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Education

John attended Choate, an Episcopal preparatory school in Connecticut, where he earned a reputation as a charming womanizer and fun-loving prankster. In 1935 Kennedy enrolled at the London School of Economics and Princeton University in New Jersey but attended neither because of illness. He entered Harvard College in the fall 1936, taking leave in 1938 to travel through Europe, serving as personal secretary to his father, the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.

Kennedy graduated from Harvard in June 1940, winning honors in history for his thesis analyzing England's slow reaction to German rearmament. With help from his father's powerful friends in publishing, the thesis was published in 1941 under the title, Why England Slept. At 22 and the author of a best-selling book, Kennedy looked toward a career in history, journalism, or public service.