Robert Kennedy: His Life

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Biography
Review: I am a 1960's junkie so a book on Bobby Kennedy is essential. I thought this book was very informative, describing him as a child through to his adult life. I think this was very revealing in how he was as adult.

The aspects of Robert Kennedy's life in the JFK White House was very interesting, from the intergration of the University of Alabama to the administrations relations with such figures as Martin Luther King and J. Edgar Hoover.

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to explore Robert Kennedy's life.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Biography
Review: I am a 1960's junkie so a book on Bobby Kennedy is essential. I thought this book was very informative, describing him as a child through to his adult life. I think this was very revealing in how he was as adult.

The aspects of Robert Kennedy's life in the JFK White House was very interesting, from the intergration of the University of Alabama to the administrations relations with such figures as Martin Luther King and J. Edgar Hoover.

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to explore Robert Kennedy's life.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive
Review: I am a huge Kennedy fan, but after seeing the movie "Thirteen Days" I realized that I did not know much about Bobby Kennedy. I found Thomas' book to be complete and comprehensive. He looked at RFK very evenhandedly....he did not fawn all over his subject, nor did he paint him in a negative way. His book was one of the fairest biographies that I have read. I learned that RFK could be many things to many people...at times kind, supportive and loving and also vindictive and cruel...JFK's bulldog. My only criticism is that at times it was unclear who Thomas was referring to when he called someone "Kennedy"...JFK, RFK or even their father. Other than that it was a superb read.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful life
Review: I have read many, many biographies of Robert F. Kennedy and feel that this one should become the definitive biography of the man.

The book is written in a very easy to read manner. The author goes out of his way to be fair to his subject. He refuses to be lazy, he actually does research into Kennedy's life. Other biographers just seem to repeat the stories they have heard over the years without actually looking into them themselves, further clouding the truth. Thomas was given access to many of Robert Kennedy's private papers while writing the book.

This book does not view Robert Kennedy as a saint. However, it also does not view him as a devil. What comes across to me is that Kennedy was basically a decent man. There are many stories that have been repeated over the years about his private life, none offer any proof. For example, Evan Thomas could find no evidence of a sexual affair between Robert Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.

Regardless of Kennedy's private life, which I believe should remain his own, he did great things. He courageously stood up for causes that probably would have cost him the presidential election had he lived to election day. He highlighted the plight of the farm workers in California, the poverty of children in rural communities, the lack of opportunities for native Americans. He was the right person for the times. He is said to be the last white politician ever loved by black Americans.

This book does a good job in explaining many of the things Kennedy did in his career. The section on the Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the better parts of the book. Robert Kennedy's role during this time is very well described. Thomas shows many examples of initiatives Kennedy took that didn't work very well, and he doesn't mind saying why they didn't work.

If you are looking for gossip you will not find it in this book. However, if you are interested in history and the motivations of those who made history I would highly recommend you read Robert Kennedy: His Life.

Rating:
Summary: Best RFK bio i have read.
Review: I have read several RFK bio's and so far this has been the most informative and most reserched. If I could find a single fault it would be the lack of the aftermath on those close to him.

Rating:
Summary: A thorough and moving look into a great man¿s life
Review: I just finished Robert Kennedy a few minutes ago and I had to write a review while it was still fresh in my mind. I cried throughout the last five pages or so. I am a 19-year-old male college freshman and I am very interested in politics. I first became interested in RFK a year or so ago. I read Schlesinger's biography of Kennedy and loved it. But I believe that Thomas' was better. Much better. It was more succinct and not as drawn out, just like Bobby and was more up to date. Thomas' writing was superb and while reading, I didn't necessarily love the book, I could not put it down. RFK stood for many of the things that I stand for and I have considered him my hero or idol for the past year but I now know that he is my hero. I implore everyone to read Thomas' book so that you can get a glimpse on the complex loving man who has over the past 32 years became a myth, an equal to his slain brother. The last line moved me and brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart. I'll let you read it.

Rating:
Summary: Authoritative, excellent
Review: I read Evan Thomas' book last year, and it only deepened my admiration for the man that Robert Kennedy was, and the man that he could have been had he lived. I am no Kennedy apologists, the family had their skeletons and they hid them well (read Garry Wills' The Kennedy Imprisonment if you don't believe me), but Bobby always seemed to be the most caring of the clan, a young man made old by tragedy but rendered ageless by his death. Thomas' book does not fit into the usual pile of "Kennedy secrets" books that have littered the national libraries with unsubstantiated rumors of affairs and misdeeds, the crimes and indiscretions he reveals are backed up with documentation and personnal interviews. Thomas proves throughout the book that he is the right man for the job, as he does not excuse RFK's actions but doesn't use that as proof that somehow Kennedy was "evil" or "bad". The portrait that emerges is of a decent man who, in revolutionary times, tried his best. Sometimes he failed, sometimes he did something reprehensible, but in the end Robert Kennedy's legacy was one of active participation, trying to make the world a better place. In my opinion, RFK was a better man than his more lauded older brother, and a human being born into wealth who could easily identify with the poorest of the poor without a hint of condesencion. That's best explained in Thomas' section dealing with RFK's childhood, something that the previous RFK biographer I've read (Arthur Schlesinger) didn't quite put across. In the end, Evan Thomas' book will be the new standard by which all subsequent RFK books will be judged. An essential read.

Rating:
Summary: Not ready for prime time
Review: I really wanted this book to be better than it was. Evan Thomas tried to write history, but we are left with long, very long, journalism. Like any newspaper it is well written, the sentences short, the topic sentences placed first and all of the commas properly in place. The history is there. The drama is there. The "good Bobby" and the "bad Bobby" are there, but judgment and insight are what is missing. Also in reality Thomas is using Robert kennedy as a vehicle to tell the story of the late 60s. This does a disservice to both Kennedy and the 60s.

Without any evidence I simply will not believe that the man John F. Kennedy called a "monk" and for much of his life did not like socializing with because he was a moralizer, also cheated on his wife and assisted his brother in doing the same to his wife. There is no explanation, and most important no evidence of any such transgression by Robert Kennedy. In the absence of any evidence these stories become rumors, and while there may be a place for them in a magazine like People, they have no place in a serious biography, nor really do such stories rise to the level of news that is fit to print. There are way to many of them in this book.

Yes, Robert Kennedy could engage in incredibly boorish, childish, behavior. But, he was also able to go into the streets, the mean dangerous streets, after Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered and quiet those streets with a quote from memory written by a long dead Greek poet. The trip to the ghetto took courage. The recognition of the need for the trip and the speech took compassion. And, the quote illustrated enlightenment under great pressure. Robert Kennedy deserves a better book.

Rating:
Summary: We need someone like him today!
Review: I was born in 1967, obviously way too young to understand the world around me then. Being an adult, I really didn't care to remember anything of the Sixties. Too much of it is glamorized and hyped up in the media for me to believe. I finished reading Evans' book on a man who lived through the Sixties and who really wanted to do something about the issues that surrounded America (poverty, racism, an unjust war). I slowly began to identify with RFK and wonder if we couldn't use a leader as strong as he, though tempered by his own shortcomings, in America today. Look at all of the Presidents since his brother. Men of action? Or palm pressers who wanted you to like them despite the fact that they really can't do a thing? A good read and I appreciate the perspective with the distance of time in reviewing the life of a man who tried to define not only the Sixties but himself as well.

Rating:
Summary: Filling in More Pieces
Review: I was never fond of Robert Kennedy but there was also so much about the man that I respected...even admired. After reading this book, I have a much better understanding of why. I doubt if there will ever be a definitive biography of him. Unless and until new information somehow becomes available, Thomas' biography is probably as close as any of us will get to measuring fairly and accurately one of the most complicated and (yes) contradictory public figures in the 20th century.