Edward M. Kennedy : A Biography [Hardcover]

Adam Clymer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1999

The life of Edward M. Kennedy is a chronicle of our country's last 40 years -- and this authoritative and wonderfully readable biography offers unprecedented insights into the inner workings of our legislative process. Adam Clymer follows Kennedy through his highs and lows to his present years a patriarch of his famous family. Drawing on interviews with Kennedy and those closest to him, Clymer places Kennedy's career in a historical perspective, and observes how his infamous legacy has affected his political performance. From Chappaquidick to his public divorce and his involvement in his nephew's Palm Beach incident, readers will see how Kennedy struggled to maintain his own dignity and that of his very visible family.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Adam Clymer, in his lengthy biography of Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, understands that his subject is simultaneously one of the most loved and most hated figures in American politics. Clymer nevertheless pours on the praise, calling the Massachusetts Democrat "a lawmaker of skill, experience, and purpose rarely surpassed since 1789." Clymer, Washington editor for The New York Times, also recognizes that Kennedy has never fulfilled his great ambition--to become president--because he stood far to the left of the public as much as because of personal controversy. Yet Jack and Bobby's kid brother has forged a remarkable career in the Senate, where he has become one of its longest-serving members and arguably the most influential senator of the 20th century. Even Kennedy's conservative enemies don't question his dogged persistence and ability to advance his goals through slow-paced reform. He is maddeningly effective, especially when it comes to "finding Republicans to work with and sharing the credit, or even letting them have it all." Clymer's book is engrossing, although it occasionally gets bogged down in legislative intricacies (chapter titles: "Creating Disability Rights" and "More Incremental Health Care Progress"). It's a compelling study of a man whose enormous political skills are routinely overshadowed by his own foibles. In the end, however, Clymer grows positively rhapsodic: "He deserves recognition not just as the leading Senator of his time, but as one of the greats in history." --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

Few people are given the chance to live a productive life after they have become legends in their own time. Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy is one of them, and Clymer, Washington editor of the New York Times, does an excellent job of narrating how Kennedy navigated a burdensome family legacy to become, in Clymer's view, one of the most effective lawmakers in American history. By the end of the book, most readers will believe that Clymer has made his case. But this is no hagiography. Clymer started covering Congress as a newspaper reporter in 1963, the year after Kennedy's election to the Senate, when John Kennedy was president and Robert Kennedy was attorney general. He has observed Senator Kennedy at more or less close range for 36 years, a level of intimacy that mitigates against rose-tinted glasses. Indeed, Clymer explores Kennedy's legislative, political and personal failures as well as the successes. No serious discussion of Kennedy as a legislator, party politician, husband, father or friend can proceed very far without a re-evaluation of Chappaquiddick. Clymer's assessment takes only a few pages, but it is solid and insightful, putting the episode in proper perspective and allowing it to resonate subtly through the rest of the book without treating it as the defining moment of Kennedy's life. Clymer's deft explanations of complex congressional maneuverings are models of good political reportage, and his judgments of Kennedy's character are even-handed. This is an old-fashioned, balanced, well-organized biography that does justice to both the virtues and flaws, public and private, of Senator Kennedy. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 692 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (November 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688142850
• ISBN-13: 978-0688142858
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,740,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a powerful history of both the man AND the country, March 14, 2001

By 

Calvin93 "calvin93" (Fort Lee, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (Paperback)

THIS is the way high school history texts should be written. You read Clymer's bio on EMK (Edwardd M Kennedy) and, without realizing it, come away with a world of knowledge about Ted Kennedy, his brothers John and Robert, as well as almost every other relevant figure in U.S. and world history since the 1940s. By recounting the political history of the Kennedy family, and EMKs initially minor, but overall dominant, role in it, we learn about the political history of the United States in the past 50 years, and come to realize - astonishingly - that TED Kennedy is responsible for so many more accomplishments than either of his more famous brothers. More importantly, the text is a fair, objective assessment of EMK. Clymer does not shy away from the scandals like his expulsion form Harvard, the tragedy at Chappaquiddick and the rape trial of EMKs nephew in 1991. He deals with these issues head on, in detail, and lets the reader decide how to judge Kennedy - framing the paradox that IS Ted Kennedy - a man who has deal with more personal tragedy than most Shakespearean characters and sporadic personal failings, but who has spent 5 decades shaping US policy on domestic and international issues. There are so many great details in this book about JFKs early campaigns, the 1960 presidential election, Ted's Senate races in '62 and '64, the 1968 presidential election, Ted's work in the Senate in the 70s and international human rights efforts in Poland, Soviet Union, and South Africa, the 1979-80 presidential campaign, the Bork and Thomas Supreme Court nominations, and his work under Reagan, Bush and Clinton. You learn so much about the different presidencies and the leaders in Congress and US history that you cannot help but feel edified. This book is not a cheering section for EMK, but an articulate, thoughtful, objective history with just the perfect blend of detail, inertia and humor. Should be the standard for political biographies.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, November 22, 1999

By 

"petertare" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edward M. Kennedy : A Biography (Hardcover)

Finally a work on Teddy Kennedy that is not worshipful or hateful. It is a fascinating and objective look at a man who has shaped American domestic politics for the past 40 years. JFK and RFK may be the martyrs but EMK is the one who has had the most impact!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Bio of a Complicated Man, November 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (Paperback)

Picking up this dense portrait of the senior senator from Massachusetts, many readers would be tempted to turn straight to Chapter 12: Chappaquiddick. But that would be missing the point. Clymer, a veteran New York Times correspondent, does present a detailed account of the 1969 Martha's Vineyard accident that left Mary Jo Kopechne dead.

And the book includes key lowlights such as Kennedy's expulsion from Harvard for cheating and the night in 1991 when he rousted two young nephews out of bed for a night of drinking that led to rape charges against one of them, William Kennedy Smith (who was later acquitted).

What is remarkable is that despite these foibles and his family's tragedies, Kennedy has emerged as one of the era's most effective lawmakers, a champion of causes such as health care and civil rights.

Though Clymer occasionally gets bogged down in minutiae, he nevertheless gives us a readable and worthy account of a flawed and fascinating politician.