Robert Kennedy : His Life [Hardcover]

Evan Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the nation's varied memory, Robert Kennedy is a contradictory figure, a hard-bullying McCarthyite obsessed with Hoffa and Castro but also a gentle, poetry-reading herald of a new age bent on stopping the Vietnam War and lifting up the poor. As Evan Thomas (The Wise Men and Man to See) writes, both liberals and conservatives have their own spin on his legacy, with predictably different visions of what he would have done if he had lived to be our 37th president. As it turns out, none of the Good Bobby/Bad Bobby projections are right, and none are completely wrong either. In sorting through the myths and the truths, Thomas provides a detailed portrait of a man centrally engaged in most of the important issues of the postwar era, and concludes that the best way to understand him is "fear":

He was brave because he was afraid. His monsters were too large and close at hand to simply flee. He had to turn and fight them.... He became a one-man underground, honeycombed with hidden passages, speaking in code, trusting no one completely, ready to face the firing squad--but also knowing when to slip away to fight again another day. Although he affected simplicity and directness, he became an extraordinarily complicated and subtle man. His shaking hands and reedy voice, his groping for words as well as meaning, his occasional resort to subterfuge, do not diminish his daring. Precisely because he was fearful and self-doubting, his story is an epic of courage.

RFK was born after the chosen siblings had been established in the Kennedy clan. He originally had low standing in the family hierarchy. Thomas describes how the "runt" of the family, the one not born and raised for power and whose only ambition was to please the father who ignored him, turned into the essential son, the defender of the family and mediator between Joe Sr. and JFK. He fleshes out Bobby's role in JFK's campaigns, his testy relations with Martin Luther King, his middle-ground stance on integration, his performance during the Cuban missile crisis, and his genuine concern for the poor. He reveals the truth behind such events as the vice-presidential appointment of Lyndon Johnson as well as the famous calls from the Kennedy brothers, which got Martin Luther King out of jail. He also tries to untangle the webs obscuring the Kennedys' involvement in Castro assassination plots, their relations with Marilyn Monroe, and RFK's guilt over his brother's death. And finally, he, too, speculates on what kind of president one of history's great what-ifs might have made. The picture he paints--of a sensitive, courageous, and determined man on the verge of achieving greatness--is more complex and human than any we've had before, and reminds us again of the tragedy of RFK's death. --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

Thomas has made a career writing about Washington insiders (he was co-author, with Walter Isaacson, of The Wise Men). A high-ranking editor at Newsweek, Thomas (an insider himself) has now written a nuanced biography of one of the 20th century's most iconic insiders. Although there are no startling revelations in this capably written, thick book, there is a lot of new information, thanks to the increasing openness of Kennedy's surviving colleagues and the new availability of oral histories, RFK's personal files, declassified national security documents and other sources. As a result, Thomas offers an illumination of the man's failings as well as his strengths, and unravels the complex knot of relationships within the Kennedy family. Portraying RFK as a man whose "house had many mansions," Thomas calls him "the lucky one"Ahe was raised in the shadow of his brothers, and his passion-filled life shined a light into "the family cave" of secrets. Throughout, Thomas highlights the contradictions of Kennedy's personaAhe was an extraordinarily wealthy individual who could act spoiled one day, then express empathy with the have-nots on the next; he was a devoted, sometimes around-the-clock protector of his often wayward older brother, John, but still established his own career; he was shy but sought out publicity; and he was an enthusiastic family man who ran for the presidency despite its obvious risks. Though primarily a tribute to a man whose potential for greatness was cut short, Thomas's book sheds new light on a manAand an era, and a familyAabout whom Americans will probably never know the whole truth. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (September 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684834804
• ISBN-13: 978-0684834801
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, Robert

More About the Author

Evan Thomas is one of the most respected historians and journalists writing today. He is the bestselling author of six works of nonfiction: Sea of Thunder, John Paul Jones, Robert Kennedy, The Very Best Men, The Man to See, and The Wise Men. Evan Thomas was made editor at large of Newsweek in September 2006 and is the magazine's lead writer on major news events and the author of more than a hundred cover stories.
Thomas has won numerous journalism awards, including a National Magazine Award in 1998 for Newsweek's coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In 2005, his 50,000-word narrative of the 2004 election was honored when Newsweek won a National Magazine Award for the best single-topic issue.
Thomas is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Virginia Law School. He lives with his wife and two children in Washington, DC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kennedy Emerges As A Work In Progress, September 18, 2000

By 

suzy murray - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Kennedy : His Life (Hardcover)

Of all the books written about Robert Kennedy, this one is by far the most even-handed and objective. Evan Thomas approaches his subject with neither the hero worship of previous Camelot chroniclers nor the detraction of revisionist historians. The Robert Kennedy that emerges from Thomas's research, his pouring through RFK's personal papers, and his interviews with those who knew Kennedy is a complex one. Thomas shows us that RFK was capable of being both expediant and just. For example, Thomas examines RFK's decision during his brother's 1960 presidential campaign to secure Martin Luther King Jr.'s release from jail and lets us see that RFK's efforts might have been motivated by both the political rewards such a move might yeild as well as the injustice of King's situation and a devotion to the principles of the United States Constitution. We see a man who, as Thomas writes, was "capable of...internal contradictions-not contradictions, really, but parallel instincts that coexisted within him." Thomas also gives us a portrait of a man who was changing throughout his life, evolving from a morose, sullen boy, hot-tempered and eager to fight, to a philosophical man of reflection who carried greek plays and the works of Albert Camus in his briefcase and whose sense of the injustice in the world grew stronger as he grew older. Here Thomas provides us with an RFK who was very much a work in progress, and therein, suggests Thomas, was the real tragedy of his death, that RFK was cut down before he could evolve fully into the philosophical crusader against injustice he was becoming.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars impressive scholarship, some new insights, September 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Robert Kennedy : His Life (Hardcover)

After several new studies on the life and career of Robert Kennedy in the past 3 years, Evan Thomas had a tall order in offering a work with something new to say. Thomas had a distinct advantage over other recent authors, however: access to RFK's personal papers. What is somewhat surprising is how small a part of the source base for his biography references to Kennedy's papers are. Perhaps this should not be surprising given RFK's disinclination toward self-disclosure. Thomas also conducted a very impressive number of interviews with Kennedy associates, and he utilitzes these to good effect. What emerges is a work of great balance and breadth, and following the lead of James Hilty's judicious assessment of some areas of Kennedy myth, Thomas debunks many popular ideas about RFK and humanizes him. What I found lacking in the book is some sense of the vitriolic nature of opposition to Robert Kennedy, or any analysis of devotion to the man on either the popular level or that of his subordinates. While detachment in a biographer's perspective is important, a greater sense of Kennedy's milieu was absent. Two final critiques: Thomas doesn't really make a case for where Kennedy fits in the big picture of American history (perhaps evidence of Thomas as journalist as opposed to historian), and he slights Kennedy's senatorial career, the largest part of his public life (if not the most important). Overall, the book is very well done, and his use and range of sources is commendable.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An even-handed approach to a complex man., December 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Robert Kennedy : His Life (Hardcover)

Evan Thomas successfully catches the complexity of Robert Kennedy. Thomas' book enables the reader to understand the myriad of different influences which resulted in the RFK who so captivated this country for a short period of time in the 1960s. Thirty-two years after his death at age 42 it is often forgotten that for every American who saw RFK as a hero, there was another American who saw a demon. In an America where politicians struggle to avoid powerful emotions and controversial positions Robert Kennedy embraced them. What Thomas captures is that the embrace was not always intentional. Robert Kennedy's very nature compelled him to be a lightning rod for emotion.

Thomas' picture of RFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis is perhaps the most compelling part of the book. More so than any other Kennedy biography this book displays a man, not yet 37 years old, dealing with the possiblity that his own actions might bring about the deaths of millions. Thomas effectively shows how amazing it was that Kennedy was not frozen into indecision or bullied into a military response by others with more credentials. Thomas captures a man driven to his limits and functioning effectively.

Thomas, although apparently an admirer of Kennedy, effectively protrays the darker side of his life. However, what comes out of this biography that is missing in others is the context of Kennedy's actions which are so criticized today. For example, Thomas does not excuse the recklessness of the early days of the Kennedy administration that resulted in the clandestine attempts on Fidel Castro's life. Unlike other biographys, written by Kennedy admirers, Thomas shows that RFK probably was aware that others were actively seeking this result rather than simply stating that no direct evidence of his knowledge or involvement in these plots has ever been produced. However, Thomas doesn't stop there, as other more critical biographys have done. Instead Thomas looks at the forces at play which resulted in RFK's involvement in the plots. This is done not to excuse Kennedy's conduct but to explain it.

At the end the reader is left to wonder what Robert Kennedy, who almost certainly would not have even gotten the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, would have done with the rest of his life. You don't have to admire or hate Robert Kennedy to recognize what a fascinating story that might have been.