With rich detail, compelling honesty, and a storyteller's gift, RFK Jr.
describes his life growing up Kennedy in a tumultuous time in history
that eerily echoes the issues of nuclear confrontation, religion, race,
and inequality that we confront today.
"With emotion and striking detail, RFK Jr. recalls both the private
joys and very public pain of his childhood."-- Independent Catholic
News
In this powerful book that combines the best aspects of memoir and
political history, the third child of Attorney General Robert Kennedy
and nephew of JFK takes us on an intimate journey through his life,
including watershed moments in the history of our nation. Stories of his
grandparents Joseph and Rose set the stage for their nine remarkable
children, among them three U.S. senators--Teddy, Bobby, and Jack--one of
whom went on to become attorney general, and the other, the president of
the United States.
We meet Allen Dulles and J. Edgar Hoover, two men whose agencies posed
the principal threats to American democracy and values. We live through
the Cuban Missile Crisis, when insubordinate spies and belligerent
generals in the Pentagon and Moscow brought the world to the cliff edge
of nuclear war. At Hickory Hill in Virginia, where RFK Jr. grew up, we
encounter the celebrities who gathered at the second most famous address
in Washington, members of what would later become known as America's
Camelot. Through his father's role as attorney general we get an
insider's look as growing tensions over civil rights led to pitched
battles in the streets and 16,000 federal troops were called in to
enforce desegregation at Ole Miss. We see growing pressure to fight wars
in Southeast Asia to stop communism. We relive the assassination of JFK,
RFK's run for the presidency that was cut short by his own death, and
the aftermath of those murders on the Kennedy family.
RFK Jr. also shares his own experiences, not just with historical events
and the movers who shaped them but also with his mother and father, with
his own struggles with addiction, and with the ways he eventually made
peace with both his Kennedy legacy and his own demons. A lyrically
written book that provides insight, hope, and steady wisdom for
Americans as they wrestle, as never before, with questions about
America's role in history and the world and what it means to be
American.
