Robert F. Kennedy and the Death of American Idealism

Robert F. Kennedy and the Death of American Idealism
Author: Joseph A. Palermo
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Longman
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2008
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

At the forefront of the social movements and political crises that gripped America in the 1950s and 1960s, Robert F. Kennedy saw, advised and led the United States through some of the most epochal events in the 20th century. This newest edition in the Library of American Biography Series chronicles the life of Robert F. Kennedy from his time as a boy growing up amidst the turmoil of the Great Depression and World War II to his rise as a central figure in the national debate on communism, poverty, civil rights, and the war in Vietnam. The titles in the Library of American Biography Series make ideal supplements for American History Survey courses or other courses in American history where figures in history are explored. Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each interpretative biography in this series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. At the same time, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.

Bobby Kennedy

Bobby Kennedy
Author: Larry Tye
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2017-05-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0812983505

“A multilayered, inspiring portrait of RFK . . . [the] most in-depth look at an extraordinary figure whose transformational story shaped America.”—Joe Scarborough, The Washington Post NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu original series starring Chris Pine. Larry Tye appears on CNN’s American Dynasties: The Kennedys. “We are in Larry Tye’s debt for bringing back to life the young presidential candidate who . . . almost half a century ago, instilled hope for the future in angry, fearful Americans.”—David Nasaw, The New York Times Book Review Bare-knuckle operative, cynical White House insider, romantic visionary—Robert F. Kennedy was all of these things at one time or another, and each of these aspects of his personality emerges in the pages of this powerful and perceptive biography. History remembers RFK as a racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But Kennedy’s enshrinement in the liberal pantheon was actually the final stage of a journey that began with his service as counsel to the red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. In Bobby Kennedy, Larry Tye peels away layers of myth and misconception to capture the full arc of his subject’s life. Tye draws on unpublished memoirs, unreleased government files, and fifty-eight boxes of papers that had been under lock and key for forty years. He conducted hundreds of interviews with RFK intimates, many of whom have never spoken publicly, including Bobby’s widow, Ethel, and his sister, Jean. Tye’s determination to sift through the tangle of often contradictory opinions means that Bobby Kennedy will stand as the definitive biography about the most complex and controversial member of the Kennedy family. Praise for Bobby Kennedy “A compelling story of how idealism can be cultivated and liberalism learned . . . Tye does an exemplary job of capturing not just the chronology of Bobby’s life, but also the sense of him as a person.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “Captures RFK’s rise and fall with straightforward prose bolstered by impressive research.”—USA Today “[Tye] has a keen gift for narrative storytelling and an ability to depict his subject with almost novelistic emotional detail.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “Nuanced and thorough . . . [RFK’s] vision echoes through the decades.”—The Economist

Make Gentle the Life of this World

Make Gentle the Life of this World
Author: Robert F. Kennedy
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Maxwell Taylor Kennedy read through his father Robert F. Kennedy's speeches, letters, personal journal or daybook, and books about RFK in which his father was quoted to assemble this collection of RFK's ideas.

The Revolution of Robert Kennedy

The Revolution of Robert Kennedy
Author: John R. Bohrer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1608199827

A groundbreaking account of how Robert F. Kennedy transformed horror into hope between 1963 and 1966, with style and substance that has shaped American politics ever since. On November 22nd, 1963, Bobby Kennedy received a phone call that altered his life forever. The president, his brother, had been shot. JFK would not survive. In The Revolution of Robert Kennedy, journalist John R. Bohrer focuses in intimate and revealing detail on Bobby Kennedy's life during the three years following JFK's assassination. Torn between mourning the past and plotting his future, Bobby was placed in a sudden competition with his political enemy, Lyndon Johnson, for control of the Democratic Party. No longer the president's closest advisor, Bobby struggled to find his place within the Johnson administration, eventually deciding to leave his Cabinet post to run for the U.S. Senate, and establish an independent identity. Those overlooked years of change, from hardline Attorney General to champion of the common man, helped him develop the themes of his eventual presidential campaign. The Revolution of Robert Kennedy follows him on the journey from memorializing his brother's legacy to defining his own. John R. Bohrer's rich, insightful portrait of Robert Kennedy is biography at its best--inviting readers into the mind and heart of one of America's great leaders.

Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes

Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes
Author: Ronald L. Goldfarb
Publisher: Capital Books
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781931868068

..."a compelling piece of work, strongly evocative of an era that seems, more and more, to have been one of the most extraordinary periods in our history . The unions, the mobs, the plots, the characters."Don DeLillo

A Companion to John F. Kennedy

A Companion to John F. Kennedy
Author: Marc J. Selverstone
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 594
Release: 2014-06-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1444350366

b”A COMPANION TO JOHN F. KENNEDYA COMPANION TO JOHN F. KENNEDY “Marc J. Selverstone has compiled an indispensable volume of essays on John F. Kennedy and his presidency, written by a stellar cast of scholars. What stands out in sharp relief in this wide-ranging and authoritative book is how consequential were Kennedy’s thousand days for the United States and for the world, and how controversial is his legacy. Fredrik Logevall, Stephen and Madeline Anbinder Professor of History, Cornell University “Marc J. Selverstone has brought together a remarkable group of scholars who illuminate the many important ideas of, and events that occurred during, this brief administration. This book is the best record of the Kennedy years.” Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of American History, Columbia University “This collection of talented scholars and their research and thoughts on John F. Kennedy is an invaluable resource: a deeply informed conversation for the ages.’ Richard Reeves, writer, syndicated columnist, and senior lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California

The Civil Rights Movement in America

The Civil Rights Movement in America
Author: Peter B. Levy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 689
Release: 2015-04-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

This single-volume work provides a concise, up-to-date, and reliable reference work that students, teachers, and general readers can turn to for a comprehensive overview of the civil rights movement-a period of time incorporating events that shaped today's society. This single volume encyclopedia not only provides accessible A–Z entries about the well-known people and events of the Civil Rights Movement but also offers coverage of lesser-known contributors to the movement's overall success and outcomes. This comprehensive work provides both authoritative ready reference and curricular content presented in a lively and accessible format that will support inquiry, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the importance of the time period. The Civil Rights Movement in America: From Black Nationalism to the Women's Political Council provides high school readers with accessible factual information and sources for further exploration. Its entries serve to document how the movement eventually toppled Jim Crow and inspired broader struggles for human rights, including the women's and gay liberation movements in the United States and around the globe. Just as importantly, the events of the civil rights movement serve to demonstrate the ability of ordinary people such as Rosa Parks to alter the course of history-an apt lesson for all readers.

Making JFK Matter

Making JFK Matter
Author: Paul H. Santa Cruz
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2015-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574415972

In Making JFK Matter, Paul Santa Cruz examines how popular memory of John F. Kennedy has been used politically by various interest groups, primarily the city of Dallas, Lyndon Johnson, and Robert Kennedy, as well as how the memory of Kennedy has been portrayed in various museums. Santa Cruz argues that we have memorialized JFK not simply out of love for him or admiration for the ideals he embodied, but because invoking his name carries legitimacy and power. Memory can be employed to accomplish particular ends: for example, the passage of long overdue civil rights legislation, or even successfully running for political office. Santa Cruz demonstrates the presence and use of popular memory in an extensive analysis of what was being said, and by whom, about the late president through White House memoranda and speech material, museum exhibits (such as the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas and the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston), public correspondence, newspapers and periodicals of the time, memoirs, and archival research. He also explores how JFK has been memorialized in films such as Bobby, JFK, and Thirteen Days. Written in an accessible manner to appeal to both historians and the general public, Making JFK Matter tells us much of how we have memorialized Kennedy over the years.

A Hard Rain

A Hard Rain
Author: Frye Gaillard
Publisher: NewSouth Books
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2018-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1603064540

Frye Gaillard has given us a deeply personal history, bringing his keen storyteller’s eye to this pivotal time in American life. He explores the competing story arcs of tragedy and hope through the political and social movements of the times — civil rights, black power, women’s liberation, the War in Vietnam, and the protests against it. But he also examines the cultural manifestations of change — music, literature, art, religion, and science — and so we meet not only the Brothers Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, but also Gloria Steinem, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Harper Lee, Mister Rogers, Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Billy Graham, Thomas Merton, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Angela Davis, Barry Goldwater, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Berrigan Brothers. “There are many different ways to remember the sixties,” Gaillard writes, “and this is mine. There was in these years the sense of a steady unfolding of time, as if history were on a forced march, and the changes spread to every corner of our lives. As future generations debate the meaning of the decade, I hope to offer a sense of how it felt to have lived it. A Hard Rain is one writer’s reconstruction and remembrance of a transcendent era — one that, for better or worse, lives with us still.”