Bobby Kennedy is an in-depth, vibrant, and measured biography of the most complex and controversial member of the Kennedy family by author Larry Tye.
History remembers Robert F. Kennedy as a racial healer, a healer of the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But Kennedy’s enshrining in the liberal church is really the final stage of a journey that began in the conservative 1950s. Larry Tye peels back layers of myths and misconceptions to paint a complete portrait of this fascinating strange character.
Tye has relied on unpublished memoirs, unreleased government records, and 58 locked and keyed cardboard boxes over the past 40 years. He conducted hundreds of interviews with people close to RFK – including Bobby’s widow, Ethel; his sister, Jean; and his assistant, John Siegenthaler – many of whom had never spoken to another biographer. Tye’s determination to sift through the tangle of conflicting opinions means Bobby Kennedy will become the definitive one-volume biography of a much-loved – but often misunderstood – man.
