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Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit Kindle Edition

by Chris Matthews (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,861 ratings
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In Chris Matthews’s New York Times bestselling portrait of Robert F. Kennedy, “Readers witness the evolution of Kennedy’s soul. Through tragedy after tragedy we find the man humanized” (Associated Press).

With his bestselling biography Jack Kennedy, Chris Matthews profiled of one of America’s most beloved Presidents and the patriotic spirit that defined him. Now, with Bobby Kennedy, Matthews provides “insight into [Bobby’s] spirit and what drove him to greatness” (New York Journal of Books) in his gripping, in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at one of the great figures of the American twentieth century.

Overlooked by his father, and overshadowed by his war-hero brother, Bobby Kennedy was a perpetual underdog. When he had the chance to become a naval officer like his older brother, Bobby turned it down, choosing instead to join the Navy as a common sailor. It was a life-changing experience that led him to connect with voters from all walks of life: young and old, black and white, rich and poor. They were the people who turned out for him in his 1968 campaign. RFK would prove himself to be the rarest of politicians—both a pragmatist who knew how to get the job done and an unwavering idealist who could inspire millions.

Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Matthews pulls back the curtain on the private world of Robert Francis Kennedy. Matthew illuminates the important moments of his life: from his early years and his start in politics, to his crucial role as attorney general in his brother’s administration and, finally, his tragic run for president. This definitive book brings Bobby Kennedy to life like never before.
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  1. Print length
    424 pages
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    Simon & Schuster
  5. Publication date
    October 31, 2017
  6. File size
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Chris Matthews evocatively brings the man and his moment back to life. It is a story that needs to be told again as a heroic counterpoint to the Trump era’s fundamental disrespect for the idea that politics can be a noble profession.”

–John Avlon, The Daily Beast

“Considerable insight from beginning to end”

–The New Republic

“A brisk, admiring portrait that burnishes the Kennedy image.”

–Kirkus Reviews

“Cogently illustrates leadership qualities Kennedy possessed that are sorely lacking in today’s divisive culture.”

–Booklist

“If you love reading about politics, if you ever loved the Kennedys or were fascinated by them, if you love biographical history or if you just like a good yarn about a brooding soul who turns into an uplifting, magnetic force—Chris Matthews’ “Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit” Should be your next read. It’s well-researched, dramatically told. It brings those times—Camelot and after—back to life.”

–Lesley Stahl, Correspondent for 60 Minutes

"Matthews is skilled at weaving tension and conflict throughout the book. One doesn’t just read the words, but experiences the tension and emotions....The depth of Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit provides insight into this man’s spirit and what drove him to greatness. Matthews does an excellent job of pulling Bobby out from behind any family shadows to give us an in-depth portrait of what could have been."

–New York Journal of Books

"Readers witness the evolution of Kennedy’s soul. Through tragedy after tragedy we find the man humanized."

–Associated Press (AP)

About the Author

Chris Matthews is a distinguished Professor of American Politics and Media at Fulbright University Vietnam. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit; Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero; Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked; Kennedy & Nixon; and Hardball. For twenty years, he anchored Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00UDCI192
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (October 31, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 31, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 47311 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 424 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,861 ratings

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Chris Matthews

Chris Matthews

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Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC’s Hardball. He is the author of Jack Kennedy—Elusive Hero; Tip and the Gipper—When Politics Worked; Kennedy and Nixon; Hardball; and now Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.

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Top reviews from the United States

S. Wolfe
5.0 out of 5 stars made for a very easy yet informative read
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2017
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Valuable book for me for following reasons:
1. It took me back through a history I've lived and allowed me, by seeing the history through different folks' eyes to see the limits in the critical thinking of my younger me.
2. The style of writing, pithy, made for a very easy yet informative read.
3. It gave me a good perspective of the political maneuvering which are always intriguing to a political "semi-junkie."
4. Putting the Bobby Kennedy history in concise perspective re: influences of family, religion, brotherly devotion and ideology it is quite fascinating to see the psychological transformation that took place in a span of 10-12 years. Many of BK's positions changed, his attitude changed one could even say his morality, but there remained a type of emotional naievte in his certainty that he could practically implement his positions.
5. Finally, the relevance to today: Near the end Matthews paraphrases Richard Goodwin's believe that BK had "...found his inner urge toward definance -of unjust privilege, indifferent power, concentrated wealth, which provide so much hatred among some -was also the source of his greatest strength, arousing the hopes and expectations of millions who felt themselves victimized." To this I ponder - didn't Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama and now Trump all play to the same hopes and expectations of self anointed and real victims to get elected? Perhaps each had his own rhetoric to promote their charisma, but the strategy was election by addressing the alienation that exists in this country. And here I am 57 years later observing that same alienation. But I am typing this on an ipad so that I guess things must be better for everyone else too. Great read. Get it.
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Lynda E. Boose
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful & painful book. It hurts to remember how much hope was carried by both RFK and MLK, both gunned down within 3 months
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2018
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Terrific book, Chris! Only problem is . . . it brings back too many painful memories. It brings back the remembrance of all of the genuine hope we really felt in those years. . . until one by one, the leaders we trusted were all gunned down, and what got proved was how easy it was to destroy a movement even the size of the yputh-headed movement of 1968. All that needs to be done is decapitate it. In June of 1968 I was in Washington, D.C. working for a Democratic Congressman from Chicago and scheduled to go to the Chicago Convention in August (although.... to nominate just whom was not clear, as Gene McCarthy had inexplicably just folded after Bobby's death.....). By Tuesday night of the convention it was apparent what was going on in Chicago..... and I didn't want to go there and be part of the fMayor Daly connected crowd inside the convention hall. So I quit my job, packed up my Volkswagon, and drove back to New Mexico to finish my interrupted B.A. Somehow, with Bobby's death, I think we all knew down deep inside that the great, exhilarating fight for the soul of America that we saw ourselves as part of was now over. . . . without MLK, without Bobby, we couldn't win it because winning it necessitated having a leader in Washington to guide the spirit of the nation as it underwent the desired transformations. And that was gone. It must have been a both exhilarating and mournful experience to write this book. It was both for me to read it.
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Ben Creighton
4.0 out of 5 stars I found this book very engaging. It provides tremendous ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2018
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I found this book very engaging. It provides tremendous insight in to who Bobby Kennedy was, if we can assume all of the author's accounts are factual. I have always been a big fan of the Kennedys, and this book made me feel as if I were up close and personal with Jack and Bobby during their heydays. I also felt it let the reader create in their mind a chart, or map, if you will, of how Castro, Johnson, Hoffa, McCarthy et al. played roles in the lives of Jack and Bobby. Enjoyable read.
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Gary Moreau, Author
5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring story that is ultimately tragic both in human loss and the political stagnation we now endure
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2017
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It’s doubtful that more than a handful of writers and historians have the depth of experience, the credibility, or the personal relationships that Chis Matthews brings to this delightful book. He takes us behind the curtain of the Kennedy years, with a special emphasis in this case on Robert Kennedy, to a place where few could obtain access, now fifty years after the fact.

Every author has a perspective and Matthews is no exception. Nonetheless he gives a refreshingly complete and balanced narrative that in many ways reflects the Kennedy’s themselves. They had a perspective, too, but were remarkably pragmatic, clever, and determined in putting their often idealized perspective into practice.

Bobby in particular, Matthews tells us, was an idealist naturally aligned with the disadvantaged, yet with a competitive, sometimes ruthless, drive born of both his own burden as the third son of an aspiring Irish Catholic family and the relentless drive passed down by his domineering and competitive father.

While I am younger than Matthews, it is hard to convey to those who were not alive at the time the sheer scale and influence of the Kennedy clan during the late 50s and most of the 60s. While Jack, in particular, is revered in retrospect, the family, as Matthews chronicles, was not universally embraced across the nation or the political spectrum.

They, however, worked with what they had and pushed the nation forward in areas like civil rights and checking the growing influence of the Soviets without pushing the country to the breaking point. They had an uncanny ability to understand what the country wanted to do but couldn’t bring itself, for a myriad of reasons, to accomplish. They received, processed, and amplified all that was best about America and Americans. And then they got it done. From civil rights to putting a man on the moon, they thought big and accomplished a good deal of what they set out to do.

While you read the book Matthews reminds us just how broad and complicated is the political agenda of our country. Once you appreciate the dimensions of the challenge it is no surprise that our government barely works in the best of circumstances. The Kennedy’s, however, proved that it can work, and it is that optimism for which we are most indebted to their memory. The process of governance is loud and messy and mistakes are inevitable, but the battle can be won with grit and determination and the guiding hands of noble ideals and pragmatism (i.e., compromise!)

Which, in the end, is what makes this book both sad and inspiring. It is, indeed, sad to realize how little progress we’ve made in areas like civil rights and the promotion of world peace. The Kennedy’s certainly broke down barriers for Irish Catholics, but many barriers remain intact and many more have been erected since that time. The whole contemporary debate about immigration is a good example. The debate, such as it is (not much of a Socratic debate, actually), being so remarkably anachronistic but nonetheless contemporary. How far we’ve come and yet how little we’ve accomplished.

I don’t watch much television, so I have to admit I have never viewed Hardball. I wouldn’t know Chris Matthews if he showed up at my door. I have to thank him, however, for this delightful tour and stimulating reflection. He certainly made me think and that is the greatest gift any author can give us through his or her prose.

Yes, I remember exactly where I was the day President Kennedy was shot. I was sitting in Mrs. Sanderson’s fourth grade class and when the principal came into our class and privately told Mrs. Sanderson of the news, she immediately broke down sobbing. Indeed, that nation sobbed in the most literal sense.

The Kennedy’s, however, cannot be understood as a single man. They were a clan in every facet of the concept and Bobby Kennedy played an important and very influential role. Lacking the natural charisma of Jack, he was both the idealist and the guy who made things happen, his strong will to take on injustice, particularly when his brother or his heritage was called into question by it, was both his greatest strength and greatest political weakness. I honestly don’t remember where I was the day he was shot, but with Matthew’s help, I certainly feel I have a much better gauge of the man.

More than anything else, I think the Kennedy’s proved that politicians can have it all. You can stand by your principles and still get things done. Success and progress, Matthews, through the example of the Kennedy’s, reminds us, are not achieved through stagnation or backing up. Our current politicians would be well served to take this entertaining and informative stroll through a time in political history that was so much different, yet so remarkably the same.
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Top reviews from other countries

Bob Fleck
5.0 out of 5 stars We didn’t know how lucky we were.
Reviewed in Canada on October 15, 2023
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I saw Bobby Kennedy several times in Chicago and Toronto and revered him as a political figure. Both Kennedy men grew in front of our eyes, always better and for both it would have continued if they had not been cut down by midgets. The country’s direction changed for the worse when JFK was killed and RFK was the man to put it back on course. Never happed. Hasn’t still. The loss incalculable.
One person found this helpful
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Chris
2.0 out of 5 stars ... read by the author...
Reviewed in Germany on April 8, 2024
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This audiobook is read by the author himself. Unfortunately, he has a terrible high pitched voice, he uses weired emphasis on syllables and his chaotic melody makes this audio book very hard to enjoy. I am disappointed.
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anna
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good condition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2019
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This hardback has been very well cared for and has surpassed my expectations, as the cost was very low. Very impressed.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must read for admirers of Kennedy and Chris Matthews
Reviewed in Canada on January 12, 2018
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I'm only part way though this book but am a huge fan of Chris Matthews and as I had hoped, a beautifully written and affectionate look back at Bobby Kennedy. Had he become President, we'd all be living in a different world now. A great, great book, and a must for Kennedy aficianados.
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JOHN M O'DONNELL
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 8, 2018
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