Two Days in June is the story of the high noon of the presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It chronicles, hour-by-hour, two days in the late spring of 1963 in which JFK pivots, courageously and historically, on the two biggest issues of his generation: nuclear arms and civil rights. The story presents JFK in a granular detail as he appeals to Americans, in two memorable speeches, to abandon their prejudices and look differently at peace and freedom in the shadow of the Cold War and Jim Crow. Defying his advisors, who warn that both could cost him the next election, Kennedy's initiatives will lead to the first nuclear arms treaty of the Cold War and the most comprehensive civil rights act in American history. This is a fly-on-the-wall story of 48 hours in the life of one of the most celebrated Americans of the 20th century. It draws on new, sensational material: sixteen hours of uncut, unseen film shot in the Oval Office and the Justice Department. The story also brings to light the lost draft of the civil speech rights speech that JFK did not use that evening -- even as he went on the air without complete text and spoke the last three minutes extemporaneously. In the rich Kennedy literature, Two Days in June is taut, atmospheric, and wholly original.
