Bobby Kennedy's Unlikely Path to 'Liberal Icon'

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Michael Krasny

Aug 15, 2016 at

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Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy speaking to a crowd through a megaphone outside the Justice Department. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Since his assassination in the summer of 1968, Robert F. Kennedy has been remembered in often broad and conflicting strokes. To many he was a progressive martyr who fought against racism and poverty, but to others he was a flip-flopping politician who aided Senator Joe McCarthy and had Martin Luther King Jr. wiretapped. Biographer Larry Tye deconstructs the mythos surrounding the late senator in his new book, “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon.” Tye joins us to talk about Kennedy’s complex contradictions, his development from untested appointee to respected politician and what we can learn from his brief life.

Related Links:

Robert Kennedy: Delivering News of King’s Death (NPR.org)

Guests:

Larry Tye, author, "Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon"; his past books include "Home Lands" and "Satchel"

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