Rating: 
Summary: Scratching the Surface
Review: A biography this is not, but it does give us insight into the mind of Robert Kennedy. His face is etched in our national conscience, making America wonder what could have been. Through this book, we see the principles he believed.
This collection of quotes is taken from RFK's speechs and the private journal in which he collected quotes and ideas. A wide spectrum of ideas is covered from political life to social ideas. Robert Kennedy's social conscience has gone unmatched in the political arena since his life ended.
One of the things I most enjoyed about this book is the candid photographs scattered throughout the book. These images show the softer, more personable side of the man. It is the side of the man that Americans were never allowed to see come into fruition.
A great quote to end this review is located on p 89. Although it refers to education, I think it is very applicable.
"All things are at odds when God sets a thinker loose on the planet." Edith Hamilton
Rating:
Summary: moving, eloquent...
Review: A few months ago I was recommended "Make Gentle the Life of This World." When I actually received it, I was shocked to find it was a book of quotes (I did not do the proper background work on the book or I might never have read it). My thought process was something like: "oh geeesh...bathroom lit 101." There are way--WAY too many little books of "quotations" and "advice" in the world. The Christian ghetto subculture suffers from a corresponding abundance of "devotional" books. Thankfully, "Make Gentle the Life of This World" does not really belong in the same breath as such books. Robert Kennedy's son assembled this book. It is a collection of quotes by Kennedy (topically arranged) which are combined with quotes that Kennedy himself encountered in his reading and subsequently wrote down in a book he kept. These quotes show the breadth and surprising depth of Kennedy's reading and thoughts. I found myself moved by much of the material here. Even the quotes by Sartre (whose works I have been unable to slog through) were of great insight. This is probably the highest recommendation a book like this is ever going to get out of me. I wholeheartedly encourage you to get a copy of "Make Gentle the Life of This World."
Rating: 
Summary: A Leader from the 60's Speaks to Us Today
Review: As Tennyson said, it is not too late to seek a newer world. In this book Bobby Kennedy's son sets out the quotes, speeches, notes, and words that shaped the journey of Robert F. Kennedy in the late 1960's. A journey to seek a newer world. That journey ended much too soon with Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles in June 1968. But the efforts he began and the philosophy he followed continue to live today. These words speak to us still about our current lives in America, about what we need to be doing to make a better country, and about how we should view our fellow man. They tell us a lot about ourselves and the many things left undone by Kennedy's untimely death. For those of us who participated in the last campaign of 1968, it is important to us that others hear his message of what America can and should be. This is a book about hope in the midst of despair, about ending violence despite all the violence in our lives, and about so very many things still left undone some 30 years later. It is a message of hope and promise that speaks to everyone today, from a time not so long ago, that we must have courage and always continue to strive to seek a newer world. This book provides insight about what we should do, shows how we can be guided by the past, and it provides words of strength for us to continue on that journey. These are words that motivated Bobby Kennedy, and they will motivate you today.
Rating:
Summary: Kennedy's words and quotations are still relevant to 1999.
Review: By reading the excerpts from his speeches and thoughtful quotations, one can come to an understanding of the complexity and intellectual depth of this American politician. Had it not been for his assasination after winning the California Democratic Primary in 1968, RFK would probably have become president instead of Nixon. Indeed his views on America, how Americans interact and view each other and his belief in the endurance of the human heart are profoundly insightful and give hope to a new generation of Americans concerned with these same issues. Amazingly, over 30 years after these words were spoken, the problems of racism, environmental degredation, lack of community and his hopes for the future still need to be heard. The wisdom recorded in this book transcend party affiliation and petty differences haggled over by the talking political heads seen nightly on American television. From time to time I dip into this tome and read its brief quotes of political wisdom and wonder what might have been had he lived. This book is RFK's eternal flame.
Rating:
Summary: In every sense one of the most beautiful books in the world.
Review: I cried. Then I ordered ten copies: including one for my ten-year-old nephew because he is old enough to know and young enough to hope. I loved Bobby Kennedy for many reasons, but a major one is that he did his growing in public; unlike so many public figures who seemed to freeze in office, he visibly developed - through pain and through being loved. He was not afraid to be introspective, and this book shows his introspections. There are some famous passages here, such as his challenge to the rich kids to pick up the tab to make America an inclusive society. Whether you're one of those who remember, or one of those who never found out, please keep this book - which, by the way, is beautifully printed and presented. May he rest in peace.
Rating:
Summary: Cynics, take heed...
Review: In this day and age of politicians afraid to tell it like it is, it was wonderful to read a book by a man who did. For all the media hyped personal travails, Robert Kennedy was still a political figure unlike any we have today. He not only got people involved with politics but got them excited as well. In this age of "dumbing down", he knew that the words of Dante, and Camus, and Aeschylus would not necessarily be recognized but would certainly be understood by the masses. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy is to be commended for bringing to light this side of his father, one that has been largely overlooked in the press. Truly an inspirational book for anyone who wants to believe in our government and our politicians again.
Rating:
Summary: An idealist for all ages
Review: Kennedy's book is a moving tribute to his father. The words apply not only to the political turmoil of the 1960's, but to aspects of life in the 1990's and beyond. Robert Kennedy was a great idealist and an inspiration to anyone who hopes to work as a public servant. This book is a great insight into his thoughts and fears, his dreams and aspirations. It begs the question of what the United States could have been had he lived to accomplish all he set out to do. This book can easily be read in an afternoon, but treasured for a lifetime.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Man, Great Message
Review: Make Gentle the Life of This World is a collection of excerpts from RFK's speeches, his writings, and some of his favorite quotes. The editor, RFK's son Max Kennedy, has used these to convey RFK's goals and message to a reader from any age or walk of life. There are some good selections in here. RFK's own words are wonderful, but nothing new. Most of the excerpts are from his more famous speeches, so anyone familiar with RFK would know them. However, for anyone just becoming interested in RFK, they would be a Godsend. The quotes are taken from authors like Plato, Emerson, and Camus, all RFK favorites. This book lets us in on the mind of this great man. Thanks to Mr. Max Kennedy for putting this together.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Kennedy and His Passion for the Greeks and Camus
Review: Maxwell Kennedy gives the reader, and perhaps follower, of Robert Kennedy insight into his father's thinking in this short, but well structured compilation. Not only does the memoir account for the speeches of Kennedy and the impact they continue to have. The reader is also given a rare insight into the quotations Kennedy loved most and the authors and people he admired through their words. It is interesting to see how Robert Kennedy was inspired by other's words and moved by the writing of those in history. I found the book most interesting for what it conveys of Kennedy's admiration for the thoughts of the ancient Greeks and Albert Camus. Maxwell Kennedy has covered various writers and people who have inspired his father, yet it is the Greeks and Camus who share the front seat in this collection. It is obvious in the number of references to each that Robert Kennedy was truly touched by what he read in the Ancient Greeks and Albert Camus. It is a superb book, and especially so for those who are interested in how those in the past have been inspired by others. In the speeches and words of his father that Maxwell Kennedy uses, he reminds us also of just what it was and still is that inspires us about Robert Kennedy.
Rating:
Summary: AN INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE FROM A BRAVE MAN
Review: One of my earliest political memories is waking up one morning to turn on the TV, only to see Bobby Kennedy lying in his own blood after his assassination. In the days that followed, I learned more about this charismatic leader who had been struck down at the height of his promise. Since those days, I have been on many political journies, right and left; and one constant has been the challenge of Robert Kennedy to try to make a difference, to not forget the least powerful of our nation, and always, always, strive to do better. Put simply: Robert F. Kennedy is my political hero, the last politician to really try and reach out with conviction to Americans of all colors and classes, but with particular attention to the poor. Bobby's appeal was to the black man trapped in the inner city, the white blue collar worker in Indiana, and to Hispanics laboring in the fields of California. It wasn't just that he evoked his martyred brother -- it was that he, in tending to his brother's flame (as he surely did, cast a retrospective glow of the Kennedy promise that had not hitherto existed; and in so doing, in coping with the pain of the loss of his brother, he created a new RFK as well. It is remarkable that the first time RFK ever referred directly to his brother's murder in public was when he was reaching out to the Black community of Indianapolis after Martin Luther King, Jr. had met a similar fate. You will find that short, beautiful speech in this little book; and if all Americans could read and hear that speech, so stark in its contrast of the two roads that Americans could take in the future of race relations, then we would go a long way towards healing that still-bleeding wound. Bobby Kennedy's message was one of hope. This book is the distillation of the words he read, as well as the words he spoke that conveyed that hope to millions. A bullet ended his life, and with it his campaign for the presidency and all the roads left untaken at that time. But his inspiration remains as long as compassion and hope and courage are valued.
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