American Legends: The Life of Robert F. Kennedy

In some ways, Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968) is the forgotten Kennedy, eclipsed in life while working in his brother John’s administration, eclipsed in death both by his older brother’s assassination and his younger brother’s long, influential career in the Senate as a liberal lion. And yet, the politics of the 1960s and the ultimate legacy of the Kennedys, including the “Kennedy Curse”, would have been incomplete without Bobby’s place in the narrative.

As Bobby’s private life and public life played out, the two came to mirror each other. Among the Kennedy clan, Bobby remained within the shadow of older brothers Joseph Jr. and John, both of whom their father thought were destined to become political scions. And ultimately, it was Ted who cast the longest political shadow, serving for decades in government. But Bobby may have been the most intellectual and ideological of them all. And it was Bobby who worked behind the scenes to help advance John’s political career, including his political campaigns and as Attorney General in his administration.

Eventually, with the deaths of his brothers, Bobby rose to become the leader of the Kennedy family, at the same time his political prominence rose. Today, unfortunately, Bobby is best remembered for his assassination, the way in which it helped perpetuate the “Kennedy Curse”, and the fact that his political promise, including potentially becoming president in 1968, was never fulfilled.

American Legends: The Life of Robert F. Kennedy looks at Bobby’s place in the political and cultural narrative of the Kennedys and the 1960s, but it also humanizes the middle brother who labored tirelessly for the good of his family, the ideological advocate who took courageous stands, and the man who juggled the demands of being a Kennedy with his own political ambitions. Along with pictures of Bobby and other important people and events in his life, you will learn about RFK like you never have before, in no time at all.