Make Gentle the Life of This World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy
Throughout the 1960s, Robert Kennedy personally recorded ideas, ideals, and principles that spoke to his mind and his heart in a private journal like one kept by John F. Kennedy. Now, thirty years after Robert's tragic death, his son Maxwell Taylor Kennedy has opened this journal and culled from his father's speeches to offer us the quintessence of his thought. Filled with energy and insight, Make Gentle the Life of This World is the invigorating and thought-provoking portrait of a mind that...
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The late senator's son, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, opens his father's journals -- accompanied by photos, some previously unpublished -- revealing both the public and private Kennedy. Library Journal Kennedy's youngest son, only three years old at the time of the assassination, here compiles from his father's long-closed private journal the phrases that helped move a nation and the quotes from the ancient Greek philosophers, poets, and many contemporary figures who inspired RFK. Chapters are arranged by issues that were most important to Kennedy and remain timely today: the responsibilities of citizens to their government, the tragedy of poverty in the midst of plenty, the importance of dissent in a democratic society, and work as the solution for the welfare crises. The book's haunting photos convey Kennedy's spirit as successfully as the words.
\ Library JournalKennedy's youngest son, only three years old at the time of the assassination, here compiles from his father's long-closed private journal the phrases that helped move a nation and the quotes from the ancient Greek philosophers, poets, and many contemporary figures who inspired RFK. Chapters are arranged by issues that were most important to Kennedy and remain timely today: the responsibilities of citizens to their government, the tragedy of poverty in the midst of plenty, the importance of dissent in a democratic society, and work as the solution for the welfare crises. The book's haunting photos convey Kennedy's spirit as successfully as the words.\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsThis collection of brief passages drawn from Robert Kennedy's speeches and his journal, along with quotes Kennedy had copied from the works of favored authors, drawn together by his youngest son, is too slight and episodic to serve as a useful survey of Kennedy's thought. But the short passages do remind one of how the Kennedy brothers raised public rhetoric to a level now not often reached, as in a speech on welfare reform: \ We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge. Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land.\ Black- and-white period photographs add an appropriately nostalgic touch. A slender, handsomely designed book, clearly intended for browsers and gift givers.\ \
