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All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Tour of Appalachia
In early 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy ventured deep into the heart of eastern Kentucky to gauge the progress of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Kennedy, already considering challenging Johnson for the Democratic presidential nomination, viewed his two days in Kentucky as an opportunity to test his antiwar and antipoverty message with hardscrabble white voters. Among the strip mines, one-room schoolhouses, and dilapidated homes, however, Kennedy encountered a strong mistrust and intense resentment of establishment politicians.
In All This Marvelous Potential, author Matthew Algeo meticulously retraces RFK’s tour of eastern Kentucky, visiting the places he visited and meeting with the people he met. Algeo explains how and why the region has changed since 1968, and why it matters for the rest of the country. The similarities between then and now are astonishing: divisive politics, racial strife, economic uncertainty, and environmental alarm. This book provides a new portrait of Robert Kennedy, a politician who, for all his faults, had the uncommon courage to stand up to a president from his own party and shine a light on America’s shortcomings
In All This Marvelous Potential, author Matthew Algeo meticulously retraces RFK’s tour of eastern Kentucky, visiting the places he visited and meeting with the people he met. Algeo explains how and why the region has changed since 1968, and why it matters for the rest of the country. The similarities between then and now are astonishing: divisive politics, racial strife, economic uncertainty, and environmental alarm. This book provides a new portrait of Robert Kennedy, a politician who, for all his faults, had the uncommon courage to stand up to a president from his own party and shine a light on America’s shortcomings
264 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2020
19 people are currently reading
1808 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Algeo
15 books118 followersWhen he's not writing his own biography in the third person, Matthew Algeo writes about unusual and interesting events in American history.
He is also a journalist who has reported from four continents.
In addition to reporting and writing, Algeo has worked as a convenience store clerk, a Halloween costume salesman, and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. Now he is the morning host at Kansas Public Radio.
He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with is wife, Allyson, and daughter, Zaya.
He is also a journalist who has reported from four continents.
In addition to reporting and writing, Algeo has worked as a convenience store clerk, a Halloween costume salesman, and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. Now he is the morning host at Kansas Public Radio.
He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with is wife, Allyson, and daughter, Zaya.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 21, 2025
"I remember coming away feeling much better about myself and my lot in life. I felt great respect and appreciation for my people and people like me, and how he responded to the [folks] in need. Hearing his responses and his caring nature being shared so openly and honestly, you could feel he really cared . . . It gave me great hope for my future. It was like having a light put out when President [John F.] Kennedy was killed and having it put back on again when Bobby came and talked to us about what the future could be." -- the recollections of Kings Creek, Kentucky native Neil Meade, on pages 210-211
For two days in mid-February 1968, Senator Bobby Kennedy visited poverty-stricken communities in the hillsides of eastern Kentucky. Accompanied only by a local politician, a young law school student from the region, and a state trooper (serving as bodyguard and driver), Kennedy met with hundreds of residents, gave speeches, and conducted town hall-styled meetings on a sort of fact-finding mission to better understand how such a locale - in which the strip-mining coal industry was the dominant 'cash cow' - could result in a destitute population having record numbers of illiteracy, school drop-outs, and especially hunger issues. Notably, this was before Kennedy had announced his intention to run in the presidential election, and very likely what he had observed - and, even more importantly, his up close and personal interaction with the various denizens - was the tipping point to proceed with his candidacy. Author Algeo - whose specialty is those little-known or -remembered parts of American history - has graced us with another particularly good non-fic work with his All This Marvelous Potential. While it's not his best book - I did not understand the page time late in the narrative devoted to young man who moved away from the state, only to soon to become a drug addict and then murder his decorated Marine veteran boyfriend AND commit suicide immediately afterwards - it was still particularly good with its recollections from folks (who are all now senior citizens) that were impressionable although pragmatic students at the time, and believed Kennedy sincerely could have made a difference had he not been assassinated just four months later.
For two days in mid-February 1968, Senator Bobby Kennedy visited poverty-stricken communities in the hillsides of eastern Kentucky. Accompanied only by a local politician, a young law school student from the region, and a state trooper (serving as bodyguard and driver), Kennedy met with hundreds of residents, gave speeches, and conducted town hall-styled meetings on a sort of fact-finding mission to better understand how such a locale - in which the strip-mining coal industry was the dominant 'cash cow' - could result in a destitute population having record numbers of illiteracy, school drop-outs, and especially hunger issues. Notably, this was before Kennedy had announced his intention to run in the presidential election, and very likely what he had observed - and, even more importantly, his up close and personal interaction with the various denizens - was the tipping point to proceed with his candidacy. Author Algeo - whose specialty is those little-known or -remembered parts of American history - has graced us with another particularly good non-fic work with his All This Marvelous Potential. While it's not his best book - I did not understand the page time late in the narrative devoted to young man who moved away from the state, only to soon to become a drug addict and then murder his decorated Marine veteran boyfriend AND commit suicide immediately afterwards - it was still particularly good with its recollections from folks (who are all now senior citizens) that were impressionable although pragmatic students at the time, and believed Kennedy sincerely could have made a difference had he not been assassinated just four months later.
May 14, 2024
I’m a big fan of Algeo. Most of his books deal with quirky lost stories of history and while this one isn’t quirky per se, it is surely a lost detour.
In 1968, Robert F Kennedy went to Eastern Kentucky, the poorest part of the US to see what he could do to help.
I have to admit I wanted to read this as soon as it came out but at that time I just had been gifted Chris Matthews book on RFK and thought it would be too much. (This book, unlike Matthews really isn’t a bio, but would be of much interest to people interested in the man).
This covers a lot of ground and was such an enjoyable read. There’s a variety of topics such as strip mining, George and Lurleen Wallace, the food stamp program and much more.
There’s Kennedy of course - a politician unlike any other. A late 20th Century Democrat born with a silver spoon but with a real knack to listen and talk with blue collar Kentuckians. (A contrast to the foot in mouth failings of Hillary Clinton). Even if people disagreed with him, he was able to communicate in a way that he felt genuine.
And also the life and hardship of the people of Eastern Kentucky and a special focus on the progressive young people who wanted things to be better for their small town (a flight that goes on decades later in a lot of less progressive areas)
Besides the fact it is just a great historical story, I really related to it because I was born just north of Western Kentucky and although things weren’t that dire- it was still a very rural area where coal mining was king.
I also very much related to the young people whose only choice might seem to leave.
The topic of poverty never went away but this book talks about things LBJs administration did. There’s no clear answers of course but you can see some of the things that were tried and worked, and some of the things we had that were ended or changed over the years.
It’s a quick read but it is very enjoyable. Recommended
April 16, 2020
Two days in February of 1968 drew the public’s attention to the very real and hidden poverty of our country and the promise of addressing it. At the time, events, books and articles focused on the poverty of the Appalachian area where one could see the destruction and dissolution of a beautiful natural area by greed and neglect. Understanding Appalachia might help us appreciate the severity and human side of poverty.
Robert F. Kennedy, then a senator of New York, was obsessed with the notion of poverty in the midst of wealth. Ironically, RFK’s personal interest was in spite of his family wealth. Perhaps he was following his brother JFK’s belief that poverty was a core issue that greatly affected the human condition. We are reminded of the long-held personal animosity of RFK and President Johnson. Johnson had initiated the “War on Poverty” program just 47 days after assuming office, was following through an initiative that JFK had contemplated in 1963.
In All This Marvelous Potential, author Matthew Algeo offers a look back on those momentous days right before Bobby would declare his candidacy for president, LBJ would decide not to run for a second term and then tragedy would change our attention with an assassin’s bullet.
While the national poverty program was beginning to have a positive effect, it remained a persistent problem in cities and certain rural areas. How could poverty overwhelm an area with such rich resources? For RFK, the answer was to immerse himself by visiting the area and talking to the people. But, RFK also became an obsession for the media and a public anxious to know if this was a step toward a possible run for president.
The majority of the book relies on re-visiting the transcripts of the hearing and the people, issues and news coverage of the event. Perhaps most valuable and unique is Algeo’s ability to interview and discuss the event with some of the witnesses and characters involved over 50 years ago.
The author provides a revealing look at some of reasons the Appalachian area was of particular interest. At the time, Harry Caudill’s 1963 book called, Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area, was an influential indictment of the mining industry in eastern Kentucky. Caudill had sent an invitation letter to senator Kennedy to visit the area. With a couple of key aides, a plan was hastily drawn for a two-day visit to Eastern Kentucky, the heart of the coal mining area and the location of some of the poorest counties in the country. His visit was to become a one-man, remote senate hearing known as the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower and Poverty, where he would have the opportunity to visit and hear from residents who became witnesses to the history and conditions of the area.
Two full days of traveling through the area provided a unique opportunity to hear their stories. Companies would claim how much they benefited the area. But, the result was natural wealth was taken out in the form of coal and strip mining while paying low wages and destroying a beautiful area and polluting streams.
Community activists told of how local groups made up of other poor citizens were able to better utilize grants to actually improve the area rather than be subject to programs determined by politicians. The tour visited one-room schoolhouses with pot-bellied stoves, bare lightbulbs and outhouses. Kennedy’s entourage visited random homes along the way. He even tried to tour a strip mine site but was turned away.
On the last day of the tour, the gym in Fleming-Neon High School was crammed with students and residents. Kennedy led off the hearing with these words:
The first among twenty-one witnesses to testify was Harry Caudill, the author of Night Comes… He started with a litany of grim statistics, such as, Kentucky had twenty of the thirty poorest counties in the nation. Nearly 24% of adults were functionally illiterate and a quarter of million east Kentuckians were expected to leave the area and in some counties 25% of the people were on public welfare. This was all in spite of having some of the biggest and most prosperous companies in America.
A group of local high school activists called the Appalachian Volunteers (AV) made a distinct impression with brown paper bags over their heads and carrying a banner that expressed the situation perfectly, "Give us jobs and education. We can’t eat your fancy promises". Their spokesperson, Tommy Duff, is highlighted by Algeo for his courage and leadership. But, in the end, his life story would become another tragic product of the area.
The reviews after Bobby’s trip were mixed. All This Marvelous Potential is filled with vignettes of people who were in awe of Bobby and some that resented him and those that painted their proud Appalachia as an example of intractable poverty. After the tour, RFK’s staff recommended improving the food stamp program, job training programs and incentivizing companies to move to the area. These recommendations and any action plan became moot after his death on June 8, 1968. And, again, the potential for progress against poverty would have to wait for other generations.
Robert F. Kennedy, then a senator of New York, was obsessed with the notion of poverty in the midst of wealth. Ironically, RFK’s personal interest was in spite of his family wealth. Perhaps he was following his brother JFK’s belief that poverty was a core issue that greatly affected the human condition. We are reminded of the long-held personal animosity of RFK and President Johnson. Johnson had initiated the “War on Poverty” program just 47 days after assuming office, was following through an initiative that JFK had contemplated in 1963.
In All This Marvelous Potential, author Matthew Algeo offers a look back on those momentous days right before Bobby would declare his candidacy for president, LBJ would decide not to run for a second term and then tragedy would change our attention with an assassin’s bullet.
While the national poverty program was beginning to have a positive effect, it remained a persistent problem in cities and certain rural areas. How could poverty overwhelm an area with such rich resources? For RFK, the answer was to immerse himself by visiting the area and talking to the people. But, RFK also became an obsession for the media and a public anxious to know if this was a step toward a possible run for president.
The majority of the book relies on re-visiting the transcripts of the hearing and the people, issues and news coverage of the event. Perhaps most valuable and unique is Algeo’s ability to interview and discuss the event with some of the witnesses and characters involved over 50 years ago.
The author provides a revealing look at some of reasons the Appalachian area was of particular interest. At the time, Harry Caudill’s 1963 book called, Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area, was an influential indictment of the mining industry in eastern Kentucky. Caudill had sent an invitation letter to senator Kennedy to visit the area. With a couple of key aides, a plan was hastily drawn for a two-day visit to Eastern Kentucky, the heart of the coal mining area and the location of some of the poorest counties in the country. His visit was to become a one-man, remote senate hearing known as the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower and Poverty, where he would have the opportunity to visit and hear from residents who became witnesses to the history and conditions of the area.
Two full days of traveling through the area provided a unique opportunity to hear their stories. Companies would claim how much they benefited the area. But, the result was natural wealth was taken out in the form of coal and strip mining while paying low wages and destroying a beautiful area and polluting streams.
Community activists told of how local groups made up of other poor citizens were able to better utilize grants to actually improve the area rather than be subject to programs determined by politicians. The tour visited one-room schoolhouses with pot-bellied stoves, bare lightbulbs and outhouses. Kennedy’s entourage visited random homes along the way. He even tried to tour a strip mine site but was turned away.
On the last day of the tour, the gym in Fleming-Neon High School was crammed with students and residents. Kennedy led off the hearing with these words:
“This visit has a special meaning to me because of the great interest President Kennedy took in the area…. Now that I’m here and observing this beautiful land - and all this marvelous potential - my visit has even greater meaning.”
The first among twenty-one witnesses to testify was Harry Caudill, the author of Night Comes… He started with a litany of grim statistics, such as, Kentucky had twenty of the thirty poorest counties in the nation. Nearly 24% of adults were functionally illiterate and a quarter of million east Kentuckians were expected to leave the area and in some counties 25% of the people were on public welfare. This was all in spite of having some of the biggest and most prosperous companies in America.
As Algeo puts it, "If rapacious corporations are Appalachia’s yang, well-intentioned do-gooders are its yin."
A group of local high school activists called the Appalachian Volunteers (AV) made a distinct impression with brown paper bags over their heads and carrying a banner that expressed the situation perfectly, "Give us jobs and education. We can’t eat your fancy promises". Their spokesperson, Tommy Duff, is highlighted by Algeo for his courage and leadership. But, in the end, his life story would become another tragic product of the area.
The reviews after Bobby’s trip were mixed. All This Marvelous Potential is filled with vignettes of people who were in awe of Bobby and some that resented him and those that painted their proud Appalachia as an example of intractable poverty. After the tour, RFK’s staff recommended improving the food stamp program, job training programs and incentivizing companies to move to the area. These recommendations and any action plan became moot after his death on June 8, 1968. And, again, the potential for progress against poverty would have to wait for other generations.
July 16, 2025
Another edition to the collection of works centered around Appalachia Poverty, All this Marvelous Potentials highlights Bobby Kennedy’s two day trip to eastern Kentucky in 1968. Thoroughly researched, a slimmer edition of the already brief book would have been beneficial.
“This man had gotten out of the car, he’d walked in the mud. He had empathy”
“Kennedy repeated the mantra: work, not welfare”
“A lot of things happened just because he drove into this area and got out and talked to people”
“We need…the kind of employment that lets a man say to his community, to his family, to the country, to himself, ‘I helped to build this country.’”
“This man had gotten out of the car, he’d walked in the mud. He had empathy”
“Kennedy repeated the mantra: work, not welfare”
“A lot of things happened just because he drove into this area and got out and talked to people”
“We need…the kind of employment that lets a man say to his community, to his family, to the country, to himself, ‘I helped to build this country.’”
December 19, 2021
This book wasn’t the play by play of RFK’s visit I thought I was going to read about. The author writes well about Eastern Kentucky’s people and places, but I purchased the book to learn more about RFK’s time there and his thoughts on it. Tommy Duff had a sad life indeed, but Robert Kennedy is who I wanted to read about. This book is a quick read and well written, just not quite about what the title suggests.
April 26, 2020
I was a little wary of reading this title, as it looked like it could be a tad tedious, but it ended up being one of the best books I've read in awhile. The book is based upon the visit by RFK to the Appalachia region of Eastern Kentucky in 1968, right before his Presidential run. In reality, the book is about the people and issues of the region, both then and now. Algeo mixes the dialogue of the interviews and committee hearings with the backstories and narratives of the people RFK meets along his trip. This title was a page-turner and eye-opening on the topic and the region of the US. Exceptional work and very intriguing.
October 3, 2020
The 1960s were a tumultuous time in America. There were changes that seemed to be happening virtually everyday. The war in Vietnam was an issue that seemed to touch every American family, rioting consumed many American cities, and in the mountains of Appalachia coal was beginning to lose its' place as the main piece of the economic foundation of a region already beset with poverty and inequality. All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Tour of Appalachia (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2020, xv, 264 pgs., $28.99, $38.99), by Matthew Algeo, chronicles Senator Robert F. Kennedy's whirlwind tour through the heart of the Appalachian region in the early spring of 1968. Kennedy's tour would shed light on unbelievable poverty and economic inequality in a region that had been hijacked for the amazing amount of natural and mineral resources that were located there.
The Eastern Kentucky counties of Letcher, Harlan, Pike, Lesiie, Knott, Hazard, Clay, and Magoffin are home to large amounts of coal deposits as well as stands of timber that are worth millions of dollars. In the early 1900s, businessmen and investors from such faraway places as Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, sent agents into these counties to buy the rights to mine these coal deposits through what were called "broad-form" deeds, which allowed them access to the coal deposits without having to maintain the land. This would leave the native citizens with unsafe air and water, as well as ensuring that the locals' main access to employment would be through mining jobs in underground as well as strip-mining operations. As these deposits dried up jobs were eliminated, leaving the mountaineers in a state of generational poverty.
Kennedy's tour in 1968 gave a voice to this generational poverty and the news reports and pictures spreading across America gave credence to the idea that change was needed. This Marvelous Potential is a true chronicle of Kennedy's efforts and a great read. This reviewer, having grown up in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia, just over the mountain from Eastern Kentucky, really enjoyed author Matthew Algeo's recreation of two days filled with so much hope and potential. This Marvelous Potential is a recommended read for anyone considering social change, fighting inequality, or simply understanding how important a sense of community can be.
Matt
The Eastern Kentucky counties of Letcher, Harlan, Pike, Lesiie, Knott, Hazard, Clay, and Magoffin are home to large amounts of coal deposits as well as stands of timber that are worth millions of dollars. In the early 1900s, businessmen and investors from such faraway places as Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, sent agents into these counties to buy the rights to mine these coal deposits through what were called "broad-form" deeds, which allowed them access to the coal deposits without having to maintain the land. This would leave the native citizens with unsafe air and water, as well as ensuring that the locals' main access to employment would be through mining jobs in underground as well as strip-mining operations. As these deposits dried up jobs were eliminated, leaving the mountaineers in a state of generational poverty.
Kennedy's tour in 1968 gave a voice to this generational poverty and the news reports and pictures spreading across America gave credence to the idea that change was needed. This Marvelous Potential is a true chronicle of Kennedy's efforts and a great read. This reviewer, having grown up in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia, just over the mountain from Eastern Kentucky, really enjoyed author Matthew Algeo's recreation of two days filled with so much hope and potential. This Marvelous Potential is a recommended read for anyone considering social change, fighting inequality, or simply understanding how important a sense of community can be.
Matt
December 15, 2021
The author of this book, details Robert Kennedy's visit to Appalachia, specifically the coal fields of Kentucky, in 1968 before he decided to run for President. Kennedy convenes hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower, and Poverty while in Kentucky and talks to local residents during these hearings. The author interviewed local people in the area who remember these hearings and one granddaughter of a witness at the hearing. The book details the destruction and poverty of the area despite all the mineral wealth in this area. One of the witnesses is Harry Caudill, whose book Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area, details the destruction of this area of Kentucky by mining, especially strip mining. I really enjoyed this book and re-visiting this area. This book also led me to read Night Comes to the Cumberlands. I loved Mary Rice Farris and the fact that she asked hard questions of both the Congressman and the Senator. It was sad that they did not acknowledge her or her concerns appropriately. A very informative book.
September 24, 2023
Half star for research.
A good read surrounding Senator Robert Kennedy’s trip to eastern Kentucky to conduct a brief investigation into poverty. And when I say “surrounding” he describes history and meanings of many locales, people, policies and events.
In doing so Algeo gives us the official definition of poverty and how it was funded. He always does a remarkable job of putting us in the atmosphere of the times he is writing and describes the nation’s feelings and the locals too.
He stayed away from delving into the Kennedy assassinations except for the effect it had on the people involved. For RFK “…was shot..” was about it. But since the story wasn’t about them it was about an event in eastern Kentucky.
RFK’s trip was short but the author’s research was vast and surprisingly personal. He did many interviews and plumed some obscure publications to get well-rounded descriptions of the events and the people.
Although some chapters seemed out of place, he always brought it back to its importance to the story. Very readable, quite informative and enjoyable.
A good read surrounding Senator Robert Kennedy’s trip to eastern Kentucky to conduct a brief investigation into poverty. And when I say “surrounding” he describes history and meanings of many locales, people, policies and events.
In doing so Algeo gives us the official definition of poverty and how it was funded. He always does a remarkable job of putting us in the atmosphere of the times he is writing and describes the nation’s feelings and the locals too.
He stayed away from delving into the Kennedy assassinations except for the effect it had on the people involved. For RFK “…was shot..” was about it. But since the story wasn’t about them it was about an event in eastern Kentucky.
RFK’s trip was short but the author’s research was vast and surprisingly personal. He did many interviews and plumed some obscure publications to get well-rounded descriptions of the events and the people.
Although some chapters seemed out of place, he always brought it back to its importance to the story. Very readable, quite informative and enjoyable.
December 30, 2023
A powerful consideration of time and place, power and position that echoes forth even now. I must admit, I picked this up because it “name checked” several locations where I have friends and family and is about the Appalachian area of Kentucky which is where I was born and spent my formative years. While it is, generally, about Robert Kennedy’s visit to the area with ties to the legacy of his brother and LBJ’s war on poverty, it also delves into the loved experiences, schooling, and more of coal towns and their people. So much of it echoes conversations I still have today with friends and colleagues alike about my hometown and the area. I burned through this volume in record time as my holiday reading amped up, but the books consideration of the diversity of Appalachian Kentucky is also a key element that deserves attention. Historical, social, and vital, this is one I strongly recommend.
April 16, 2022
Having grown up in the Appalachian Mountains, although not in Kentucky, I really liked this book. During this time, my dad was working to eradicate poverty in our area. He shared a lot of stories. Bobby Kennedy is one of my heroes, because he too wanted to eliminate poverty.
RFK's compassion clearly was evident throughout these pages. A picture of poverty in Eastern Kentucky was painted that shocked even me. Things were mentioned that my dad talked about existing in the 1930's. While I do not want to spoil the details for those who want to read the book, I will say that the last one room schoolhouse existed until 1989. By 1989, the town where I grew up had consolidated county schools.
Details are shared which illustrate the difficulties of helping the people of Eastern Kentucky at the time. The successes and failures of LBJ's War on Poverty are discussed, as well as the results of ending many of these programs in the 1980's.
Normally, I would have given the book the highest rating; however, I did not want an entire chapter dedicated to Lureen Wallace. The comment about RFK having affairs also had no place in the book--unless he had one during the two days he spent in this area.
RFK's compassion clearly was evident throughout these pages. A picture of poverty in Eastern Kentucky was painted that shocked even me. Things were mentioned that my dad talked about existing in the 1930's. While I do not want to spoil the details for those who want to read the book, I will say that the last one room schoolhouse existed until 1989. By 1989, the town where I grew up had consolidated county schools.
Details are shared which illustrate the difficulties of helping the people of Eastern Kentucky at the time. The successes and failures of LBJ's War on Poverty are discussed, as well as the results of ending many of these programs in the 1980's.
Normally, I would have given the book the highest rating; however, I did not want an entire chapter dedicated to Lureen Wallace. The comment about RFK having affairs also had no place in the book--unless he had one during the two days he spent in this area.
May 26, 2025
"All This Marvelous Potential" spotlights and animates RFK Sr.'s two-day trip to rural Eastern Kentucky, an oft-overlooked episode in histories of RFK and 1968 that nonetheless had great symbolic significance for local residents. Weaving together the oral histories of witnesses and participants with contemporaneous news coverage, Algeo renders vivid portraits of the places RFK visited, the people he spoke with, and the local political flavor of the times. The book suggests that despite RFK's assassination -- and therefore his inability to personally do much to address conditions in Eastern KY -- his tour had lasting impact as a catalyst for change both for the communities he visited and some of his most notable interlocutors. It's a testament to what it can mean for forgotten people when the political leaders they respect simply show up and listen.
March 23, 2021
Fascinating look into a two day journey of (net yet) Presidential hopeful and national icon, Robert Kennedy into rural Kentucky to see how the real poor of America lived. The author did an excellent job with backstories and details on the people Bobby's path crossed. You got to understand each person's struggles an mindset, without exploiting them for sympathy. Kennedy as well was painted in a very the strong and caring light he was known for. His used his humor an humility to relate to the people he spoke and his intelligence and practicality to respond to them.
Of course, its an book of unanswered what-ifs. We'll never know what future our country Kentucky and the nation would have taken if things didn't play out the way they did.
Of course, its an book of unanswered what-ifs. We'll never know what future our country Kentucky and the nation would have taken if things didn't play out the way they did.
June 27, 2021
I've read a lot of books about RFK (did my MA thesis on him). I really enjoyed that this didn't rehash the same stories I'd already read. It was a really sincere look at both RFKs visit, Eastern Kentucky, and the war on Poverty. All This Marvelous Potential is a perfect title. Potential for the War on Poverty, potential for Eastern Kentucky, and potential for RFK. Potential that has yet to be realized, but this book doesn't wallow, and remains cautiously hopeful.
August 31, 2021
In the footsteps of Sarah Vowel, Susan Orleans, Mary Roach and others, this book profiles larger than life people, events, and travels to bring little known facts to our attention and bring forth a different perspective of what we know about them. This book and more to the point, this author Matthew Algeo is now one of my favorites. He has heretofore written books about Harry Truman, Grover Cleveland, and Lincoln's pets, and they have all been phenomenal.
July 20, 2023
This book covers so much ground, civil rights, the coal industry, union organizing, and Bobby Kennedy. I finished it more out of the feeling that this is important history that I should know and less because I was enjoying the writing. I have enjoyed Algeo's other books enough that I am not giving up on him.
June 9, 2024
An excellent deep dive into the trip Bobby Kennedy took to Appalachia. Where he saw firsthand the immense poverty plaguing large swaths of our population. Bobby left the trip forever changed. It was a great shame he was not able to live to help enact some of his outlined changes. All this marvelous potential was lost indeed.
November 9, 2024
Compelling, captivating, concise and incredibly detailed, this book strikes me as an essential read for anyone who seeks to learn about Appalachia or Bobby Kennedy. There’s a powerful story here and it paints a vivid picture of Kennedy’s ambitions and empathy, and the struggles of folks in Eastern Kentucky.
May 10, 2020
4.5 stars--Interesting, albeit limited, portrait of Bobby Kennedy about a personally affecting trip to Appalachia. But, an even more compelling story of the visit and its aftereffects on the other participants, especially the Eastern Kentucky natives.
August 17, 2020
I picked up this book because it dealt with a number of my interests and I thought it would be about West Virginia. Surprise it was about Kentucky - turns out Appalachia is there too. 🤪 It was a quick easy interesting read.
January 19, 2021
Reflective
Seems like a long time ago that Senator Kennedy visited eastern Kentucky. I would been in the fifth grade when he and MLK were shot a few months after the trip. I don’t recall Kennedy’s trip but I am proud he made the effort to go, see, and offer hope.
Seems like a long time ago that Senator Kennedy visited eastern Kentucky. I would been in the fifth grade when he and MLK were shot a few months after the trip. I don’t recall Kennedy’s trip but I am proud he made the effort to go, see, and offer hope.
January 22, 2022
Even though it is an interesting book, the title is a bit misleading. Robert Kennedy's visit is used as baseline. From here different stories are told about the area, individuals living there at the time of the visit, the coal industry, and politics. It helps give a better idea of the area.
February 5, 2022
Well written and researched
While im old enough to remember this trip, I dont think it got the press it deserved. Very interesting book with more in depth interviews than expected.
While im old enough to remember this trip, I dont think it got the press it deserved. Very interesting book with more in depth interviews than expected.
June 10, 2024
A book about Appalachia that focuses on modern issues through a historic lens. The book gives a look at historic and systemic poverty in the eastern mountains of Kentucky, and resists being a “2016 explainer” type of book.
March 15, 2020
It was a good book and story about RFK's trip though Eastern Kentucky. However, I felt his tangents about some topics were a bit too much and could have been summed up better.
March 31, 2020
interesting read 2.5
another interesting read: Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi
good luck
another interesting read: Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi
good luck
June 24, 2020
This book is marvelous! I learned so much from it.
July 6, 2020
An astoundingly good book! This is a must read for anyone interested in history, politics, poverty, Appalachia, Robert Kennedy.... I learned so, so much. Just a brilliant read.
October 21, 2020
Excellent book. Really connects the part with the present. Honestly, the 1st parts of this book could have been songs for a Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan album.
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