Robert Kennedy : His Life

by Evan Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780684834801
• ISBN10: 0684834804
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-13
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

Robert Kennedy has been viewed as hero and villain -- as the "Good Bobby" who, as his brother Ted eulogized him, "saw wrong and tried to right it,...saw suffering and tried to heal it" -- or as the "Bad Bobby" of countless conspiracy theories, the ruthless and manipulative bully who plotted with the Mafia to kill Castro and lusted after Marilyn Monroe. Evan Thomas's achievement is to realize RFK as a human being, to bring to life an extraordinarily complex man who was at once kind and cruel, devious and honest, fearful and brave. Thomas had unusual access to his subject's life. He is the first biographer since Arthur Schlesinger to see RFK's private papers, and he interviewed all of Kennedy's closest aides and advisers, many of whom were forthcoming in ways that they had not been before. The portrait that emerges is unvarnished but sympathetic, fair-minded and always readable. It is packed with new detail about Kennedy's early life and his behind-the-scenes machinations: his involvement in a cheating incident in prep school; his first attempt at romance; and his many back-channel political operations -- with new revelations about the 1960 and 1968 presidential campaigns, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his long struggles with J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson, both of whom were subtly and not-so-subtly trying to blackmail the Kennedys. In a clear and fast-paced narrative, Thomas cuts through the mythology to reveal a character who, though he died young just as he was reaching for ultimate power, remains one of the century's most fascinating men.

Author Biography

Evan Thomas is Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Wise Men(with Walter Isaacson); The Man to See: Edward Bennett Williams, Ultimate Insider; and The Very Best Men -- Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two daughters.

Table of Contents

Prologue	17	(12)
Runt	29	(18)
Tough	47	(20)
Moralist	67	(23)
Manipulator	90	(19)
Protector	109	(17)
Testing	126	(15)
Goad	141	(12)
Intrigue	153	(22)
Play	175	(20)
Crisis	195	(14)
Brink	209	(21)
Causes	230	(10)
Threats	240	(22)
Worn	262	(14)
Mourner	276	(21)
Searcher	297	(14)
Conscience	311	(16)
Ghosts	327	(16)
Courage	343	(19)
Quest	362	(21)
Legend	383	(12)
Source Notes	395	(84)
Bibliography	479	(10)
Index	489