Tells the story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis through her evolving public persona, from campaign wife to First Lady to fallen idol to treasured national icon
When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became First Lady of the United States over sixty years ago, she stepped into the public spotlight. Although Jackie is perhaps best known for her two highly-publicized marriages, her legacy has endured beyond twentieth-century pop culture and she remains an object of public fascination today.
Drawing on a range of sources鈥� from articles penned for the women鈥檚 pages of local newspapers, to esteemed national periodicals, to fan magazines and film鈥� Our Jackie evaluates how media coverage of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis changed over the course of her very public life. Jackie鈥檚 interactions with and framing by the American media reflect the changing attitudes toward American womanhood. Over the course of four decades, Jackie was alternatively praised for her service to others, and pilloried for her perceived self-interest. In Our Jackie, Karen M. Dunak argues that whether she was portrayed as a campaign wife, a loyal widow, a selfish jetsetter, or a mature career woman, the history of Jackie鈥檚 highly publicized life demonstrates the ways in which news, entertainment, politics, and celebrity evolved and intertwined over the second half of the twentieth century.
Examining the intimate chronicles of this famous First Lady鈥檚 life, Our Jackie suggests that media coverage of this enigmatic public figure revealed as much about the prevailing views of women in America鈥� how they should behave and whom they should serve鈥� as it did about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as an individual.
