About the Author

Burton Hersh has chronicled the Kennedy family for over thirty-five years. He is the author of numerous books, including the controversial and acclaimed The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA and The Education of Edward Kennedy. He divides his time between New Hampshire and Florida.

Reviews

"Burton Hersh has brought to life the dark and secret world of American intelligence in its formulative years. It is breathtaking comprehensive piece of research and a miracle of lucid writing.... the ultimate study of the men who laid the foundation for the American intelligence community." -- Daniel Schorr

"Burton Hersh has found the perfect subject for his splendid gifts as masterful writer, brilliant thinker, and fine historian." -- Doris Kearns Goodwin

"Very important history and wonderful reading." -- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

"Burton Hersh has brought to life the dark and secret world of American intelligence in its formulative years. It is breathtaking comprehensive piece of research and a miracle of lucid writing.... the ultimate study of the men who laid the foundation for the American intelligence community." -- Daniel Schorr
"Burton Hersh has found the perfect subject for his splendid gifts as masterful writer, brilliant thinker, and fine historian." -- Doris Kearns Goodwin
"Very important history and wonderful reading." -- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

The visible feud between RFK and President Johnson meant that there was less focus on the bad blood between RFK and J. Edgar Hoover. Longtime Kennedy watcher Hersh (The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA) offers an exhaustive-and at times exhausting-rendition of the latter conflict. Here, we see a ruthless RFK in pursuit of organized crime, as long as the investigations did not reveal ties between the mob and his father, Joseph Kennedy. However, also revealed is the RFK who pursued an end to the Vietnam War, promoted civil rights legislation, and left a legacy of important anticrime legislation. J. Edgar Hoover is depicted as an eccentric autocrat who believed the Left was destroying America and would do anything to bring down its leaders, especially Martin Luther King. Yet the reader is also shown a Hoover who stood up to Nixon's scheme to short-circuit the legal system and who, as charged by LBJ, used the FBI to defeat the 1960s Ku Klux Klan. Although the narrative is slowed by Hersh's inclusion of so many stories, it does keep the reader engrossed. Recommended for all public libraries.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.