Fifty years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls “Kennedy’s leading biographer,” delivers a riveting fresh portrait of the chief executive and his inner circle of advisors-their rivalries, character clashes, and politics fights. In Camelot’s Court, Dallek analyzes the mind trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy’s administration-including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Problems, and about Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White Home Vietnam-were indelible.

Kennedy purposefully put together a dynamic group of advisors noted for their brilliance and acumen, including Lawyer General Robert Kennedy, Secretary of Protection Robert McNamara, Secretary of Condition Dean Rusk, National Security Consultant McGeorge Bundy, and trusted aides Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger. Yet the very characteristics these men shared also created razor-sharp divisions. Far from being unified, this is an uneasy band of rivals whose ambitions and clashing values ignited fiery inner debates.

Robert Dallek illuminates a president deeply determined to surround himself with the very best and the brightest, who often found himself disappointed with their recommendations. The effect, Camelot’s Courtroom: Inside the Kennedy White colored House, can be a striking portrait of a leader whose wise level of resistance to pressure and adherence to basic principle gives a cautionary tale for our very own time.