Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover That Transformed America

I found this book very interesting to read. It is of special interest to me living in Massachusetts during this period. I found consideral insight into the politics of the time. It was well written and held my attention until the last page in the book.

It's a well-written, well-sourced book detailing disturbing relationships, among them: * The mob and the Mormons in Las Vegas * The rum-running "founding father" Joseph Kennedy and his intertwined business interests with the criminal element * The at-times destructive relationship of the brothers Kennedy to one another. Mr. Hersh's account is high on credibility and readability. However, this is not a book for those who want to swallow the "martyr" myths about JFK and RFK.

Burton Hersh has given us a challenge. For many it will require a paradigm shift in their assessments of the Kennedy clan and Bobby's place in history. The faint of heart, like reviewer, Peter Marshall, may not get through its graphic details. Indeed, it seems clear that Marshall never got up to chapter 6 and somehow he missed the painstaking detail of Hersh's excellent documentation in more than 67 pages of "Source Notes." Indeed, the work reveals a high level of historical scholarship brushed across the pages with the passion of a journalist. But this is not a historical novel. It is about the substance, raw data, of a critical period in America's history. This book will help us better understand who we are and just how fragile our democracy remains. N.B. (I also know the author personally, which has not disqualified me from being a critical and appreciative reader.)

Were "Bobby and J. Edgar" a movie, it would be described as "The Godfather Meets Camelot." Reading it is like going to the movies, except it's all true. Burton Hersh's brilliantly sourced masterpiece, the product of over five years of research, shocks on almost every page with its revelations of how power really works in America. The duel between two powerful personalities, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and F.B.I. Director, J. Edgar Hoover, is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the history of the country. The incredible cast of characters, Joe Kennedy, Bobby and Jack Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, mobsters Johnny Rosselli, Carlos Marcello and Sam Giancana, Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell Exner, Joseph McCarthy, Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, are all portrayed as the real people they were. Joe Kennedy is a driven,, mob connected power broker, but also a loving father, while J. Edgar Hoover is revealed as a surprising defender of civil liberties. I defy anyone who picks this book up to put it down. If it isn't a huge bestseller, I will be amazed.

There are a thousand Kennedy books and hundreds of books on the FBI, and I've read a lot of them, but none has what this one has: the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. J. Edgar Hoover, the protector of our country, was no such thing, it turned out. He persecuted the innocents as far back as 1919, when he provided information for the infamous Palmer Raids. Mr. Law and Order also protected the Mafia with a vengeance. A Southerner, he also fought to stop the civil rights movement with all the power vested in him. Martin Luther King didn't know it, but Hoover was his most feared enemy, even as much as the Ku Klux Klan. As for Bobby Kennedy, it is impossible to write about Bobby and Jack without discussing dear old dad, Joe, and Hersh uses his research and writing talents to tell the Joe Kennedy saga -- how he became rich selling booze and sidling up to Mafia bigwigs, and how he used his wealth to get whatever it was he wanted. It was Joe's ambition that pushed his two sons into the Presidency, and it was that same ambition that may well have gotten them killed. In his chapter on the Kennedy Assassination, Hersh names names. His scenario of that black day in Dallas is worth the price of admission alone. (In the name of fairness, I must admit that Burton Hersh is a close friend of mine, but this in no way colors what I think of this book.) He spent almost ten years writing Bobby and J. Edgar, and he should be rewarded for this extraordinary effort.