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 enlarge | Author: Thurston Clarke
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $14.50
You Save: $10.50 (42%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 2049
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0805077928
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.922092
EAN: 9780805077926
ASIN: 0805077928
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Makes RFK's Loss Sting Even More July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Unlike most Kennedy books which show the faults of the brothers and the family at large, this excellent book shows a man who campaigned for president in manner unheard of before and unlikely to be done again. Although Bobby Kennedy is known for hanging out with the glamour crowd, he spent he took his quest to the inner-city ghetto, the Indian reservations and the mining towns. He confronted the well-off and challenged colllege students. He formed an unlikely colition of angry white workers and black millitants. He went into the ghettos of Indianapolis on the night of the King assasination and may have prevented a dangerous riot. If he would have gotten the Democratic nod for president, he quite possibly (unless the Nixon camp could launch a successful smear campaign against him) could have become our greatest president. Hats off to Thurston Clarke!
What Might Have Been July 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Robert F. Kennedy was often seen as an aggressive, abusive, arrogant man--and there were times he certainly was. But his brother's assassination seemed to soften him, giving him an insight into suffering which the author compares to Abraham Lincoln's. Kennedy could empathize with the suffering of others.
This led him, during his campaign for the presidency in 1968, to seek out those who suffered and to promise to help. A large part of RFK's greatness is that he was sincere. He meant what he said, and there is every reason to believe he would have tried to keep these promises. Of course, we'll never know how well he might have done--or if he would have been a great president. That's part of his greatness, too.
Minorities, the poor of all races, and the young were all drawn to his message of hope. People were crazy about him. Many of those around him compared his celebrity to that of the Beatles. Crowds would tear at him and his clothes and leave him covered with scratches. Yet Kennedy loved being out there among them. In the back of his mind, though, he knew that eventually, someone would try to kill him.
Thurston Clarke's book is eloquently written, highly insightful, and hard to put down. It should be required reading for Barack Obama and John McCain and anyone else who runs for the presidency. They would learn a thing or two about honesty, sincerity, and compassion.
"For all the words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: 'It might have been.'"
John Greenleaf Whittier
Superb History July 7, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Probably many Americans still play the "What if ... " game when it comes to historical events. What if the Mayflower blew off course and went too far south? What if Roosevelt was defeated in 1940? What if Martin Luther King survived his assassination attempt? What if Bobby did? Probably one of the most haunting "what if's" our country could ever have would be the last one, and Thurston Clarke's examination of the too-short presidential campaign of 1968 is a "what iffers" dream.
Being a fan of RFK, I must admit to how much I didn't know about his presidential campaign prior to reading this book. It's a thorough, complete recounting of the 82 days, from his announcement to his killing, of the events on the trail. The book takes us through the Indiana primary, where RFK defied conventions and campaigned the way he wanted to. We go with him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where he befriends a boy that stays by his side during the entire day he's there. Oregon fails to roll out a welcome mat, while California has a red carpet for him. We see him in tough audiences, and in mobs where people can't wait to touch him. Bobby was many things to many people.
By covering his schedule, we also come to terms with the man who was Bobby Kennedy as well. Throughout the book, Clarke allows us insights into his persona and character, through conversations with people who knew him, and extensive quoting by the candidate himself. RFK clearly had many different sides, but the one I shall always remember is reading about RFK meeting children in abject poverty, and cradling their diseased and dying bodies in tears.
Clarke's book starts out with a recounting, in a prologue, about the train ride that took RFK's body back to Washington for burial. This probably was one of the best prologues I had ever read in any book. It was so moving and eloquently written that I actually read it twice. It sets up the book perfectly, as he describes the countless people who came out to stand along the train ride back, honoring the man who died trying to make our country better. It's a moving tribute to him that I shall never forget.
So, we play the "what if" game. Would our country have been better off with RFK in the White House? What would have happened, and what wouldn't have happened, with our political system? No one knows. We can only ponder. After reading this book, it only makes me wonder even more.
He Was Sincere June 29, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
As much as I respect Robert Kennedy I find it difficult to read any book about him because I know how his life story will end. While he could have spent a life of ease with his family and money, instead he chose to help those, such as the African Americans and Native Americans, who were often neglected by our affluent society. He found it abhorrent that citizens in Mississippi or on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota were often without enough food to live on. He chose to spend time with people in such dire straits even though he knew many of them didn't vote. I got the feeling that Robert Kennedy campaigned recklessly almost defying an assassin to strike him down as he rode standing up in a convertible and mingling with the people. If this was the price he had to pay to serve America then so be it. In the end he chose to exit the Ambassador Hotel ballroom in Los Angeles in a manner his handlers didn't approve of. Of such seemingly trivial choices is history changed. We are left to wonder if Robert Kennedy would have received the Democratic nomination for president in 1968, and more importantly, how the Vietnam War and American history would have been different. America was robbed of a truly caring individual in a senseless tragedy. The 1960s was a time of an unpopular war, riots, and assassinations for America as anyone who lived through it knows very well. Author Thurston Clarke has provided us with an outstanding offering in The Last Campaign which reviews a time of cautious hope that ended in unfortunate tragedy. Whether you lived through this time period or not, this is the story about a man who did his absolute best to be of service to others.
to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world... June 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Thurston Clarke has written one of the most emotionally charged and inspiring books I have ever read. I was 9 years old when RFK was assassinated, much too young to understand the ramifications. I do remember my older sister sobbing uncontrollably, and just repeating, they killed him, they killed him. RFK's Last Campaign was his legacy and he knew it, he knew the day would come that he would be assasinated yet he strove to raise all of us up. Up to a higher standard of caring for each other and raising the conciousness of this nation up. RFK asked, I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? He gave and he gave until he had no more to give and then he rested and got back to work. A couragous leader who was different because he spoke as to what he truly believed and he truly believed what he spoke. Rarely have I ever felt so much emotion while reading a book, RFK's soul and spirit are truly captured in this gem of a book. It made me think hard about what I can do to be a better person and examine my own moral courage. RFK defined moral courage and we can only ask ourselves, what if RFK had been president?
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