Ask Not

From New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposé of the real Kennedy Curse the family's generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem and the women who have paid the price for our obsession with Camelot.

For decades, the Kennedy name has been synonymous with wealth, power, and above all else integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the Kennedy men's legacy of physical and psychological abuse of women, part of a tradition of toxic masculinity that spans generations and has ruined untold lives. Through scandal after scandal, the family and their defenders have managed to keep this shameful story out of the spotlight. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys' hidden history of abuse and exploitation, laying bare their rampant misogyny and restoring women to the center of the dynasty's story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Mary Richardson, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren't nearly as well known – but rightfully should be.

Drawing on years of fierce reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled American family, showing how the Kennedy myth and their raw political power has enabled the clan's many predators while also silencing generations of traumatized women and girls. At long last, Callahan also redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys' orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves—and giving voice to the countless others who could not do the same.

About the Author

Maureen Callahan has worked as an editor and writer at the New York Post for seven years, covering everything from the subcultures of the Lower East Side to local and national politics. Before that, she worked as a writer for MTV, Sassy, New York magazine and Spin, where she won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor award for co-authoring DON'T DRINK THE BROWN WATER, a lengthy expose of what led to the Woodstock riots of 1999; that piece was also selected for inclusion in DaCapo's BEST MUSIC WRITING 2000. Last year, she was nominated for a Pulitzer by the New York Post for her work at the paper.