Another assassination anniversary: Nov. 22, 2011

I taught JFK's administration and assassination two weeks ago in my Modern American History class. It brought back not only the "standard" memories--where I was when I heard that he had been shot, watching Walter Cronkhite on TV, then watching the funeral followed by Jack Ruby shooting Oswald--but how different classes over the decades have viewed JFK. In the 1990s, at Denison University there was a bit of laughter and smirking over Kennedy as a womanizer. That is what they had learned about him. But in the last ten years, in New York, at different colleges, the students have been far more interested in the man, his presidency, and the fatal day of his death. The most poignant reflection by a student was on a final exam at FIT. A young woman wrote a compelling essay on JFK and then stated that until she had see me tear up she had not completely understood the significance of JFK's death on my generation. She equated it with her own reaction to the 9/11 tragedy. In teaching JFK, I have used Sean Wilentz's piece in the New York Times, "What if Kennedy Had Lived." I highly recommend it as a teaching tool. And I am on a waiting list to read Chris Mathews new book on JFK. His words tonight as he closed out his MSNBC "Hardball" were moving.