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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: 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: The man...The inspiraion
Review: RFK was a Hero of his time...perhaps for all times. Like so many inspirational people, he left us before his time. Yes, I clearly remember the day, the moment,the sorrow, the tragedy. What would the world have been had RFK lived to his full potential. His words and private quotations are an inspiration to all "who see things that have never been and ask 'Why Not'? "
This little collection brings alive, once again, the man who could have led our nation to it's greatnness. It is an inspiration and a message to all of us that we can heed and follow. We , once again, are reminded of our responsibilities to our ideals.
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring collection
Review: RFK's son has put together a collection of thoughts, quotes, and inspirational material on various topics from life to race relations. I think this book would make a great graduation gift! Also it is a positive book, full of hope and improvement. A great sources for quotes for papers and speeches. I enjoyed learning more about Bobby Kennedy through the words that inspired him to make a difference.
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring collection
Review: RFK's son has put together a collection of thoughts, quotes, and inspirational material on various topics from life to race relations. I think this book would make a great graduation gift! Also it is a positive book, full of hope and improvement. A great sources for quotes for papers and speeches. I enjoyed learning more about Bobby Kennedy through the words that inspired him to make a difference.
Rating:
Summary: Reminders
Review: Robert Kennedy was one of the most fascinating public figures in recent history. He was clearly an intelligent man and he had the foresight to combine that with hard work and effort. It was only in adult life that he became interested in classical literature and he used this interest to become self-educated. That is one mark of high intelligence and motivation. In reading the quotes that moved and motivated Robert Kennedy, one can see the character development that was taking place during his life during this period. It was late in his life when he publicly admitted that he "did not stay awake nights" worrying about poverty and minorities. Unlike so many public figures of that era, Robert Kennedy personally got involved in these issues and as a result, developed a very wide following. A large part of his appeal lay in his sincerity -- one really got the feeling that he spoke straight from his heart, his gut, his instincts. I remember when I was a very little girl, my mother would say that "Robert Kennedy is a man who cares about people." My single fondest memory was being taken into the election booth and being allowed to vote for him when I was 3. I still remember that. For days after that election, my mother would proudly say each time we saw the newly elected Senator Kennedy on the evening news, "And YOU voted for him." It was a very sterling moment for me. The 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy was the very first death that had affected me personally. I can to this very day remember those two dreadful days in June. On the evening of June 6, 1968 when I was greeted with the bad news and after I had read every thing in the paper about the assassination, I remember the keen anger I felt toward the assassin. I remember saying, "I hate the man who shot Senator Kennedy! I hate him and I hope they throw him in jail forever and I wish Rosey Grier had broken his head." My mother imparted some very sage advice to me, which I was not able to appreciate until some years had passed. Her exact words to me that terrible afternoon of June 6, 1968 were: "Senator Kennedy would not want you to hate anyone. Pray instead for an end to killing and violence. Pray for his family and for everyone who cared about him." I never forgot. I became a history major and Robert Kennedy was the subject of my senior project. I read Camus, Tennyson, Sophocles, Plato and other literary figures Robert Kennedy popularized in his speeches. In so doing, I not only gained a greater appreciation of classical literature, I also applied that knowledge to my history paper. Indirectly, Robert Kennedy shaped my academic career -- I have more than a pedestrian knowledge of classical writings. My senior sponsor loved the paper and it remains the thing I am most proud of during my senior year. Robert Kennedy was a realist, a man for everyone and I honestly believe his hard work and awareness of human rights have indeed left indelible stamps for the better in this world. (Just for the record, Douglas H. Kennedy was the Senator's youngest son and not Matthew Maxwell Kennedy, the author).
Rating:
Summary: MAKE GENTLE THE LIFE OF THIS WORLD
Review: Throughout the 1960s, Robert F. Kennedy personally recorded ideas, ideals, and principles that spoke to his mind and his heart in a private journal. Now, thirty years after Robert's tragic death, his son Maxwell Taylor Kennedy has drawn from both this journal and his father's speeches to offer the quintessence and the depth of his thinking. Filled with energy and insight, Make Gentle the life of this World is the invigorating and thought - provoking portrait of a mind that shaped a generation and of a man who lived for his country. Beautifully illustrated with photos both public and private, some published here for the first time, Make Gentle the Life of This World commemorates how Robert F. Kennedy touched our hearts and quickened our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Reminders
Review: While those alive during 1968 clearly remember his assassination and cannot help but be moved when reminded of the young leader, the power of Robert F. Kennedy's actions and the emotion of his words are still able to make those of a younger generation yearn for the type of leadership he provided. Divided into appropriately title sections, such as "A Citizen in a Civil Society" or the "Life of the Heart," this book is a collection of the thoughts and feelings written in the day journal he kept during the 1960s. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy's tribute to his father is filled with quotes, either read or heard, from different sources, along with reactions to those words. A man whose life was cut short in its prime, Kennedy did not have the chance to change the world in the way he wanted to, the way only he could have. This book gives the reader a little insight into the mind of a great politician, a inspirational philospher, an idealistic dreamer, a kind man. Like Martin Luther King Jr, Kennedy had a vision of the world that he wanted his children, and all people, to live and prosper in. This touching tribute reminds us that peoples are not all that different from each other and the path to equality and a peaceful environment is not as hidden or unattainable as it seems. In a society where doing right and good is less and less commendable, this book provides encouragement to dream and reminders of what society should be. Robert F. Kennedy was a man unlike any other, and this book, through his own words, reminds us why he is to be missed.
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