Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon Lecture and Book Signing with Author Larry Tye

Please join us for a lecture and book signing with Larry Tye on his latest book Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon. The book will be available for sale and signing at the event. History remembers Robert F. Kennedy 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 had its beginnings in the conservative 1950s. Larry Tye peels away layers of myth and misconception to paint a complete portrait of this singularly fascinating figure. To capture the full arc of his subject’s life, Tye draws on rare access granted to him by the Kennedy family, including interviews with Bobby’s widow, Ethel, and his sister Jean, many of whom have never spoken to another biographer. The first half of RFK’s career underlines what the country was like in the era of Eisenhower, while his last years as a champion of the underclass reflect the seismic shifts wrought by the 1960s. Bobby Kennedy began his public life as counsel to the red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. He ended it with a noble campaign to unite working-class whites and poor blacks in an electoral coalition that seemed poised to redraw the face of presidential politics. Tye is a New York Times bestselling author. He was an award-winning reporter at The Boston Globe and runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship. Tye graduated from Brown University, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and taught journalism at Boston University, Northeastern, and Tufts. This event is free and open to all HRC Supporters and Friends. A reception with light refreshments will follow the event.