Profiles in Courage

Courage (Original Title: Profiles in Courage ) is a 1956 published book of the former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy describes therein the example of eight senators from the U.S. history that moral courage is the most important characteristic of a politician. The biographical texts treat politicians who have acted against their former beliefs, against the line of their party or against public opinion. It introduces the following senators:

• John Quincy Adams
• Daniel Webster
• Thomas Hart Benton
• Sam Houston
• Edmund G. Ross
• Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar
• George W. Norris
• Robert A. Taft

The work took place in the United States a lot of attention and Kennedy was awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize. There have been repeated allegations that a ghostwriter had written the text, such as Gore Vidal or Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen. When Ted Sorensen his memoirs published in 2008, he confessed to the authorship.