A Ripple of Hope: The Life of Robert F. Kennedy

RFK was a great man like his brother, if you want to know a little bit about him, read it. There a few rare photos. For a more complete biography buy RFK and his time or the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.

This is the perfect book if you want to know a little bit about RFK! There are some rare photos, but not enough. The texts are quite complete but if you want to seriously study the subject buy Schlesinger's "Robert Kennedy and his time".

Robert Kennedy was my very first hero as a child. One of my fondest memories was watching the then Senator on the evening news and my mother telling me that "Senator [Robert] Kennedy is a man who cares about people. That's why we voted for him." I believed that fully.This is a book I would have LOVED as a child. This is a book I respect as an adult. I feel it gives young readers a good overview of the Senator's life and character and makes him somebody they can relate to. We follow the progress of little Bobby, 8 and 10 years younger than brothers Jack and Joe respectively determined to keep up with them. We smile at the small boy who was so determined to teach himself to swim that he flung himself into the ocean at age 4. Some 35 years later, we see that same little boy, now a Senator, determined to climb a previously unscaled mountain in Canada. He was a man who suffered from acrophobia, but he tabled his terror and climbed that mountain out of love for his brother. Robert Kennedy is a hard worker and his life is a litany of hard won successes. He had to live with people comparing him to his brother Jack, who was elected president in 1960. He had to contend with the feeling that he was still trying to keep up with Jack. It is only in the tragic aftermath of Jack's death does the full adult face of Robert Kennedy emerge -- the man who had previously worked behind the scenes promoting his brother becomes a KNOWN force to be taken seriously. He is the man who in addition to pursuing teamsters and mafiosi ("bad guys who break the law") finds his own voice, his own interests and his own identity beyond the shadow of his brother. He is the man who, in the last half decade of his life became the voice for many. He was better than a great man. Robert Kennedy was a good man.That same caring side is brought out on issues concerning minorities, poverty and civil rights. The man who would be president in 1968 comes across as serious and sincere in his efforts. As we track him on the campaign trail in 1968, we are left with the painful question of what the intervening years would have been had he lived to win that presidential election.