written in January 2011 on why do we admire JFK when he did so little. This is pretty perfect for initial research and ideas. The author has also written a book ,   "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963" which could be useful.

http://www.clovisnews.com/trails/greatest.html    President related opinion polls to use as suggestions for figures on Kennedy, and possibly suggest other president to look into. The polls are now 10 years old though, so quite outdated.  

Sources for data collection : Case Studies

“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days...But let us begin."

What are you aiming to find out?

In short, I am aiming to find out whether Kennedy deserves his reputation as "the best US president" or not. 

What topic area are you planning on researching?

I need to do research into the life, achievements and downfalls of Kennedy both as a person and a president, in order to attain some knowledge to base my opinion on! I would then like to go on to find and analyse different interpretations of Kennedy to try and form my own judgement on him, as well as comparing his achievements to those of other successful presidents in order to decide whether he truly deserves this title of "the best". I would also like to research Kennedy's use of propaganda in maintaining his image and the effect of his assassination on how future generations perceive him.


What are you planning on producing i.e. what is your final product?

I will most likely produce an essay, on which ever aspect of my research on Kennedy I find to be most relevant/interesting. I'd like to do something more creative such as some form of documentary type thing, but I'm not sure how realistic that would be along side managing a presentation as well!

How will you go about doing this?

I intend to do a lot of research via the internet, books and watching films to see how Kennedy have been portrayed. I want to analyse different opinion polls which include Kennedy, those from educated sources and less educated sources, to see whether Kennedy's popularity is partly down to a celebrity type culture in which people like him because they know his name but little about him, or not.  I'd like to try to include some form of primary sources, of my own data into the project to make it more my own, however I'm not yet sure how I would do this.

Why are your interested in this project?

I have always loved history, and in particular American history after visiting the East coast with school in summer 2009.  The JFK Presidential Library and Museum is possibly the most glorifying and have every visited, yet I still have very little idea as to how or why he has obtained such a sterling reputation (from what I can tell anyway!). Also I love looking at different propaganda techniques and their effectiveness (it's all so clever!), and I am hoping that Kennedy will be an interesting figure for this, particularly as I know he made some controversial decisions so there must have been some form of propaganda used for him to retain a good image. Finally, I am still struggling to choose between studying History ( + potentially American studies) and Maths (which annoying dont seem to combine well!) at university, so I am hoping that focusing entirely on one subject without a cross over will help to confirm my decision either way :) 

The Golden Rules for EPQ

Do

• Ask for help when you need it
• Stay organised
• Stick to your plan or justify any changes by recording all of your EPQ related thoughts!
• Have a broad research base
• Keep track of dates
• Stay in contact with you

Don't

• Let EPQ get in the way of exams
• Stress too much over it!