Book #28: The Promise and the Dream
My goal in 2018 is to read 52 books. Here is a list of all the books I’ve read so far this year. Each book is ranked on a 5-star scale (5 is best).
**** The Promise and the Dream
My near-obsession with Bobby Kennedy is showing no signs of slowing, and fortunately, there seems to be no shortage of books about him these days (likely because he was assassinated 50 years ago.)
This book was really interesting as it’s the first one I read that dives into the relationship between these two men. You’d think they would have been partners from the start, but that just wasn’t the case. The author does a good job of not forcing a relationship that wasn’t there, and diving into the ways they worked together and the reasons they kept their distance.
For Bobby fans, this is a required read. I haven’t read enough MLK books to know where this fits in, unfortunately. My plan is to read a lot about MLK in 2019.
Amazon’s description:
No issue in america in the 1960s was more vital than civil rights, and no two public figures were more crucial in the drama of race relations in this era than Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Fifty years after they were both murdered, noted journalist David Margolick explores the untold story of the complex and ever-evolving relationship between these two American icons.
Assassinated only sixty-two days apart in 1968, King and Kennedy changed the United States forever, and their deaths profoundly altered the country’s trajectory. In The Promise and the Dream, Margolick examines their unique bond and the complicated mix of mutual assistance, impatience, wariness, awkwardness, antagonism, and admiration that existed between the two, documented with original interviews, oral histories, FBI files, and previously untapped contemporaneous accounts.
The Promise and the Dream offers a compelling look at one of the most consequential but misunderstood relationships in our nation’s history.
Reasons why you might enjoy this book:
- You’re a fan of MLK, Jr. and/or RFK
- You want to explore the 1960’s and the civil rights movement during its most tumultuous times
