American Presidential Politics John Kerry Signed A Call to Service, 2003

John Kerry

Book

Kerry, John. A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, 2003, sets out the political program of the Massachusetts senator who became the Democratic nominee for president the following year, making the book a contemporary statement of Kerry’s national political identity immediately before the 2004 election. Kerry had served in the United States Senate since 1985 and drew on a public career encompassing Vietnam War military service, antiwar activism, and nearly two decades in national politics when presenting his case for American leadership. He subsequently became his party’s 2004 presidential nominee, challenging incumbent President George W. Bush. The signed volume supports research into early twenty-first-century presidential politics, Democratic Party policy, political self-presentation, and the intellectual background to the 2004 campaign.

Kerry, John. A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America. New York: Viking, 2003. Signed by John Kerry on a bookplate in black ink. Published on October 27, 2003, the book presents Kerry’s stated vision for American government and national priorities during the period immediately preceding the Democratic primary contests that carried him to the presidential nomination. Rather than retrospective political memoir, the volume belongs directly to the literature of Kerry’s developing presidential candidacy, documenting the arguments and public persona through which a sitting United States senator sought national office.

One volume. 201 pages. Hardcover in dust jacket. The signed bookplate bears the inscription “John Kerry” in black ink. Kerry’s subsequent nomination gives the volume particular documentary relevance to the 2004 presidential election and to the political ideas he presented to voters before facing Bush in the general election. Kerry later served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the 68th United States Secretary of State, extending the public career represented here beyond the presidential contest itself. No specific defects are noted in the supplied description; hardcover and dust jacket apparently well preserved. Near fine. A signed campaign-era political work closely associated with Kerry’s emergence as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004.

Item #11171

Price: $50.00