"To mark the life, political career, and enduring cultural legacy of John F. Kennedy, the Atlantic's commemorative edition, "JFK: In His Time and Ours," reveals the many sources--the glamour, the shock of his death, the revelations over the years of his private pains and doubts-- of President Kennedy's continuing hold on the national imagination. The collection features original essays by leading historians and writers, as well as articles and reportage culled from the magazine's rich archive.

With an introduction by President Bill Clinton, who considers his predecessor's contributions to Civil Rights, the issue also includes:

• Presidential historian Robert Dallek's new revelations about JFK's battles with his own military advisors, who kept arguing for the deployment of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. This article is available as a sample of the issue, along with an editor's note by James Bennet.
• JFK Library Director Thomas Putnam's recounting of the real story behind Kennedy's most eloquent speech on the world stage, his famousIch bin ein Berliner speech in 1963.
• Columbia Historian's Alan Brinkley's essay explaining why the American public holds JFK in so much higher esteem than professional historian do
• Novelist Thomas Mallon's piece of short fiction, "Magnified," which imagines what would have happened if Lee Harvey Oswald had lost his nerve on November 22, 1963

Plus: Atlantic articles on the Kennedy era by Eleanor Roosevelt, Garry Wills, Walter Lippmann, Samuel Eliot Morison, Caitlin Flanagan, Robert F. Kennedy, and JFK himself, among many others.

Also featuring: hundreds of photos, including rarely seen images, presidential doodles, and original documents.

You can read this issue in digital format by downloading it for your iPad or Kindle. You can order a print version here.