No cities have closer ties to the end of John F. Kennedy’s presidency than Dallas and Fort Worth.

The president and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy spent their last night together in Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas. Then, the next morning, JFK and the nation’s pink-clad First Lady gloriously charmed the city’s leaders at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast before leaving for Dallas and that most awful event – the assassination on November 22, 1963.

The gunshots may have been fired one afternoon in Dallas, but they have echoed across a half-century and through halls of government and in the hearts of people around the world. This legacy of presidential spirit is outlined and analyzed in Dr. Larry Sabato’s next book, The Kennedy Half-Century.

The release date for the book is October 22 – a month shy of the 50th anniversary of the event that led this renowned political scientist to write The Kennedy Half-Century, subtitled The Presidency, Assassination and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy. The day the president was killed, the author/scholar was an 11-year-old schoolboy in Norfolk, Va.

When Sabato headlines World Affairs Council programs in Dallas (October 28) and Fort Worth (October 29), he will not just be acknowledging history but will be assessing the lingering power of President John F. Kennedy.

A nation stopped on a dime that Friday afternoon – a new drama captured the American heart, launched the conspiracy industry and provided inspiration for many books and movies. But author Sabato explains that something more than tragedy survived: The guiding spirit of a young, vibrant president who urged Americans to become involved with their nation and their fellow citizens.

It is that spirit and its legacy that Dr. Sabato analyzes in The Kennedy Half-Century. Regarded as America’s keenest analyst of elections, Dr. Sabato is director of the University of Virginia’s Center For Politics.

As he discovers and as polls have demonstrated since 1963, Kennedy’s political ideals and influence survived to shape a nation, inspiring young people to get involved in government and to carry messages of peace and hope around the world. REGISTER NOW.