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 Front Cover (1972) | |
| Author | Taylor Caldwell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical Novel |
| Publisher | Fawcett Publications |
Publication date | 1972 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 816 |
| OCLC | 318377470 |
| Preceded by | On Growing Up Tough |
| Followed by | To 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. The novel is an inter-generational saga that focuses on the themes of the American dream, discrimination, bigotry, and history that is being made by a cabal of the rich and powerful. The saga nears its end when Armagh succeeds in making his eldest son, Rory (modeled after John Fitzgerald Kennedy), a senator. When Rory is going to become the first Catholic President of the United States, he is assassinated by the cabal of the rich and powerful.
The novel was adapted as a 1976 television miniseries of the same name, starring Richard Jordan as Joseph Armagh.