RFK: Collected Speeches

Robert F. Kennedy

Viking, 1993 - History - 434 pages

Robert F. Kennedy died from an assassin's bullet on June 6, 1968. Commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of that tragedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edwin O. Guthman, a confidant of RFK's, and C. Richard Allen have assembled a moving and eloquent volume of his speeches. Arranged chronologically and woven together with a narrative that places the speeches in global and national as well as personal context - and illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs, some never before published - this first collection of its kind serves also as a stirring history of two turbulent American decades. Public interest in the Kennedys has only grown stronger as the years have passed. And RFK's voice is as relevant today as it was when he first spoke out on individual responsibility, personal courage, compassion for those less fortunate, and all of the critical issues of his time - and ours.

Contents

• ROBERT KENNEDYS LEGACY: xxvii
• PART: 1
• OUT OF HARVARD: 7

About the author

Robert "Bobby" Kennedy was the seventh of nine children in the wealthy Kennedy family of Massachusetts. When his elder brother John F. Kennedy became President in 1961, Robert was named Attorney General. The brothers had worked together during the campaign, with Robert serving as his brother's campaign manager. Robert Kennedy had been educated at Harvard University, served in the Navy during World War II, and received his law degree from Virginia Law School in 1951. Then he worked in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in 1951 and 1952, where he helped prosecute corruption and income-tax invasion cases. In the following years he served as congressional investigator for committees on Un-American Activities and on Improper Activities in Labor and Management. In 1961 Kennedy became Attorney General under President John F. Kennedy, and stayed on under President Lyndon B. Johnson. In that position he actively promoted civil rights by prosecuting people who violated the civil rights of minorities. He continued his pursuit of civil rights when he became Senator from New York in 1964. He also worked for antipoverty programs, medicare, and other social programs, and spoke out strongly against escalating involvement in Vietnam. Kennedy set out to campaign for the Democratic nomination for President in the 1968 election. He won five of the six primaries he entered and was becoming a formidable challenger, when Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab immigrant, shot him fatally on June 5, 1968.

Bibliographic information

• Title: RFK: Collected Speeches
• Author: Robert F. Kennedy
• Editors: Edwin O. Guthman, C. Richard Allen
• Contributor: C. Richard Allen
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Viking, 1993
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Sep 22, 2008
• ISBN: 0670848735, 9780670848737
• Length: 434 pages
• Subjects: History / General; History / United States / 20th Century