Amazon.com Review
Part biography, part cultural retrospective, Michael Beran's work is a somewhat controversial reassessment of Robert Kennedy's public and private life. Thirty years after Kennedy was murdered, he is still remembered, along with other great liberal contemporaries such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, as a tragic crusader for liberalism. To liberals, Bobby Kennedy was their last champion of social reform and civil rights; when he died, their pursuit of these aims took a mortal blow. So when Beran intimates that on the day Kennedy was killed, it wasn't a Rooseveltian idealist who died, but rather a man who was essentially a conservative practitioner of liberal politics, it is bound to create controversy amongst his staunchest supporters.
To them, Kennedy was "a rare example of a liberal icon," which is why political liberals might be antagonized by Beran's argument. It is to Beran's credit that he persuasively and passionately backs up his points, carefully illustrating popular misconceptions about Kennedy. He explores the so-called liberal policies instigated by Kennedy, and concludes that these were really little more than timely suggestions and tentative actions, rather than bold policy moves. He chronicles Kennedy's drive toward conservative statesmanship, epitomized by his understanding of public service. Kennedy seemed to understand that success in the modern political arena meant blending liberal policies with a conservative support system, a vision of politics that can be seen in modern-day politicians such as Bill Clinton.
In tracing this evolution of thought, Beran illustrates Kennedy's maturation from arrogant aristocrat to responsible, benevolent crusader whose compassionate actions were driven more by his own misfortunes than by liberal morals. At a time when other books are revising public opinion of the Kennedy compound, focusing on the darker side of their affairs, this is a respectful and thoughtful work that subtly reminds us just how much was lost the day Robert Kennedy was shot down in his prime. --Jeremy Storey
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Beran has written what she calls an evolutionary biography of Robert Kennedy that is almost metaphysical in its portrayal of the man. He goes into the well-known family history of Joe Kennedy fighting the establishment for respect and how he projected onto his sons his insatiable desire to succeed and be accepted. We see Bobby at Milton Academy in Mass., a training ground for Stimsonians, who were young gentry who would devote their careers (and could well afford to) to public service for the public good. Beran refers to this as "the grand tradition of politics that men like [Henry] Stimson and Theodore Roosevelt had recently revived." RFK followed the public-service road working for his brother and for Senator Joe McCarthy, chasing "commies," crooked union leaders and segregationists. That phase of RFK's career died on November 22, 1963, with his brother. Soon he was evolving away from the Stimsonians. He found in Ralph Waldo Emerson's thesis of self-reliance the alternative to big government as a way to cure poverty. The pain he felt at his brother's assassination bonded him with other people's pain; migrant farmworkers and those in ghettos?urban and rural?became his concern. The book looks at RFK's chauvinistic relationships with women and antagonism towards the Catholic Church, which he found reactionary. Beran, a freelance writer, contends that at the time of his death in 1968, RFK had an almost neo-Reagan outlook on politics and life, and concludes: "He was an imperfect man, possessed of many grievous faults, but we may number him among the saints." This is an unorthodox and stimulating work that will force many to reevaluate the Kennedy they thought they knew. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
