The Gospel According to RFK: Why It Matters Now - Hardcover

MacAfee, Norman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813391571 ISBN 13: 9780813391571

Publisher: Basic Books, 2004

Synopsis

As he campaigned for the presidency in 1968, Robert Kennedy outlined what seems today a redemptive vision for America. Tirelessly, before the kinds of vast crowds reserved for rock stars, RFK articulated with passionate eloquence the disasters of a misguided war, the pain of the dispossessed, and the way out of war and poverty. And then, 81 days into the campaign, he was assassinated. Now, in The Gospel According to RFK , writer Norman MacAfee has brought together for the first time the best of Kennedy's presidential campaign speeches and contributes lively and engaging commentary that makes them fresh, relevant, and especially timely.

About this title

About the Author

Norman MacAfee's other books include the poetry books, One Class; The Coming of Fascism to America ; and A New Requiem; and The Death of the Forest , opera to music of Charles Ives. MacAfee co-translated a volume of the poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini; two volumes of the letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir, Witness to My Life and Quiet Moments in a War ; and Victor Hugo's Les Misérables . He lives in New York City.

Reviews

This collection of excerpts from the speeches Robert F. Kennedy gave when he ran for president in 1968 resound with idealism and a vision for a compassionate world. MacAfee, a translator and author of a book of poetry and an opera (The Death of the Forest), includes the speech at Kansas State University where Kennedy first accepts responsibility for setting the country on a path towards war during JFK’s administration, and then explains the evolution of his opposition to the Vietnam war by declaring that, "we are acting as if no other nation existed ... our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance ... the cause of peace in the world." Kennedy also remarks on the need for universal health care, the positive role played by democratic dissent and debate on issues, and, most convincingly, on the need to end hunger in the US. In a statement delivered less than two months before his death on the campaign trail, he called the failure to end poverty "a national disgrace. The most prosperous society on the globe must be able to save its children from death, disease, and despair that result from a lack of adequate food."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813391571
• ISBN 13: 9780813391571
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176