Why England Slept Author:John F. Kennedy "Why England Slept" is a book with an unprecedented history. Written as John F. Kennedy's senior thesis, it earned him honors at Harvard and went on to become a best seller of 1940, praised by the New York Times as "a notable textbook for our times." — Kennedy's accession to the Presidency of the United States would by itself recall his book to p... more »rominence. More important, the factors that scattered England's energies during a crucial period -- and left her no alternative to Munich -- point a theme more urgently contemporary than ever: the short-term weaknesses of a democratic and capitalistic system, facing a totalitarian power, under the requirements of modern warfare.« less