The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days that Inspired America
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With new research and previously unavailable interviews, The Last Campaign provides an intimate and absorbing historical narrative that goes right to the heart of America's deepest despairs— and most fiercely held dreams— and tells us more than we had understood before about this complicated man and the heightened dramas of his times.After John F. Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy— formerly Jack's no-holds-barred political warrior— almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brother's murder, and by the nation's seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the country's pain, and when he announced that he was running for president, the country united behind his hopes. Over the action-packed eighty-two days of his campaign, Americans were inspired by Kennedy's promise to lead them toward a better time. And after an assassin's bullet stopped this last great stirring public figure of the 1960s, crowds lined up... Publishers Weekly Forty years before Obamamania, there was another White House run that was so frenzied, reporters feared they'd be crushed to death by the electrified crowds he generated. Clarke's encyclopedic study of that short-lived, 11th-hour bid in the spring of 1968 reminds listeners that Robert F. Kennedy understood that the fanaticism toward his campaign was a transmutation of the grief the nation felt over the assassination of his brother. In less than three months, RFK became presidential in his own right, inspiring Americans with both his message of hope and unparalleled oratory gifts. It's precisely this finesse with speech that proves the greatest challenge for this audio: Pete Larkin's reading of Kennedy's addresses simply can't compete with the late politician's familiar delivery. Larkin has the daunting task of calibrating his tone so as to match the optimism of the campaign's first 81 days, while acknowledging the horror of day 82. Without doing impersonations, Larkin uses slight pitch changes to differentiate between Kennedy and others. A Henry Holt hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 31). (June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Prologue: June 8, 1968 1Early DaysNo Choice: March 16-17, 1968 19"He's Going All the Way": March 17-18, 1968 39"Bobby Ain't Jack": March 21-31, 1968 51"Prophets Get Shot"The Era of Good Feelings: March 31-April 4, 1968 71A Prayer for Our Country: April 4-5, 1968 91"Guns Between Me and the White House": April 5-7, 1968 112"Prophets Get Shot": April 9, 1968 122Red State PrimariesLike Frank Sinatra Running for President: April 10-15, 1968 139Brave Heart and Christopher Pretty Boy: April 16 and May 11, 1968 153"How Does It Look for Me Here?": April 22-24, 1968 166"From You!": April 26, 1968 183Riding with the Next President: April 27, 1968 193Mother Inn: May 3-14, 1968 206The West Coast"This Is Peanuts": May 15-28, 1968 227Resurrection City: May 29, 1968 239"The Last of the Great Believables": May 30-June 3, 1968 249"So This Is It": June 4-5, 1968 265Postscript 276Notes 283Bibliography 307Acknowledgments 311Index 313
