Customer Reviews

To Seek a Newer World

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Published just months before his assassination, this manifesto provides the best glimpse of what might have been, had RFK lived long enough to be President. Anyone who thinks of him primarily as a Brother Protector or as a hard-nosed mob-fighter should read this book to see the incredible depth that RFK achieved in his later years.

Reading this book is at the same time both inspiring and incredibly sad. His well-thought-out ideas on a range of topics, from crime and poverty to Vietnam, are truly refreshing. Indeed, they seem downright revolutionary in light of what actually took place under the Nixon Administration. Some of his discussions (China, Vietnam) seem a bit outmoded now, but are quite interesting historically. Other problems he addresses (crime and poverty, perhaps Latin America too) are unfortunately quite fresh and could be well-served if some of his proposals were enacted.

Thinking about how different history might have been had RFK become President in 1969 can really be quite demoralizing. But this book is hopeful too, and we can only hope that a younger generation will produce another leader as bright and passionate as RFK.

I found myself amazed as a read each chapter of RFKs own words and problems plaguing America; unemployment, neglect of the poor (or working poor if you prefer,a sorry eduction system, pollution, war, and greed. What surprises me more is that we are still suffering from the same problems.... and his solutions look worth trying.

Culled partially from speeches and position papers regarding the issues of the time(1967), Bobby Kennedy offers his views on those issues and his solutions to perhaps fix them.

Today, much of this is only of historical interest, as Vietnam and other such issues are a thing of the past. But this is still worth reading for non-historians for what RFK has to say about his faith in young people to create a society that has learned form the mistakes of its elders. Pretty inspiring stuff on that level.