书名：Profiles in Courage当仁不让

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1410L
作者：John F. Kennedy
出版社名称：Harper Perennial Modern Classics
出版时间：2006
语种：英文
ISBN：9780060854935
商品尺寸：13.5 x 1.7 x 20.3 cm
包装：平装
页数：304
★一部由美国总统撰写的普利策奖获奖作品

★约翰肯尼迪总统执笔书写
★八位改变美国历史进程的参议员
★重压下表现优雅的勇气故事

媒体评论
“政治这一行现在公众中威信极低，原因之一就是政客自己不断损害政治的名声。他们一直竭力把个人利益置于他们的责任感之上。
在这种情势下，这本由美国政治家写的关于政治上当仁不让的人物的书，发人深省。
参议员肯尼迪看问题目光敏锐、深思熟虑，又有亲身的政治经历，因此写起来倍加精彩。和许多年轻能干的参议员一样，他仔细研究了国会和议员的作用、弱点和尚未发挥的潜力，实际上还深思过辉煌时代是否已经一去不复返的问题。他在那年春天漫长的康复期内，把这些思考变为具体的文字……在政治上他绝不是肤浅的涉猎者，而是策略娴熟、扎扎实实的践行者。他的书能够恢复人们对神圣庄严但颇受诟病的政治职业的尊敬。”——《纽约时报》

“美国马萨诸塞州参议员约翰·F·肯尼迪写了一本值得每个美国人认真阅读的书。因为它格外清晰地描述了所有众议院和参议院的成员面临的压力和挑战，刻画了担当众议员、参议员所需的高度无私的爱国主义精神，如果他们希望忠诚尽职地为国家服务的话。”——《共和党人》

“总体来说，这位参议员干得不错，但他将来必须留意自己的每一步——因为他已经为政治上的正直诚实行为树立了可供比较的高标准。近年来关于政治独立和勇气的研究盛行。但一位美国参议员、一个思维缜密、特立独行的年轻人能够做出这样的研究成果，着实令人赞叹。这本书仿佛是参议员肯尼迪挂上他的船桅的一面旗帜，希望他能让它永远飘扬。”——ED坎汉姆，《基督教科学箴言报》

The Pulitzer Prize winning classic by President John F. Kennedy, with an introduction by Caroline Kennedy and a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy.
Written in 1955 by the then junior senator from the state of Massachusetts, John F. Kennedys Profiles in Courage serves as a clarion call to every American.
In this book Kennedy chose eight of his historical colleagues to profile for their acts of astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. These heroes, coming from different junctures in our nations history, include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, and Robert A. Taft.
Now, a half-century later, the book remains a moving, powerful, and relevant testament to the indomitable national spirit and an unparalleled celebration of that most noble of human virtues. It resounds with timeless lessons on the most cherished of virtues and is a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit. Profiles in Courage is as Robert Kennedy states in the foreword: "not just stories of the past but a book of hope and confidence for the future. What happens to the country, to the world, depends on what we do with what others have left us."
Along with vintage photographs and an extensive author biography, this book features Kennedys correspondence about the writing project, contemporary reviews, a letter from Ernest Hemingway, and two rousing speeches from recipients of the Profile in Courage Award. Introduction by John F. Kennedys daughter Caroline Kennedy, forward by John F. Kennedys brother Robert F. Kennedy.
Profiles in Courage《当仁不让》为美国前总统约翰·F·肯尼迪于1955年完成的作品，刻画了美国历史上八位勇敢的参议员的形象，讲述了他们在面对党内同事和选民压力时，依然勇敢坚守原则、坚持正确方向的事迹。

八位参议员分别是：
约翰·昆西·亚当斯（1767-1848），马萨诸塞州参议员，曾与联邦党决裂。他在詹姆斯门罗时期担任美国国务卿，并发展“门罗主义”。美国第六任总统，是由国会众议院选出的总统，美国历史上第1位继其父亲之后成为总统的总统。

丹尼尔·韦伯斯特（1782－1852），曾于1841-1843和1850-1852年期间两次担任美国国务卿。马萨诸塞州参议员，支持有关奴隶制问题的《1850年妥协案》。美国国会于1850年9月通过该妥协案，使得联邦政府以和平的方式暂时得以保全。

托马斯·哈特本顿（1782-1858），密苏里州参议员，西进运动的坚定支持者，反对奴隶制的扩张。

山姆·休斯敦（1793-1863），得克萨斯州参议员，得克萨斯共和国第1任总统，得克萨斯并入美国后任得克萨斯州州长。反对1854年的《堪萨斯-内布拉斯加法案》和得克萨斯州从联邦脱离，为此，他被免去州长一职。休斯敦市以他的名字命名。

埃德蒙·G·格罗斯（1826-1907），堪萨斯州参议员，在安德鲁约翰逊弹劾案审判中投票支持无罪释放。由于他和其他六位共和党人的投票，约翰逊的总统职位得以保存，政府声誉得以维护。

卢修斯•奎塔斯•辛辛纳塔斯•拉马尔（1825-1893），密西西比州参议员，支持致力于废奴的政治家查尔斯•萨姆纳，并为重建后恢复南北之间的联系作出诸多努力。

乔治•诺里斯(1861-1944)，内布拉斯加州参议员。反对众议院议长约瑟夫·葛尼·坎农的拥权自重，坚决反对在一战美国中立时期为美国商船配备武器，支持民主党人艾尔·史密斯的总统竞选。

罗伯特·A·塔夫脱（1889-1953），俄亥俄州参议员，批评以追溯既往的法律在纽伦堡判处纳粹战犯死刑。
约翰·菲茨杰拉德·肯尼迪（1917－1963），生于马萨诸塞州。1960年当选美国第35任总统，1963年遇刺身亡。在他的任期内，美国发生了试图废除联邦储备委员会、古巴导弹危机、柏林墙的建立、太空竞赛、越南战争以及美国民权运动等重要事件。

1936年，约翰·F·肯尼迪进入哈佛大学，受外交官父亲的影响，他对欧洲政治和国际事务兴趣浓厚，1939年德国入侵波兰，他撰写了英国与此事件关系的毕业论文，后以《英国为什么沉睡》为名成书出版，畅销一时。
二战时，约翰·F·肯尼迪加入了美国海军，成为派往南太平洋的巡逻鱼雷艇的指挥员，因在战争中救助了落水海军船员，他之后获得紫心勋章等表彰。
1946年至1952年间，肯尼迪担任了三届众议员。1952年成功当选马萨诸塞州参议员。之后他因背部伤痛接受了两次手术。康复期间，他撰写了《当仁不让》一书，刻画了八位美国历史上重要的参议员，他们在关键时刻坚持原则，甚至愿意为了国家利益愿意牺牲自己的政治生涯。《当仁不让》于1956年出版后迅速畅销，并于1957年荣获普利策传记作品奖。
1963年11月22日约翰·F·肯尼迪总统在得克萨斯州达拉斯遇刺身亡。他的遇刺在其后数十年中一直影响了美国政治的发展方向，被视为对美国历史的发展产生重大决定性影响的事件之一。
John F. Kennedy(1917-1963) was president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. At forty-three, he was the youngest man ever elected to the Oval Office and the first Roman Catholic president.
This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues— courage. “Grace under pressure,” Ernest Hemingway defined it. And these are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States Senators and the grace with which they endured them—the risks to their careers, the unpopularity of their courses, the defamation of their characters, and sometimes, but sadly only sometimes, the vindication of their reputations and their principles.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or reward that quality in its chosen leaders today— and in fact we have forgotten. We may remember how John Quincy Adams became President through the political schemes of Henry Clay, but we have forgotten how, as a young man, he gave up a promising Senatorial career to stand by the nation. We may remember Daniel Webster for his subservience to the National Bank throughout much of his career, but we have forgotten his sacrifice for the national good at the close of that career. We do not remember—and possibly we do not care.
“People don’t give a damn,” a syndicated columnist told millions of readers not so many years ago, “what the average Senator or Congressman says. The reason they don’t care is that they know what you hear in Congress is 99% tripe, ignorance and demagoguery and nor to be relied upon…”
Earlier a member of the Cabinet had recorded in his diary:
While I am reluctant to believe in the total depravity of the Senate, I place but little dependence on the honesty and truthfulness of a large portion of the Senators. A majority of them are small lights, mentally weak, and wholly unfit to be Senators. Some are vulgar demagogues. . . some are men of wealth who have purchased their position... [some are] men of narrow intellect, limited comprehension, and low partisan prejudice.
And still earlier a member of the Senate itself told his colleagues that “the confidence of the people is departing from us, owing to our unreasonable delays.”
The Senate knows that many Americans today share these sentiments. Senators, we hear, must be politicians—and politicians must be concerned only with winning votes, not with statesmanship or courage. Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up to be President, but according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, they do not want them to become politicians in the process.
Does this current rash of criticism and disrespect mean the quality of the Senate has declined? Certainly not. For of the three statements quoted above, the first was made in the twentieth century, the second in the nineteenth and the third in the eighteenth (when the first Senate, barely underway, was debating where the Capitol should be located).
Does it mean, then, that the Senate can no longer boast of men of courage?