Oliver Lubrich, ed., <i>John F. Kennedy's Hidden Diary, Europe 1937: The Travel Journals of JFK and Kirk LeMoyne Billings</i>

In the summer of 1937, after John F. Kennedy completed his initial year at Harvard University, he traveled through Europe. The trip had an important influence on his intellectual development and later inspired his first book. He was accompanied by his close, life-long friend, Kirk Lemoyne Billings, known by the Kennedy family as “Lem.” After the First World War, Europe had been transformed with the rise of fascism and a civil war in Spain. Both Kennedy and Billings kept journals, which until now historians could view only at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, in Boston. Oliver Lubrich's transcription of those journals in John F. Kennedy's Hidden Diary, Europe 1937: The Travel Journals of JFK and Kirk LeMoyne Billings is a valuable resource for scholars who would like to see how Kennedy's experiences in Europe in 1937 affected his thinking on foreign policy.Kennedy's diary was originally published in German translation under the title John F. Kennedy: Unter Deutschen. Reisetagebücher und Briefe, 1937–1945 (Berlin: Aufban 2013). Billings's diary was also previously published in German translation under the title John F. Kennedy: Das geheime Tagebuch, Europa 1937 (Vienna: DVB, 2021). Lubrich edited both volumes. However, this is the first time that both diaries, in their entirety, were published together and in the original English. The first part of the volume is an introduction written by Lubrich that sets the historical context of the journals and offers readers an analysis of the relevance of these historical documents. The second part is Kennedy's diary with some grammatical corrections by Lubrich, which he discusses in the “Editorial Principles” section of the book before the diary. The next part is Billings's diary, which was a scrapbook with photographs and description of their travels. Umbrich finishes the book with an itinerary and timetable of their trip.This was not the only trip that Kennedy took to Europe. Lubrich uses the introduction to make a connection not only to other trips in 1939 and 1945, but also to Kennedy's trip to Germany as U.S. president in 1963. “The European journey during the summer of 1937 amounted to a kind of political initiation,” he writes (p. 15). Lubrich also cites other perspectives of trips to Europe from W.E.B. Du Bois, Thomas Wolfe, William Shirer, and others as way for readers to compare Kennedy's own observations to those who experienced Europe in the years before World War II.In 1939, Kennedy was sent to Europe on a fact-finding mission for his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who was the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. Lubrich writes that during this time, “Kennedy immersed himself more deeply in German foreign policy” (p. 16). He presents a fascinating narrative for the reader based on letters and other sources that highlights John Kennedy's thoughts on the buildup in Europe. He quotes a letter from Kennedy saying “Talked with the Nazi heads and all the consuls up there” and argues that these observations were “much more complex and coherent” than his 1937 diary. Lubrich even compares Kennedy's observations to William Shirer's Berlin Diary. This approach puts into sharp focus how Kennedy's earlier trip in 1937 was different, and the reader sees a more mature man. Indeed, as Lubrich points out, these two trips played a major role in Kennedy's Harvard thesis and subsequent book, Why England Slept.The introduction also analyzes Kennedy's trip to Europe after the war through another diary he wrote in 1945 that has been published as Prelude to Leadership: The Post-War Diary of John F. Kennedy (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing Inc., 1995), edited by Dierdre Henderson with an introduction by Hugh Sidey. Lubrich brings the introduction to a close with Kennedy's 1963 trip to Germany as president of the United States. In this instance, Lubrich is successful in bookending his introduction with Kennedy's comments on Germany: “Through his encounters with Germans [Kennedy] developed an empathy for them” (p. 35). The introduction is a window into the influence that Europe had on Kennedy in those early years.The second part of the book is a full text of Kennedy's diary, which he kept in a leather-bound journal that was given to him by his sister Kathleen. The entries give the reader a glimpse into the thoughts of a young student who was influenced by the times and the relationships he experienced. Kennedy's intimate thoughts offer a rare window into his thinking as he witnessed the buildup to war. He often commented on what government works best in different parts of the world. “Fa[s]cism is the thing for Germany and Italy, Communism for Russia and democracy for America and England,” Kennedy wrote in August 1937 (p. 58). Lubrich provides a major service to Kennedy scholars by publishing this diary in its original English. The journal that is housed at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and available digitally is very difficult to decipher at times. Scholars can use this book to analyze Kennedy's language and narrative for the first time without struggling to read his handwritten notes.On another level, this journal tells a coming-of-age story in which Kennedy and Billings experienced Europe on the brink of war. They spoke with refugees from the Spanish Civil War, visited World War I battle sites, walked through places where kings and queens lived, and picked up a dog along the way. In addition to that, Kennedy was true to his Catholic faith, attending Mass every Sunday and having an audience with the Pope. He visited churches and catacombs and completed the “Holy Stairs” at St. Jean Lateran on his knees in Rome. He wrote that St. Peter's Basilica was “by far the most beautiful we had seen yet” (p. 60).The photos that Lubrich chooses to include in the book highlight some of the pivotal events in the diary and give the reader imagery that connects to the narrative. They lead nicely into the third part of the book—Billings's scrapbook, where some of those photos originated. Billings had many of the same comments as Kennedy. However, Billings wrote much more about each place they visited and sometimes had multiple entries a day. To be sure, the diary is valuable to scholars as they consider the role that this friendship had on Kennedy's development as a leader. In fact, Billings was in Kennedy's life until the assassination in November 1963.John F. Kennedy's Hidden Diary, Europe 1937 is an excellent resource for historians who want to examine the role that Kennedy's early experiences and relationships played in his journey to the White House. The trip was taken when Kennedy was only twenty years old. The diary that Lubrich chronicles in this volume is nearly halfway through the future president's short life. Without the memoir that Kennedy hoped to write after serving as president, scholars have limited resources to analyze Kennedy's thoughts and feelings on government, war, and politics. Kennedy's 1937 diary offers insight into some of those notions, and this book gives us a rare glimpse into the mind of a young man who would someday be president of the United States at the height of the Cold War.