Captains and the Kings

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For the 1976 miniseries adaptation, see Captains and the Kings (miniseries).
Captains and the Kings
Captains and the Kings - Cover.jpg
Front Cover (1972)
AuthorTaylor Caldwell
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical Novel
PublisherFawcett Publications
Publication date
1972
Pages816
OCLC318377470
Preceded byOn Growing Up Tough 
Followed byTo Look and Pass 

Captains and the Kings is a 1972 historical novel by Taylor Caldwell chronicling the rise to wealth and power of an Irish immigrant, Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh, who emigrates as a penniless teenager to the United States, along with his younger brother and baby sister, only for their parents to die shortly afterwards. Joseph Armagh befriends a Lebanese immigrant, and both are taken under the tutelage of an American plutocrat. An inter-generational saga focusing on the themes of the American dream, discrimination and bigotry in American life, and of history as made by a cabal of the rich and powerful, through Armagh's attempt to make his eldest son, who eventually becomes a senator, and then the first Catholic President of the United States.

The novel was adapted as a 1976 television miniseries of the same name, starring Richard Jordan as Joseph Armagh.

Plot[]

Young Joseph Armagh, recently of Ireland, who promised his dying mother to care for his younger siblings lands in Boston. His determination carries him through years of shady-deal making and his gradual accumulation of wealth and power. Armagh takes on the global power brokers.

Release[]

It was one of the top 10 best-sellers of 1972, as ranked by The New York Times Best Seller list.[1] Caldwell drew heavily on aspects of the Kennedy family, John D. Rockefeller and Howard Hughes, although she did write in the epilogue that the "Armagh family" is fictional and was not meant to lampoon nor criticize.[citation needed]

Adaptation[]

The book was adapted into an eight-part television miniseries, also called Captains and the Kings, by NBC in the 1976 broadcast season as part of its Best Sellers series.[2]

References[]

  1. ^ Burt, Daniel S. (2004). The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. p. 579. ISBN 978-0618168217.
  2. ^ "CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS (1976)". Fan TV. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2016.

External links[]

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