Why England Slept Author:John F. Kennedy This is a book with 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 out times". — Kennedy's accession to the Presidency of the United States would by itself recall his book to prominence. More ... 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 weakness of a democratic and capitalistic system, facing a totalitarian power, under the requirements of modern warfare.« less