Robert Kennedy, the final years /

Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign was cut short by a bullet and remains the only case in US political history where the voter was denied a final decision during a campaign. Because of this tragedy, historians were left to speculate whether or not Kennedy would have been elected had he lived. Earlier works by Jack Newfield and Arthur Schlesinger predicted that he would have gone on to win the Democratic nomination and the election. However, some recent books have argued that Kennedy would have lost. Dooley's study, which examines Kennedy's Senate years, falls in this category. Dooley states that Kennedy, although a master tactician, was nevertheless attempting too much when he tried to forge a coalition among the young, black, and poor in an electorate that Ben Wattenburg described as "unpoor, unyoung and unblack." Dooley's work does not pretend to be definitive, and is designed expressly for undergraduates. It is a good primer for students who want to begin a study of the New York Senator.

Dooley, a British journalist who served on the Congressional staff of Senator Edward Kennedy, provides a brief survey of RFK's career from 1965 to 1968. This useful political overview, based on secondary sources, describes the New York senator's efforts to create a national voting bloc comprising minorities, the poor, the New Left, business, and citizens opposed to the Vietnam War. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.