13 results for "Biography"

Bobby Kennedy: the making of a liberal icon

Tye, Larry
“A multilayered, inspiring portrait of RFK . . . [the] most in-depth look at an extraordinary figure whose transformational story shaped America.”—Joe Scarborough, The Washington Post NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu original series starring Chris Pine. Larry Tye appears on CNN’s American Dynasties: The Kennedys . “We are in Larry Tye’s debt for bringing back to life the young presidential candidate who . . . almost half a century ago, instilled hope for the future in angry, fearful Americans.”—David Nasaw, The New York Times Book Review Bare-knuckle operative, cynical White House insider, romantic visionary—Robert F. Kennedy was all of these things at one time or another, and each of these aspects of his personality emerges in the pages of this powerful and perceptive biography. History remembers RFK as a racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But Kennedy’s enshrinement in the liberal pantheon was actually the final stage of a journey that began with his service as counsel to the red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. In Bobby Kennedy, Larry Tye peels away layers of myth and misconception to capture the full arc of his subject’s life. Tye draws on unpublished memoirs, unreleased government files, and fifty-eight boxes of papers that had been under lock and key for forty years. He conducted hundreds of interviews with RFK intimates, many of whom have never spoken publicly, including Bobby’s widow, Ethel, and his sister, Jean. Tye’s determination to sift through the tangle of often contradictory opinions means that Bobby Kennedy will stand as the definitive biography about the most complex and controversial member of the Kennedy family. Praise for Bobby Kennedy “A compelling story of how idealism can be cultivated and liberalism learned . . . Tye does an exemplary job of capturing not just the chronology of Bobby’s life, but also the sense of him as a person.” — Los Angeles Review of Books “Captures RFK’s rise and fall with straightforward prose bolstered by impressive research.” — USA Today “[Tye] has a keen gift for narrative storytelling and an ability to depict his subject with almost novelistic emotional detail.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “Nuanced and thorough . . . [RFK’s] vision echoes through the decades.” — The Economist
Random House 2016 580 pages

Alger Hiss and the battle for history

Jacoby, Susan
Books on Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss abound, as countless scholars havelabored to uncover the facts behind Chambers s shocking accusation before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the summer of 1948 that Alger Hiss, a former rising star in the State Department, had been a Communist and engaged in espionage. In this highly original work, Susan Jacoby turns her attention to the Hiss case, including his trial and imprisonment for perjury, as a mirror of shifting American political views and passions. Unfettered by political ax-grinding, the author examines conflicting responses, from scholars and the media on both the left and the right, and the ways in which they have changed from 1948 to our present post Cold War era. With a brisk, engaging style, Jacoby positions the case in the politics of the post World War II eraand then explores the ways in which generations of liberals and conservatives have put Chambers and Hiss to their own ideological uses. An iconic event of the McCarthy era, the case of Alger Hiss fascinates political intellectuals not only because of its historical significance but because of its timeless relevance to equally fierce debates today about the difficult balance between national security and respect for civil liberties."
Yale University Press 2009 256 pages

Coming up short: a memoir of America

Reich, Robert B.
"From political economist, cabinet member, beloved professor, media presence, and bestselling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, a deeply-felt, compelling memoir of growing up in a baby-boom America that made progress in certain areas, fell short in so many important ways, and still has lots of work to do. A thought-provoking, principled, clear-eyed chronicle of the culture, politics, and economic choices that have landed us where we are today-with irresponsible economic bullies and corporations with immense wealth and lobbying power on top, demagogues on the rise, and increasing inequality fueling anger and hatred across the country. Nine months after World War II, Robert Reich was born into a united America with a bright future-that went unrealized for so many as big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height-4'11" as an adult-set him on a determined path to spend his life fighting American bullies of every sort. He recounts the death of a friend in the civil rights movement; his political coming of age witnessing the Berkeley free speech movement; working for Bobby Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy; experiencing a country torn apart by the Vietnam War; meeting Hillary Rodham in college, Bill Clinton at Oxford, and Clarence Thomas at Yale Law. He details his friendship with John Kenneth Galbraith during his time teaching at Harvard, and subsequent friendships with Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy; his efforts as labor secretary for Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama. Ultimately, Reich asks: What did his generation accomplish? Did they make America better, more inclusive, more tolerant? Did they strengthen democracy? Or, did they come up short? In the end, though, Reich hardly abandons us to despair over a doomed democracy. With his characteristic spirit, humor, and inherent decency, he lays out how we can reclaim a sense of community and a democratic capitalism based on the American ideals we still have the power to salvage"-- Provided by publisher.
Alfred A. Knopf 2025-08-05 394 pages

Jack: the struggles of John F. Kennedy

Parmet, Herbert S.
List of Illustrations Prologue A Happy Family The Kennedy Children & Their World Period of Adjustment A Harvard Man The First Book The War A Hero in the South Pacific Joe The Second Son Emerges A New Candidate Portrait of a Congressman America's Younger Statesman To the Senate The Senator from New England The Senator & the World Dismal Days Profiles in Courage Madly for Adlai Preparing for Chicago The Showdown at Chicago The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Senator Human Rights Labor Reform The Perfect Politician Emphatic Reelection Courting the Liberals The Literary Campaign The Labor Trap Taking the Step Epilogue Notes Acknowledgments Index
Dial Press 1980 586 pages

Bright, infinite future: a generational memoir on the progressive rise

Green, Mark J.
"Blending the historical, biographical and political, this wide-ranging "memoir + manifesto" describes how the values of the 1960s are shaping a new progressive majority in 2016 and beyond. Multi-faceted Mark Green--bestselling author, public interest lawyer, elected official--guides us through contemporary American politics as Johnson retaliates against his antiwar work; Nader launches the modern consumer movement; Clinton wins the 1992 New York primary and therefore the nomination; the author debates Castro in Havana on human rights; and Green loses the closest NYC mayoral election in a century to Bloomberg after 9/11 in a perfect storm of money, terrorism, and race. As Public Advocate for New York City, Green is Mayor Giuiliani's bête noir--he exposes the NYPD's racial profiling, kills off Joe Camel, inspires the city's 311 system, and shows how a person who believes in positive, progressive government can make it work for average citizens. Starting with the consequential movements of the 1960s, Bright, Infinite Future tracks how a rising tide of minority and Millennial voters, the GOP's lurch from mainstream to extreme, and the contrast between the disastrous presidency of Bush 43 and the successful ones of Clinton and Obama are leading to a new era of "progressive patriotism" that will culminate in the 2016 presidential election. Full of behind-the-scenes stories about boldfaced names, this will be the 2016 book for liberals looking to Leonard Bernstein's 'bright, infinite future," conservatives who want to know what they're up against, and readers who want to know what it takes and what it's like "in the arena." "--
St. Martin's Press 2016-05-03 383 pages

The shadow president: Ted Kennedy in opposition

Hersh, Burton
At the heart of The Shadow President is a controversial idea - that, more than is brothers, Ted Kennedy has come to be the most influential political figure of this generation. His challenge to Jimmy Carter in the 1980 primaries, his bitter rearguard defense of social programs during the Reagan-Bush years, and the many upheavals in his personal life are all fully treated here.
Steerforth Press 1997-05-01 219 pages

Assume nothing: encounters with assassins, spies, presidents, and would-be masters of the universe

Epstein, Edward Jay
"This memoir is the story of how curiosity led me to investigate some of the greatest political mysteries of our time, including the JFK assassination in Dallas, the Vatican banking scandal in Rome and the diamond cartel in South Africa. To learn about them, I often found myself a fly-on-the-wall at the highest reaches of the establishment where I saw how presidents, tycoons, bankers and media moguls secretly greased the wheels of power. Some accuse me of being a conspiracist, but that is not correct. I am essentially a puzzle solver. Instead of accepting the received wisdom of the media, I search for a puzzle's missing pieces, such as the autopsy photographs of President John F. Kennedy that were kept from the investigation conducted by the Warren Commission Finding suppressed or overlooked evidence often has the result of overturning the established narrative, as happened when I published my book Inquest on the Commission, but that is very different from seeking a conspiracy. Sometimes, it is true. my work results in uncovering a deep conspiracy, as happened in my investigation of the world diamond cartel; other times, however, it results in discrediting belief in a conspiracy, as happened in my investigation of the murders of numerous Black Panthers (which caused the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, whose reporting had suggested the existence of an FBI conspiracy, to issue editorial apologies following the publication of my investigation in The New Yorker.) My prime interest has always been in finding gaps in the conventional wisdom about an event. How I came to be a pursuer of lost truths is a curious story of self-actualization"--
Encounter Books 2023 404 pages

Notes from the other side of night

Pilon, Juliana Geran
Notes from the Other Side of Night is a diary-memoir written upon Juliana Geran Pilon's return to her native Romania in 1975, which she had left along with her family when she was just fourteen. Poetically weaving together modern insight and realities with childhood perceptions, Pilon tells the haunting stories of her parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends. Although the scenery of her native home had remained essentially unchanged since her childhood, Pilon recalls streets that are no more, homes and churches that have been demolished. Yet, the hills and forests, the flowers and mountains, the heat of old Bucharest, remained the same. The scenes and characters described in this book are simply unforgettable. Despite the many tragedies it describes--anti-semitism, political imprisonment, and judicial execution were ruthless realities under communism--Notes from the Other Side of Night is not a depressing book. Pilon writes with a detached melancholy about events and characters that illustrate Hannah Arendt's terrifying "banality of evil." But she remembers, as well, those few who managed to remain human beings until the end. Ultimately, hope triumphs in this memoir. This edition includes a new foreword, which discusses the initial writing and publication of this and previous editions.
Transaction Publishers 2014 148 pages