Robert F. Kennedy: The Senate Years

This study traces Kennedy's political development from his election to the Senate in 1964 to his death in 1968. During that time, he transformed from a hesitant and orthodox liberal to spearhead a new radicalism and develop an alternative coalition for the Democratic Party. In the domestic arena, he proposed an alternative approach for urban renewal, and became remarkably popular with black voters (even more popular than has previously been accepted). This study attempts to fathom the full extent of this relationship and how powerful it could have become. Kennedy was also among the first politicians of his generation to use the political muscle of the youth groups which were springing up in the mid-'60s, and the alternative labour organisations (most notably in California) which found themselves excluded from the old union power structures. The study also charts his rise in the anti-Vietnam war movement, and questions his reputation as a hard-line anti­ communist which emerged during the Kennedy administration. It examines his presidential campaign in the context of his alternative liberal coalition, and an analysis of his primary results suggests that the accepted wisdom of a Kennedy poverty coalition (made up of low-income black and white voters) is largely mythological. Finally, the study offers some tentative conclusions about the real nature of Kennedy's contribution to modern liberalism, and a brief historiography