Larry Tye has been an award-winning journalist at The Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He now runs a Boston-based training program for medical journalists. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Satchel, as well as Superman, The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising from the Rails, and co-author, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. He lives in Massachusetts.
"We are in Larry Tye's debt for bringing back to life the young
presidential candidate who . . . for a brief moment, almost half a
century ago, instilled hope for the future in angry, fearful
Americans."--David Nasaw, The New York Times Book Review "A
multilayered, inspiring portrait of RFK . . . [Tye] provides
readers and historians their most in-depth look at an extraordinary
figure whose transformational story shaped America."--Joe
Scarborough, The Washington Post "A compelling story of how
idealism can be cultivated and liberalism learned . . . Tye does an
exemplary job of capturing not just the chronology of Bobby's life,
but also the sense of him as a person."--Los Angeles Review of
Books "Captures RFK's rise and fall with straightforward prose
bolstered by impressive research."--USA Today "[Tye] has a keen
gift for narrative storytelling and an ability to depict his
subject with almost novelistic emotional detail."--Michiko
Kakutani, The New York Times "Nuanced and thorough . . . [RFK's]
vision echoes through the decades."--The Economist "Tye's pages on
the assassination are heart-wrenching."--New York Post "It captures
RFK's cold, ruthless side with appropriate relish, and it provides
fast-paced and very detailed accounts of RFK's early working
relationship with soon-to-be-disgraced politician Joe
McCarthy."--The Christian Science Monitor "Tye's vivid journalistic
style makes the biography an arresting read. . . . Many of the most
fascinating stories come through Tye's dissection of Bobby's
relations with his adversaries."--San Francisco Chronicle
"This is not just another Bobby Kennedy book. It is the definitive
biography of one of America's most compelling political figures.
Larry Tye has given us the complete Bobby, from the Bad (Early)
Kennedy to the Good (Later) Kennedy, from Joe McCarthy's committee
counsel to 'ruthless' political manager to gentle, softhearted
presidential candidate. Tye's book rests on prodigious and original
research, including rare, on-the-record interviews with Bobby's
widow, Ethel, who confesses that seeing Bobby for the first time
was like meeting George Clooney."--Roger Mudd, winner of the
Peabody Award and former co-anchor of NBC Nightly News "Robert
Kennedy led one of the great unfinished lives in American history.
With skill and verve, Larry Tye has written a fascinating account
of a transformative figure who continues to summon us to heed our
better angels even all these years distant."--Jon Meacham, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "Drawing
on the personal papers and insights of the Kennedy family, this
biography will appeal not only to those wanting a portrait of a
dynamic idealist, but also to those seeking to understand the
emotions of the times in which he lived."--Henry A. Kissinger
"Larry Tye has done his homework. He has read the books and
articles, interviewed hundreds of family members, friends,
colleagues and acquaintances, and made use of newly released
materials in the Kennedy Library and elsewhere to produce a
nuanced, balanced, affectionate and mostly favorable portrait. . .
. [Tye] presents us . . . with a kind of bildungsroman of a young,
privileged man who is forced to learn on the job and makes
mistakes. . . . We are in Larry Tye's debt for bringing back to
life the young presidential candidate who . . . for a brief moment,
almost half a century ago, instilled hope for the future in angry,
fearful Americans."--David Nasaw, The New York Times Book Review
"Sweeping . . . [Tye] captures RFK's rise and fall with
straightforward prose bolstered by impressive research. Along with
hundreds of interviews with Kennedy intimates, including his widow,
Ethel, Tye sifted through unpublished memoirs, unreleased
government files, and boxes of Kennedy papers that had been locked
away for some forty years."--USA Today "Mr. Tye's account is
nuanced and thorough, and he manages the rare feat of interviewing
Kennedy's widow Ethel, now eighty-eight. . . . [RFK's] vision
echoes through the decades. 'Only those who dare to fail greatly
can ever achieve greatly, ' he said in 1966. If only modern-day
leaders were so bold."--The Economist "Bobby Kennedy, who was
assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign, is remembered
for his antiwar stance and for standing up for civil rights and
against poverty. But Tye ("Superman") shows how RFK was not always
the progressive hero but a work in progress--after all, Kennedy
worked for Joseph McCarthy for a spell. Tye's pages on the
assassination are heart-wrenching."--New York Post "Like Alexander
Hamilton during our nation's founding, [Bobby] Kennedy was the most
dominant figure of his time not to be elected president. . . . Tye
has crafted a multi-layered, inspiring portrait of RFK. Because the
author refuses to avert his eyes from the uglier chapters in
Kennedy's life, he provides readers and historians their most
in-depth look at an extraordinary figure whose transformational
story shaped America at mid-century."--The Washington Post "Very,
very good . . . It captures RFK's cold, ruthless side with
appropriate relish, and it provides fast-paced and very detailed
accounts of RFK's early working relationship with
soon-to-be-disgraced politician Joe McCarthy."--Christian Science
Monitor "Fascinating . . . The book is most successful in tracing
Kennedy's transition from a brash, patrician lawyer to a skilled
liberal politician who overwhelmingly identified with those in the
greatest need."--AP News "Tye's vivid journalistic style makes the
biography an arresting read. . . . Bobby Kennedy's journey closely
mirrors the history of the country, from the Cold War through the
civil rights movement, the dissent against the Vietnam War and
growing public awareness of poverty in America. . . . Many of the
most fascinating stories come through Tye's dissection of Bobby's
relations with his adversaries."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Absorbing . . . a captivating account of the political career of
Robert F. Kennedy, from his years as a zealous communist hunter for
Joe McCarthy through the 1968 presidential campaign during which he
was assassinated ate age forty-two. For this state-of-the-art
political biography, Tye conducted four hundred interviews with
people who worked with Kennedy. He also had access to national
archives. The author's admiration for his subject shows, but this
is no hagiography. . . . Shedding new light on Kennedy's
relationships with Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., Tye
ultimately reveals Kennedy as a work in progress who, by the end of
his life, had become a beloved advocate for minorities and the
poor."--Library Journal (starred review) "The trouble with calling
someone iconic is that the truth is often obscured under layers of
mythology. . . . Through extensive conversations with Bobby's
widow, Ethel, and far-reaching interviews with key aides,
colleagues, close friends, and ideological adversaries, Tye
unflinchingly illustrates the evolution of a statesman who captured
the imagination of a generation and whose assassination galvanized
a nation. . . . Even-handed and probing, Tye's perceptive analysis
of RFK's career and its impact avoids the hagiographic tone
frequently associated with Kennedy biographies to provide a
complete portrait of a complex man whose contributions to history
were essential and whose potential will remain forever
unknowable."--Booklist (starred review) "It is difficult to
envision anyone getting Robert F. Kennedy more right than
biographer [Larry] Tye does in this superb book. Tye beautifully
captures Kennedy's contradictions, his emergence from under the
hard-to-like father to whom he remained forever loyal, and his
growth into a public figure killed by an assassin's bullet. . . .
Tye equitably concedes that Kennedy's detractors have much reason
to be tough on the man, and his clear depiction of Kennedy's many
blemishes is just one of the book's many fine qualities. Another is
its wonderful readability. In the end, Tye's subject stands forth
as an admirable man."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A comprehensive, thesis-driven account . . . richly researched . .
. Relying on countless interviews, including the contributions of
RFK's widow, Tye weaves a compelling story of Bobby's changes: his
growth from the 'ruthless' image his political enemies attached to
him to the committed humanitarian, the friend of African-Americans,
the enemy of poverty, and the outspoken opponent of the Vietnam
War."--Kirkus Reviews "This is not just another Bobby Kennedy book.
It is the definitive biography of one of America's most compelling
political figures. Larry Tye has given us the complete Bobby, from
the Bad (Early) Kennedy to the Good (Later) Kennedy, from Joe
McCarthy's committee counsel to 'ruthless' political manager to
gentle, softhearted presidential candidate. Tye's book rests on
prodigious and original research, including rare, on-the-record
interviews with Bobby's widow, Ethel, who confesses that seeing
Bobby for the first time was like meeting George Clooney."--Roger
Mudd, winner of the Peabody Award and former co-anchor of NBC
Nightly News
"Robert Kennedy led one of the great unfinished lives in American
history. With skill and verve, Larry Tye has written a fascinating
account of a transformative figure who continues to summon us to
heed our better angels even all these years distant."--Jon Meacham,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
"Drawing on the personal papers and insights of the Kennedy family,
this biography will appeal not only to those wanting a portrait of
a dynamic idealist, but also to those seeking to understand the
emotions of the times in which he lived."--Henry A. Kissinger
"Dreamy and calculating, joyful and sad, hard and soft, good and
bad, Bobby Kennedy remains one of history's fascinating and elusive
figures. In this fair, lively, and insightful biography, Larry Tye
makes him real."--Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of
Robert Kennedy: His Life and Being Nixon: A Man Divided "Larry Tye,
with the eye of a good reporter and the diligence of an
accomplished scholar, writes a fascinating, timely report on the
other Kennedy--the one named Bobby, who started out supporting Joe
McCarthy and died fighting in the anti-Vietnam War crusade. Bobby
has always deserved a crackerjack bio. Tye has delivered
it."--Marvin Kalb, senior adviser at the Pulitzer Center and author
of Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War
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