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Edward Kennedy #1
Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour, 1932-1975
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “One of the truly great biographies of our time.”—Sean Wilentz, New York Times bestselling author of Bob Dylan in America and The Rise of American Democracy
“A landmark study of Washington power politics in the twentieth century in the Robert Caro tradition.”—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of American Moonshot
The epic, definitive biography of Ted Kennedy—an immersive journey through the life of a complicated man and a sweeping history of the fall of liberalism and the collapse of political morality.
Catching the Wind is the first volume of Neal Gabler’s magisterial two-volume biography of Edward Kennedy. It is at once a human drama, a history of American politics in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and a study of political morality and the role it played in the tortuous course of liberalism.
Though he is often portrayed as a reckless hedonist who rode his father’s fortune and his brothers’ coattails to a Senate seat at the age of thirty, the Ted Kennedy in Catching the Wind is one the public seldom saw—a man both racked by and driven by insecurity, a man so doubtful of himself that he sinned in order to be redeemed. The last and by most contemporary accounts the least of the Kennedys, a lightweight. He lived an agonizing childhood, being shuffled from school to school at his mother’s whim, suffering numerous humiliations—including self-inflicted ones—and being pressed to rise to his brothers’ level. He entered the Senate with his colleagues’ lowest expectations, a show horse, not a workhorse, but he used his “ninth-child’s talent” of deference to and comity with his Senate elders to become a promising legislator. And with the deaths of his brothers John and Robert, he was compelled to become something more: the custodian of their political mission.
In Catching the Wind , Kennedy, using his late brothers’ moral authority, becomes a moving force in the great “liberal hour,” which sees the passage of the anti-poverty program and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Then, with the election of Richard Nixon, he becomes the leading voice of liberalism itself at a time when its power is waning: a “shadow president,” challenging Nixon to keep the American promise to the marginalized, while Nixon lives in terror of a Kennedy restoration. Catching the Wind also shows how Kennedy’s moral authority is eroded by the fatal auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969, dealing a blow not just to Kennedy but to liberalism.
In this sweeping biography, Gabler tells a story that is Shakespearean in its dimensions: the story of a star-crossed figure who rises above his seeming limitations and the tragedy that envelopes him to change the face of America.
“A landmark study of Washington power politics in the twentieth century in the Robert Caro tradition.”—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of American Moonshot
The epic, definitive biography of Ted Kennedy—an immersive journey through the life of a complicated man and a sweeping history of the fall of liberalism and the collapse of political morality.
Catching the Wind is the first volume of Neal Gabler’s magisterial two-volume biography of Edward Kennedy. It is at once a human drama, a history of American politics in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and a study of political morality and the role it played in the tortuous course of liberalism.
Though he is often portrayed as a reckless hedonist who rode his father’s fortune and his brothers’ coattails to a Senate seat at the age of thirty, the Ted Kennedy in Catching the Wind is one the public seldom saw—a man both racked by and driven by insecurity, a man so doubtful of himself that he sinned in order to be redeemed. The last and by most contemporary accounts the least of the Kennedys, a lightweight. He lived an agonizing childhood, being shuffled from school to school at his mother’s whim, suffering numerous humiliations—including self-inflicted ones—and being pressed to rise to his brothers’ level. He entered the Senate with his colleagues’ lowest expectations, a show horse, not a workhorse, but he used his “ninth-child’s talent” of deference to and comity with his Senate elders to become a promising legislator. And with the deaths of his brothers John and Robert, he was compelled to become something more: the custodian of their political mission.
In Catching the Wind , Kennedy, using his late brothers’ moral authority, becomes a moving force in the great “liberal hour,” which sees the passage of the anti-poverty program and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Then, with the election of Richard Nixon, he becomes the leading voice of liberalism itself at a time when its power is waning: a “shadow president,” challenging Nixon to keep the American promise to the marginalized, while Nixon lives in terror of a Kennedy restoration. Catching the Wind also shows how Kennedy’s moral authority is eroded by the fatal auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969, dealing a blow not just to Kennedy but to liberalism.
In this sweeping biography, Gabler tells a story that is Shakespearean in its dimensions: the story of a star-crossed figure who rises above his seeming limitations and the tragedy that envelopes him to change the face of America.
928 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2020
149 people are currently reading
3813 people want to read
About the author
Neal Gabler
13 books171 followersNeal Gabler is a distinguished author, cultural historian and television commentator who has been called “one of America’s most important public intellectuals.” His first book, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the Theatre Library Association Award for the best book on television, radio or film. On the centenary of the first public exhibition of motion pictures in America, a special panel of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named it one of the one hundred outstanding books on the American film industry. His second book, Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named the non-fiction book of the year by Time Magazine. His third book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, is currently being used in college courses across the country to examine the convergence of reality and entertainment. His fourth book, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, a New York Times best-seller, was named the biography of the year by USA Today and won Mr. Gabler his second Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was also the runner-up for the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Book Award in England. His new book, Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity and Power, was published by Yale Univ Press this past April as part of its Jewish Lives series.
Mr. Gabler was graduated with high distinction and highest honors from the University of Michigan and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He holds advanced degrees in film and American Culture. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, where he won an outstanding teaching award, and at the Pennsylvania State University. Leaving academe, he was selected to replace departing co-hosts Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel on the public television movie review program, “Sneak Previews.” He has also been the host of the American Movie Classics cable television network, of “Reel to Real” on the History Channel, and of “Reel Thirteen” on WNET, the public television station in New York, for which he won an Emmy.
Mr. Gabler is a contributing editor at Playboy and a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters Opinion, and his essays and articles have appeared in Atlantic, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New Republic, Men’s Journal, George, Time, TV Guide, Variety and many other publications. In 2014, he won the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club. He has also been a contributor to the Fox News Channel and served as a panelist on the weekly media review program “Fox News Watch” from 2002 to 2007. One television critic called him a “megawatt brain…whose take on media coverage was fiercely individualistic, profound and original.” He has made appearances on “The Today Show,” “CBS Morning News,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “Charlie Rose” and the PBS “NewsHour.” And this year he is contributing a weekly column to billmoyers.com on the election and the media
Mr. Gabler has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shorenstein Fellowship at Harvard University, a Freedom Forum Fellowship, and was a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholar. He has also been the chief non-fiction judge of the National Book Awards and a judge of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He is currently a senior fellow at the Norman Lear Center for the Study of Society and Entertainment at the University of Southern California and is a Visiting Professor in the MFA Literature and Writing program at SUNY Stony Brook. He was also the 2013 recipient of the Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship at Washington College. His older daughter Laurel was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where she received her doctorate in Public Health. She is currently matriculating at Harvard Medical School. His younger daughter Tanne taught in the World Teach program in American Samoa, was an A
Mr. Gabler was graduated with high distinction and highest honors from the University of Michigan and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He holds advanced degrees in film and American Culture. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, where he won an outstanding teaching award, and at the Pennsylvania State University. Leaving academe, he was selected to replace departing co-hosts Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel on the public television movie review program, “Sneak Previews.” He has also been the host of the American Movie Classics cable television network, of “Reel to Real” on the History Channel, and of “Reel Thirteen” on WNET, the public television station in New York, for which he won an Emmy.
Mr. Gabler is a contributing editor at Playboy and a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters Opinion, and his essays and articles have appeared in Atlantic, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New Republic, Men’s Journal, George, Time, TV Guide, Variety and many other publications. In 2014, he won the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club. He has also been a contributor to the Fox News Channel and served as a panelist on the weekly media review program “Fox News Watch” from 2002 to 2007. One television critic called him a “megawatt brain…whose take on media coverage was fiercely individualistic, profound and original.” He has made appearances on “The Today Show,” “CBS Morning News,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “Charlie Rose” and the PBS “NewsHour.” And this year he is contributing a weekly column to billmoyers.com on the election and the media
Mr. Gabler has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shorenstein Fellowship at Harvard University, a Freedom Forum Fellowship, and was a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholar. He has also been the chief non-fiction judge of the National Book Awards and a judge of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He is currently a senior fellow at the Norman Lear Center for the Study of Society and Entertainment at the University of Southern California and is a Visiting Professor in the MFA Literature and Writing program at SUNY Stony Brook. He was also the 2013 recipient of the Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship at Washington College. His older daughter Laurel was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where she received her doctorate in Public Health. She is currently matriculating at Harvard Medical School. His younger daughter Tanne taught in the World Teach program in American Samoa, was an A
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
February 4, 2021
Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour, 1932-1975 was a beautiful, comprehensive and extensively researched biography of Senator Edward Kennedy, with a second volume to follow. With full disclosure, I have grown up with the Kennedy family. I was in the eighth grade when John Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon in 1960, loving the convention where Bobby and Ted Kennedy were working the floor and securing the votes to win the nomination of John F Kennedy. Our family watched all of the televised debates between Nixon and Kennedy, becoming very involved in politics. On Election Day, being in a Catholic school, we were all given the day following the election off so I was determined to stay up all night, only to be awakened by my father at 6:30 a.m. with still no clear winner. Coming from families emigrating in the early 1900s from Europe, my grandparents had three framed photographs proudly displayed in their living rooms: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the pope, and President John Kennedy.
What Neal Gabler does so beautifully is to capture the humanity of Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest of the nine children of Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, prominent Irish American families in Boston. He was not expected, as evidenced by their boat named The Ten of Us which later had to be changed. Young Teddy Kennedy was shuttled from one school to another but at the age of nine, his boarding school in Boston offered him weekends with his maternal grandfather, Honey Fitz, a lifelong politician. As they spent their weekends among the people of Boston, the youngest Kennedy was among the workers and the people of Boston witnessing his iconic grandfather at work.
"Honey Fitz not only loved people--clearly loved them and loved to be around them. Honey Fitz understood people, he had an instinct for them. As Ted put it, thinking back on watching his grandfather walk those Boston streets and greet passersby, 'He knew people's problems and motivations and needs.' And this made as deep an impression on young Ted Kennedy as the glad-handing or the tales of Irish misfortune."
After the assassination of John Kennedy in November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson was determined to push through all of the legislation that Kennedy embraced and the Great Society, a set of domestic programs, prevailed with the passage of bills to eliminate poverty and racial injustice resembling the far reach of The New Deal of President Franklin Roosevelt. It was at this point that many of us embraced the liberal agenda fighting for justice in the midst of the turbulent 1960s, witnessing not only the assassination of John Kennedy but the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr in April 1968, quickly followed by the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in June, 1968 in his run for the presidency. Compounding the trauma was the escalation of the war in Viet Nam with demonstrations taking place throughout the country.
"Johnson's new liberal fervor seemed to have stoked Ted's and made him more liberal than he had been during his own brother's administration. He was catching the gust of the liberal wind."
"Ted Kennedy was finding his niche, helping the helpless but he was also finding his lever. Even senators can be moved by morality. Even senators could feel the rightness of undoing injustice."
The weight of responsibility was so heavy upon Edward Kennedy following the death of his brothers, knowing what was expected of him, but he was resolved that he would be a father-figure, not just an uncle, to his niece's and nephews. He was devastated and often the only relief was in sailing, often sailing all night, 'his grieving being subsumed into a sense of oneness with the sky and the sea.'"
"So today I reassume my public responsibilities to the people of Massachusetts. Like my three brothers before me, I pick up a fallen standard. Sustained by the memory of our priceless years together, I shall try to carry forward that special commitment to justice, to excellence, and to courage that distinguished their lives."
"Almost as if to steel himself to fate, Ted kept a small blue-covered copy on his desk of Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar,' with one passage underlined in red:
This first volume of the biography concludes with Senator Kennedy finding his niche and fighting for his liberal agenda. The comparisons of the looming impeachment of Richard Nixon and the threat to democracy was a shocking parallel to what we are facing today as the second impeachment against former President Donald J Trump commences. Both men sought to divide the nation in their desperate need to have power at all costs.
"Ted Kennedy wasn't just fighting Richard Nixon. He was fighting Nixon's ability to reconfigure power in the United States government: awesome power with no discipline."
"Richard Nixon was gone, but even as Gerald Ford was trying to heal a nation badly wounded by Watergate, Nixon had not left the government without also leaving wreckage, without damaging its institutions and processes, damaging them badly. Now Congress attempted to rectify that damage, and not least among the legislators was Ted Kennedy."
What Neal Gabler does so beautifully is to capture the humanity of Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest of the nine children of Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, prominent Irish American families in Boston. He was not expected, as evidenced by their boat named The Ten of Us which later had to be changed. Young Teddy Kennedy was shuttled from one school to another but at the age of nine, his boarding school in Boston offered him weekends with his maternal grandfather, Honey Fitz, a lifelong politician. As they spent their weekends among the people of Boston, the youngest Kennedy was among the workers and the people of Boston witnessing his iconic grandfather at work.
"Honey Fitz not only loved people--clearly loved them and loved to be around them. Honey Fitz understood people, he had an instinct for them. As Ted put it, thinking back on watching his grandfather walk those Boston streets and greet passersby, 'He knew people's problems and motivations and needs.' And this made as deep an impression on young Ted Kennedy as the glad-handing or the tales of Irish misfortune."
After the assassination of John Kennedy in November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson was determined to push through all of the legislation that Kennedy embraced and the Great Society, a set of domestic programs, prevailed with the passage of bills to eliminate poverty and racial injustice resembling the far reach of The New Deal of President Franklin Roosevelt. It was at this point that many of us embraced the liberal agenda fighting for justice in the midst of the turbulent 1960s, witnessing not only the assassination of John Kennedy but the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr in April 1968, quickly followed by the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in June, 1968 in his run for the presidency. Compounding the trauma was the escalation of the war in Viet Nam with demonstrations taking place throughout the country.
"Johnson's new liberal fervor seemed to have stoked Ted's and made him more liberal than he had been during his own brother's administration. He was catching the gust of the liberal wind."
"Ted Kennedy was finding his niche, helping the helpless but he was also finding his lever. Even senators can be moved by morality. Even senators could feel the rightness of undoing injustice."
The weight of responsibility was so heavy upon Edward Kennedy following the death of his brothers, knowing what was expected of him, but he was resolved that he would be a father-figure, not just an uncle, to his niece's and nephews. He was devastated and often the only relief was in sailing, often sailing all night, 'his grieving being subsumed into a sense of oneness with the sky and the sea.'"
"So today I reassume my public responsibilities to the people of Massachusetts. Like my three brothers before me, I pick up a fallen standard. Sustained by the memory of our priceless years together, I shall try to carry forward that special commitment to justice, to excellence, and to courage that distinguished their lives."
"Almost as if to steel himself to fate, Ted kept a small blue-covered copy on his desk of Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar,' with one passage underlined in red:
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once,
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange than men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come."
This first volume of the biography concludes with Senator Kennedy finding his niche and fighting for his liberal agenda. The comparisons of the looming impeachment of Richard Nixon and the threat to democracy was a shocking parallel to what we are facing today as the second impeachment against former President Donald J Trump commences. Both men sought to divide the nation in their desperate need to have power at all costs.
"Ted Kennedy wasn't just fighting Richard Nixon. He was fighting Nixon's ability to reconfigure power in the United States government: awesome power with no discipline."
"Richard Nixon was gone, but even as Gerald Ford was trying to heal a nation badly wounded by Watergate, Nixon had not left the government without also leaving wreckage, without damaging its institutions and processes, damaging them badly. Now Congress attempted to rectify that damage, and not least among the legislators was Ted Kennedy."
November 23, 2022
A long-time fan of anything biographical about the Kennedy family, I eagerly turned to this, the first of two volumes about the life and times of Edward Kennedy. Neal Gabler explores the youngest Kennedy child, the one Joseph and Rose Kennedy deemed their ‘great accident’. Gabler uses this first volume not only to lay the groundwork for how Ted rose from familial oblivion to become a powerful force in American politics, but also counters it with some of the significant foibles he had during an era of liberalism. Full of stunning anecdotes and detailed accounts of political and social events, Gabler treats the reader to a stunning piece against the backdrop of how Camelot was still within the reach of the third Kennedy brother, though many things stood in his way.
As with any Kennedy biography, Gabler spends the opening portion laying the groundwork and exploring the lives of earlier Kennedys, particularly Joseph P. Kennedy and how he tried to develop the golden pathway for one of his offspring to sit in the White House. While Gabler spends a great deal of time exploring these topics, it serves well to glance over it for those who are well-versed in the family and their rise to power. Ted Kennedy, the ninth child and labelled as the ‘ultimate oops’ had a great deal to do in his life to prove himself and make a name worth of Kennedy glory,. While he was trying to fill the shoes of his brothers, John and Robert, as well as try not to be forgotten, Ted Kennedy forged his own path, complete with family rule bending and attempts to get away with what others could never fathom. This would set a small sense of entitlement for Ted Kennedy, though he would, at times, push the crutch away and make sure truth rang true.
When John ascended to the presidency, the Senate seat in Massachusetts needed a new face and Ted Kennedy provided the perfect man to fill it. While some felt him a place keeper, Ted Kennedy had high ambitions to use a Senate seat to help further those curses he found to be dear to him. A gritty fight in 1962 saw Kennedy cut his teeth on the hard work required to win political office, all while he sought not to let his name usher him into the seat without effort. It was this victory, coupled with the tragic death of JFK that left Ted Kennedy keen to make a difference and help keep the Kennedy name in good standing.
Gabler explores the early years of Kennedy’s time in the Senate as ones not only to forge a difference, but to find battles worth his time. With Vietnam growing exponentially and getting out of control, Kennedy tried to wrestle control and hear those whose growing voices of discontent could no longer be ignored. Walking a tightrope between the people’s wishes and President Lyndon Johnson’s leadership, Ted Kennedy tried not to come out to harm the Administration, but not appease them by pretending things were fine. Gabler uses these years as a wonderful contrast between Ted and Robert, two brothers fighting for the same thing, but taking such different approaches to criticism of Johnson.
While Ted Kennedy became a strong politician, he always deferred to Robert’s ambitions for the presidency in 1968, choosing to support his brother, especially with President Johnson chose not to run for re-election. Gabler explores the run-up to ‘68 and the year that was possibly one of the most political in modern US history, with the death of Martin Luther King, Vietnam’s bloody escalation, and the eventual assassination of Robert Kennedy. Crippled by the loss of another brother, Ted Kennedy entered another stage of mourning, while the country sought him to pick up the pieces and run as a Kennedy on the presidential ticket. While Ted would not do so, he harboured future ambitions and kept the Democratic Party wondering until the summer as to whether he would fill the void Robert’s death left on an almost sure victory at the polls. However, without a Kennedy on the ticket, the Democrats were trounced by Richard Nixon and a new era of American politics began. However, Ted Kennedy was no muted politician, eyeing 1972 as his time!
Events in the summer of 1969 changed all that. After Ted wrested control of his first leadership role in the Senate—that of Majority Whip—things took a turn. A party one night that led to a drunken car crash and young Mary Jo Kopechne trapped in a vehicle while Ted left the scene and informed the authority hours later, changed the narrative. As Gabler explores in a key chapter, all Kennedy aspirations ended as news reports came out about Kopechne and Kennedy’s murky reporting of her being trapped therein. Media took their pound of flesh and left Ted wondering if his senatorial career might be over. While it was a blemish, Kennedy appeared to weather the storm, albeit with a great deal of self-loathing and some punches in the headlines. Still, it left him bruised and kept White House officials certain that they had neutralized any Kennedy run in ‘72.
While Kennedy continued to push for liberal ideals and led the Nixon Administration to the edge, forcing admissions to protect those in need, there was a sense that Ted might be the poster boy for the little guy and that liberalism was not dead. As Gabler cites throughout, Nixon tried to push conservatism on America, in hopes that they would see the need after too many years of Democrats in the White House or appeasing policies pushed by Eisenhower. Nixon began to show his true colours as the 1970s began, helping Ted Kennedy to reclaim his title as ‘Shadow President’ coming into the 1972 Campaign. While Kennedy did not want the mantle of Democratic nominee, the Party and many around him sought to push him into the ring. Might this be Ted’s turn to shine?
While Kennedy did not take the electoral bait, he did raise the concern of Nixon. Gabler explores how the Watergate antics may not only have been about general Democrat spying, but more specifically related to th Kennedy wave of support, which needed to be neutralised. Kennedy remained in touch with the goings-on and would not stand down as Congress began hearings in order to get to the bottom of it all. It was also this time that Kennedy also found a new passion to champion; health care. Specifically, the role of public health are in America proved to be something that Ted Kennedy could not ignore. He pushed for more legislation on the topic, as The Nixon Administration tried to tap the brakes and keep the country from moving too far to the left. While the topic did show Kennedy’s colours, Ted wanted to keep those who felt through the cracks from being lost and left to live in squalor.
As politics never stands still, Kennedy found himself in a whirlwind. Nixon fled Washington in disgrace, a new president—Ford—sought to turn America back into a moderate nation, and 1976 was just around the corner. Ted may finally have his crack at the White House, where liberalism could flourish and the country could put the nightmare that was ther Nixon presidency aside. However, it would not be a foregone conclusion, nor would the Democrats embrace him as their knee jerk saviour. It would take time and effort to red the political tealeaves and see if the country might yet be ready for another Kennedy on the campaign trail. Ted Kennedy had done so much in the Senate that this could be a gamble without a guaranteed victory. Neal Gabler teases the reader as the tome ends with the happenings of 1975 and how Kennedy stood at a crossroads, though he had vocalised 1976 as ‘not being the right time’. It was time to check the winds of power, which had been blowing towards liberal victory, but there was a gale on the horizon which could bring a gust of conservative sentiment and force Kennedy to stand firm to keep America on course.
While I have read many political biographies in my time, Neal Gabler’s opening salvo about Ted Kennedy has got to be one of my favourites. It lays extensive groundwork, while also telling stories in such an easy fashion. Kennedy’s ascension to power and repeated stumbles are illustrated in a clear narrative style, while addressing things in a chronological fashion. There is so much material here that many readers might find themselves in a panic, but Gabler synthesises things with ease, offering clear direction throughout. The themes develop effectively and the attentive reader can see where things are headed, without being too overwhelmed. Kennedy’s passions can easily be understood, as can the impediments he had during an early consideration of higher office. With a second volume to come, I can only hope that it proves as captivating and full of anecdotes. There is a great deal yet to come and I am eager to see how Gabler handles it. Let’s get it loaded and see how the story progresses, with Kennedy’s most important decisions to come in an era of staunch conservatism.
Kudos, Mr. Gabler, for this first volume of the life and times of Edward Kennedy. You have me itching to get to the second volume in short order!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
As with any Kennedy biography, Gabler spends the opening portion laying the groundwork and exploring the lives of earlier Kennedys, particularly Joseph P. Kennedy and how he tried to develop the golden pathway for one of his offspring to sit in the White House. While Gabler spends a great deal of time exploring these topics, it serves well to glance over it for those who are well-versed in the family and their rise to power. Ted Kennedy, the ninth child and labelled as the ‘ultimate oops’ had a great deal to do in his life to prove himself and make a name worth of Kennedy glory,. While he was trying to fill the shoes of his brothers, John and Robert, as well as try not to be forgotten, Ted Kennedy forged his own path, complete with family rule bending and attempts to get away with what others could never fathom. This would set a small sense of entitlement for Ted Kennedy, though he would, at times, push the crutch away and make sure truth rang true.
When John ascended to the presidency, the Senate seat in Massachusetts needed a new face and Ted Kennedy provided the perfect man to fill it. While some felt him a place keeper, Ted Kennedy had high ambitions to use a Senate seat to help further those curses he found to be dear to him. A gritty fight in 1962 saw Kennedy cut his teeth on the hard work required to win political office, all while he sought not to let his name usher him into the seat without effort. It was this victory, coupled with the tragic death of JFK that left Ted Kennedy keen to make a difference and help keep the Kennedy name in good standing.
Gabler explores the early years of Kennedy’s time in the Senate as ones not only to forge a difference, but to find battles worth his time. With Vietnam growing exponentially and getting out of control, Kennedy tried to wrestle control and hear those whose growing voices of discontent could no longer be ignored. Walking a tightrope between the people’s wishes and President Lyndon Johnson’s leadership, Ted Kennedy tried not to come out to harm the Administration, but not appease them by pretending things were fine. Gabler uses these years as a wonderful contrast between Ted and Robert, two brothers fighting for the same thing, but taking such different approaches to criticism of Johnson.
While Ted Kennedy became a strong politician, he always deferred to Robert’s ambitions for the presidency in 1968, choosing to support his brother, especially with President Johnson chose not to run for re-election. Gabler explores the run-up to ‘68 and the year that was possibly one of the most political in modern US history, with the death of Martin Luther King, Vietnam’s bloody escalation, and the eventual assassination of Robert Kennedy. Crippled by the loss of another brother, Ted Kennedy entered another stage of mourning, while the country sought him to pick up the pieces and run as a Kennedy on the presidential ticket. While Ted would not do so, he harboured future ambitions and kept the Democratic Party wondering until the summer as to whether he would fill the void Robert’s death left on an almost sure victory at the polls. However, without a Kennedy on the ticket, the Democrats were trounced by Richard Nixon and a new era of American politics began. However, Ted Kennedy was no muted politician, eyeing 1972 as his time!
Events in the summer of 1969 changed all that. After Ted wrested control of his first leadership role in the Senate—that of Majority Whip—things took a turn. A party one night that led to a drunken car crash and young Mary Jo Kopechne trapped in a vehicle while Ted left the scene and informed the authority hours later, changed the narrative. As Gabler explores in a key chapter, all Kennedy aspirations ended as news reports came out about Kopechne and Kennedy’s murky reporting of her being trapped therein. Media took their pound of flesh and left Ted wondering if his senatorial career might be over. While it was a blemish, Kennedy appeared to weather the storm, albeit with a great deal of self-loathing and some punches in the headlines. Still, it left him bruised and kept White House officials certain that they had neutralized any Kennedy run in ‘72.
While Kennedy continued to push for liberal ideals and led the Nixon Administration to the edge, forcing admissions to protect those in need, there was a sense that Ted might be the poster boy for the little guy and that liberalism was not dead. As Gabler cites throughout, Nixon tried to push conservatism on America, in hopes that they would see the need after too many years of Democrats in the White House or appeasing policies pushed by Eisenhower. Nixon began to show his true colours as the 1970s began, helping Ted Kennedy to reclaim his title as ‘Shadow President’ coming into the 1972 Campaign. While Kennedy did not want the mantle of Democratic nominee, the Party and many around him sought to push him into the ring. Might this be Ted’s turn to shine?
While Kennedy did not take the electoral bait, he did raise the concern of Nixon. Gabler explores how the Watergate antics may not only have been about general Democrat spying, but more specifically related to th Kennedy wave of support, which needed to be neutralised. Kennedy remained in touch with the goings-on and would not stand down as Congress began hearings in order to get to the bottom of it all. It was also this time that Kennedy also found a new passion to champion; health care. Specifically, the role of public health are in America proved to be something that Ted Kennedy could not ignore. He pushed for more legislation on the topic, as The Nixon Administration tried to tap the brakes and keep the country from moving too far to the left. While the topic did show Kennedy’s colours, Ted wanted to keep those who felt through the cracks from being lost and left to live in squalor.
As politics never stands still, Kennedy found himself in a whirlwind. Nixon fled Washington in disgrace, a new president—Ford—sought to turn America back into a moderate nation, and 1976 was just around the corner. Ted may finally have his crack at the White House, where liberalism could flourish and the country could put the nightmare that was ther Nixon presidency aside. However, it would not be a foregone conclusion, nor would the Democrats embrace him as their knee jerk saviour. It would take time and effort to red the political tealeaves and see if the country might yet be ready for another Kennedy on the campaign trail. Ted Kennedy had done so much in the Senate that this could be a gamble without a guaranteed victory. Neal Gabler teases the reader as the tome ends with the happenings of 1975 and how Kennedy stood at a crossroads, though he had vocalised 1976 as ‘not being the right time’. It was time to check the winds of power, which had been blowing towards liberal victory, but there was a gale on the horizon which could bring a gust of conservative sentiment and force Kennedy to stand firm to keep America on course.
While I have read many political biographies in my time, Neal Gabler’s opening salvo about Ted Kennedy has got to be one of my favourites. It lays extensive groundwork, while also telling stories in such an easy fashion. Kennedy’s ascension to power and repeated stumbles are illustrated in a clear narrative style, while addressing things in a chronological fashion. There is so much material here that many readers might find themselves in a panic, but Gabler synthesises things with ease, offering clear direction throughout. The themes develop effectively and the attentive reader can see where things are headed, without being too overwhelmed. Kennedy’s passions can easily be understood, as can the impediments he had during an early consideration of higher office. With a second volume to come, I can only hope that it proves as captivating and full of anecdotes. There is a great deal yet to come and I am eager to see how Gabler handles it. Let’s get it loaded and see how the story progresses, with Kennedy’s most important decisions to come in an era of staunch conservatism.
Kudos, Mr. Gabler, for this first volume of the life and times of Edward Kennedy. You have me itching to get to the second volume in short order!
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November 5, 2020
I don't know when I was more moved by a biography. I was inspired and I suffered and cried along with Ted Kennedy. I was informed and I understood how we got to 'here'.
The "Shakespearean tragedy" of the Kennedy family is experienced through this youngest son. The most affable Kennedy, the pleaser, the people person, the least son, inherited a heavy mantle.
When President Kennedy was assassinated, Bobby took up his cause and legacy, grew into the liberal leader role with a heightened moral awareness. And when Bobby was assassinated, it was up to Ted to finish their work, and he became the liberal lion of the Senate, the moral consciousness of America politics.
Neal Gabler's biography Catching the Wind reads like a epic poem, the flawed hero doing battle for the least and the lost. The story is a tragedy, the hero's fatal flaws bringing his downfall, but in this story, the hero gets up over and over to take up the sword once more.
This volume delves deeply into the Kennedy family character and history as the formation for the development of the children.
Finding his way to the Senate, Ted found his place in life, but the pressure to run for the presidency was both a siren call and a warning. Ted was sure he would be the target of one more assassin's bullet.
Ted was a workaholic, and a drinker, and he had girlfriends and a wife who felt lost and, like her parents, resorted to alcohol. Then there was the encounter with the bridge on an island that gave his enemies the weapon they needed.
Liberalism has been under attack for most of my adult life. I embraced it since mock voting in junior high; a classmate explained that Goldwater was a hawk and LBJ wanted to end poverty. My faith and my politics embraced the values of fighting for the meek and the weak and the downtrodden and the stranger and the impoverished.
Following Ted Kennedy's career, Garbler shows how racism and fear led to the rise of 'law and order' after the social unrest of the 1960s, the anti-war and black rebellions in the cities.
I lived through much of this history, my first awareness of politics coming with John Kennedy's presidential run, Ted's nightmare Chappaquiddick occuring when I was in college, the Watergate break-in carried out on my wedding night.
As a teenager I was resentful of these conflicts and the pressure to politicize my life when all I wanted was to 'grow up'. I was also sympathetic, for I had seen the inner city and the racism espoused by working class neighbors. I was too naive to understand the racist implications of 'law and order'. And as I entered young adulthood, I watched in dismay as liberalism was abandoned by Americans.
Joe McCarthy's fear-mongering populism, Nixon's deep hatred of all persons Kennedy leading to his dirty tricks, and the fact that America ultimately rejected them, brings some hope that we can and will do so again.
I can not wait for Garbler's second volume. I usually read several books at a time, but I was so immersed in Catching the Wind I could not read anything else.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
September 20, 2020
This book is the first of a two part biography of Edward Kennedy. It is well written and well researched. It counters a lot of common belief about him and the reason for his escapades. It digs deeper into this early background and experiences which helped to shape him in later life. This is not a book for the casual reader of the Kennedys. The chapters are very long and somewhat dense at times. It takes dedication, focus and periodic breaks in order to get through it, but it is worth the time.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.
April 27, 2025
Several years ago I read an outstanding biography of Walt Disney by Neal Gabler, so when I saw that he had written a two-volume biography of Edward Kennedy, I was immediately interested, expecting it to be of high quality. And this first volume certainly is that. Gabler dives deep into Kennedy's almost fictional personal life, along with his interesting Senate career. The result is top-notch biography of someone is who is simultaneously both privileged and tortured.
Gabler spends a lot of time on Kennedy's childhood and youth, growing up the last child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Gabler frequently refers to Edward as "the least" of the Kennedys. Neither parent was expecting or - necessarily wanting - to have another child (in fact, Gabler notes that Edward's conception is almost assuredly the final time that the parents were intimate). Edward was by the youngest of the Kennedy brood. Therefore almost all of the time and attention were devoted to his older brothers, and then also Rosemary (his older, mentally handicapped sister). His oldest brother, Joe Jr., was the main target of Joe Sr.'s attention, followed in chronological birth order by John and Robert. Edward only - and with great reluctance - became the paterfamilias of the Kennedy family after all of his brothers were killed. But as a kid, Joe tended to treat him more like a clown, while Rose continuously pulled him out of schools and put him in new ones, depending on her own personal travel desires. When Rose was ready to go south to Florida for the winter, Ted would go with her, leaving a Massachusetts school after only a month or two - only to return for a month at the very end of the same school year the following spring.
Therefore one can't blame the young Ted for feeling like his parents looked at him as just "extra" rather than having high expectations of him like the parents did for the other boys. He was also looked down upon by his siblings. He did not seem to have especially close relations with any of his sisters (although Gabler devotes far more attention to his brothers). Given the large age disparity, and then WWII, Ted hardly knew Joe Jr. And he had a mostly distant relationship with John until the latter became President. Bobby and Ted had completely different personalities and didn't really have a lot to do with each other on a personal level until after John's death and Robert joined Ted in the U.S. Senate. They later became very close, especially in 1968 when Robert belatedly launched his presidential nomination bid before being assassinated. This is one of many events that devastated Ted (John's assassination was a complete shock to him as well, Bobby's really seemed to hit Ted hard). Coming on the heels of John's killing not five years before, the combination of having two brothers shot to death really disturbed him. It's really impossible to imagine it from his perspective, isn't it? Who has two brothers get shot and killed at different times and different places, outside of a war (which is what killed Joe Jr.)?
Despite all of the above, the Kennedys as a whole were a family unit and insulated, per Joe's direction. And Edward was part of that insularity, despite being "the least". Many of the high Kennedy expectations trickled down to him (concerning matters such as comportment and devotion to the family). He was also quite close with his grandfather, John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the former Mayor of Boston. Ted seemed to inherit his gregarious personality - something that passed his older brothers right by. I would have liked to have seen a bit more on Honey Fitz as he seemed to have a formative effect on young Edward.
Ted ran for Senator to replace his brother John once he became President. Gabler makes sure to point out that Ted himself really did not seem interested in doing so. Rather, his father and his brothers wanted him to run for the Senate. So, in typical fashion, he acquiesced to what they wanted. He was just old enough to serve, being 30 when elected. But despite that, and despite a rather lackluster academic career (he was kicked out of Harvard due to a cheating scandal, later coming back to finish his degree). Yet, once he was elected, he became a man of the Senate - something that neither Jack nor Bobby ever tried or wanted to be. Ted took pains to learn how the Senate worked, how legislation was made and passed, who had the power and who did not, what his role was and should be. He made it a point to do something that is seldom done nowadays: make a sincere effort to work across the aisle with members of the other party. And by committing to that stance, he began paving the way to a highly effective legislative career.
Kennedy had some specific areas that he focused on: immigration, Vietnamese refugees, healthcare, civil rights. Gabler does especially well at describing Kennedy's efforts at helping to move the Immigration Act of 1965 to passage. He gradually turned against the Vietnam War (he should have done so sooner - he admitted this - but did not as he did not want to come out in open defiance of Lyndon Johnson). I think he waited too long to do so, in retrospect, but he was leery of breaking ties with Johnson, seeing him as infinitely superior to that of his eventual successor, Richard Nixon. That is why he tried to attack the war from the refugee crisis, rather than the political firestorm that was engulfing the country in the late 1960s. Later on, Kennedy - more comfortable and interested in domestic politics - expended a lot of his time and energy on ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get a national healthcare bill through. I say "unsuccessful" became Obamacare was passed not too long after Kennedy died, so he did not live to actually see a bill come to fruition.
The twin assassinations of his older brothers were, unfortunately, not the only serious personal crises that Edward had to endure during the decade of the 60s. There were two more: both accidental and both deadly, one almost entirely of his own making. That would be Chappaquiddick, that occurred in the summer of 1969, and resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a young woman who had worked on Bobby's presidential campaign. I won't go into the details of how the accident happened as that would take awhile, but suffice it to say that it was both an unintended accident from Ted's perspective but equally showed some horrible behavior by him in the minutes and hours immediately after the incident. Short version: he drove off the road and into a lake, missing a small vehicular bridge, at night, after he had been drinking. He simply missed the turn. While he was able to free himself while trapped upside down in his submerged car, his passenger Kopechne could not. Ted managed to escape, and said he attempted several times to dive back in and try to rescue her, could not. He exercised bad judgment for driving, but I truly think it was just an accident, not intentional, and that he was not having an affair with her (despite what the media and many Republicans later tried to claim). However, what happened next was definitely not an accident, and not excusable: he failed to report the loss right away, and even waited many hours the next day before reluctantly doing so. Even then, he gave tortured explanations of what happened. It was worse than what he and his handlers wanted people to believe, and at the same time it wasn't like her murdered her. It was a horrible accident, and he behaved poorly afterwards. It sounds like she was going to die regardless of what he did afterwards, but how he handled it left a lot to be desired. In many ways, this was a death knell to any chance that he could one day become President.
The other serious incident was a 1964 plane crash. How he survived - let alone was not paralyzed - I don't know. Gabler includes a photo of the plane wreckage, and that small plane was pretty much destroyed. Kennedy was a passenger, along with fellow Senator Birch Bayh (who saved his life). The plane crashed at night in Massachusetts due to pilot error, with both the pilot and one of Kennedy's friends being killed in the crash. There was a long, painful recovery for Kennedy as he could literally do nothing except lay in bed for months while his body attempted to heal. He then had to undergo therapy to be able to walk again. From then on, he suffered from back pain, and frequently had to wear a brace.
Much of the last one-third of the book is taken up by Kennedy's fights with Nixon and his administration. Nixon hated the Kennedys (Ted included even though they had never personally clashed) and was paranoid about Ted running against him in 1972. Gabler spends a lot of time talking about the darkness of Nixon's personality, and his war against Kennedy. Nixon definitely was fixated on Kennedy. However, at times, I thought that Gabler went too hard on this: Nixon was paranoid with a lot of people and things, not just Ted Kennedy. At the times the narrative seemed to be more anti-Nixon than it was about Kennedy. I don't want to say that Gabler harped too hard on Nixon, because he did a lot bad things (and some illegal ones). But this was not a nuanced take, and at least for myself, I try to view Nixon as neither a villain nor as an icon. At any rate, there were a few times where I started to wish he would get back to Kennedy's story and not focus so much on Nixon's many foibles.
The book ends after Nixon's impeachment, with Kennedy being viciously attacked - literally and figuratively - over the issue of busing in Boston. Ted had not really had much if anything to do with this issue, yet he ended up unwittingly becoming the face of it for angry racist white Irish people in Boston. He was taken aback as he had always been very pro-Irish and was very responsive to the needs of his constituents. But he was pro-Civil Rights, and some folks there were incensed that their children might be bused to other schools not as close to their homes, and just as much, be going to integrated schools. Gabler ends the book by writing of Ted's confrontations with many of these people, and how they turned ugly quickly, and helped to solidify in Kennedy's mind that now was not the right time for him to run for President. So, much as in prior years for various reasons, Ted bowed out of the 1976 presidential contest before it even got underway.
One of Gabler's themes is that time had been ticking down and had now expired on the so-called liberal hour. And Kennedy had tried to squeeze out of that hour as much legislation and liberal movement as he could get despite the conservative headwinds brought on by Nixon, the backlash to Vietnam, the Southern (and Northern) reaction to the gains of the Civil Rights movement, and his own mistakes. And even though Nixon was now gone thanks to Watergate and his own immoral behavior, Kennedy was swimming uphill politically, and he knew it.
This is a very good book, though long. It is detailed, extensive, and balanced: Gabler by no means worships Kennedy nor buys into the Kennedy mystique. He also points out how the name was as much of a curse as it was a boon to Ted, and how he was unfairly portrayed and treated by people just because he was a Kennedy. I didn't even touch on Kennedy's difficult marriage to his wife Joan, or his numerous affairs, nor his son Ted Jr. needing to have one leg amputated. There is a lot in this book, and it is only the first volume! The writing is excellent, with a good mix of level-headed analysis interspersed into the narrative.
Grade: A-
Gabler spends a lot of time on Kennedy's childhood and youth, growing up the last child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Gabler frequently refers to Edward as "the least" of the Kennedys. Neither parent was expecting or - necessarily wanting - to have another child (in fact, Gabler notes that Edward's conception is almost assuredly the final time that the parents were intimate). Edward was by the youngest of the Kennedy brood. Therefore almost all of the time and attention were devoted to his older brothers, and then also Rosemary (his older, mentally handicapped sister). His oldest brother, Joe Jr., was the main target of Joe Sr.'s attention, followed in chronological birth order by John and Robert. Edward only - and with great reluctance - became the paterfamilias of the Kennedy family after all of his brothers were killed. But as a kid, Joe tended to treat him more like a clown, while Rose continuously pulled him out of schools and put him in new ones, depending on her own personal travel desires. When Rose was ready to go south to Florida for the winter, Ted would go with her, leaving a Massachusetts school after only a month or two - only to return for a month at the very end of the same school year the following spring.
Therefore one can't blame the young Ted for feeling like his parents looked at him as just "extra" rather than having high expectations of him like the parents did for the other boys. He was also looked down upon by his siblings. He did not seem to have especially close relations with any of his sisters (although Gabler devotes far more attention to his brothers). Given the large age disparity, and then WWII, Ted hardly knew Joe Jr. And he had a mostly distant relationship with John until the latter became President. Bobby and Ted had completely different personalities and didn't really have a lot to do with each other on a personal level until after John's death and Robert joined Ted in the U.S. Senate. They later became very close, especially in 1968 when Robert belatedly launched his presidential nomination bid before being assassinated. This is one of many events that devastated Ted (John's assassination was a complete shock to him as well, Bobby's really seemed to hit Ted hard). Coming on the heels of John's killing not five years before, the combination of having two brothers shot to death really disturbed him. It's really impossible to imagine it from his perspective, isn't it? Who has two brothers get shot and killed at different times and different places, outside of a war (which is what killed Joe Jr.)?
Despite all of the above, the Kennedys as a whole were a family unit and insulated, per Joe's direction. And Edward was part of that insularity, despite being "the least". Many of the high Kennedy expectations trickled down to him (concerning matters such as comportment and devotion to the family). He was also quite close with his grandfather, John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the former Mayor of Boston. Ted seemed to inherit his gregarious personality - something that passed his older brothers right by. I would have liked to have seen a bit more on Honey Fitz as he seemed to have a formative effect on young Edward.
Ted ran for Senator to replace his brother John once he became President. Gabler makes sure to point out that Ted himself really did not seem interested in doing so. Rather, his father and his brothers wanted him to run for the Senate. So, in typical fashion, he acquiesced to what they wanted. He was just old enough to serve, being 30 when elected. But despite that, and despite a rather lackluster academic career (he was kicked out of Harvard due to a cheating scandal, later coming back to finish his degree). Yet, once he was elected, he became a man of the Senate - something that neither Jack nor Bobby ever tried or wanted to be. Ted took pains to learn how the Senate worked, how legislation was made and passed, who had the power and who did not, what his role was and should be. He made it a point to do something that is seldom done nowadays: make a sincere effort to work across the aisle with members of the other party. And by committing to that stance, he began paving the way to a highly effective legislative career.
Kennedy had some specific areas that he focused on: immigration, Vietnamese refugees, healthcare, civil rights. Gabler does especially well at describing Kennedy's efforts at helping to move the Immigration Act of 1965 to passage. He gradually turned against the Vietnam War (he should have done so sooner - he admitted this - but did not as he did not want to come out in open defiance of Lyndon Johnson). I think he waited too long to do so, in retrospect, but he was leery of breaking ties with Johnson, seeing him as infinitely superior to that of his eventual successor, Richard Nixon. That is why he tried to attack the war from the refugee crisis, rather than the political firestorm that was engulfing the country in the late 1960s. Later on, Kennedy - more comfortable and interested in domestic politics - expended a lot of his time and energy on ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get a national healthcare bill through. I say "unsuccessful" became Obamacare was passed not too long after Kennedy died, so he did not live to actually see a bill come to fruition.
The twin assassinations of his older brothers were, unfortunately, not the only serious personal crises that Edward had to endure during the decade of the 60s. There were two more: both accidental and both deadly, one almost entirely of his own making. That would be Chappaquiddick, that occurred in the summer of 1969, and resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a young woman who had worked on Bobby's presidential campaign. I won't go into the details of how the accident happened as that would take awhile, but suffice it to say that it was both an unintended accident from Ted's perspective but equally showed some horrible behavior by him in the minutes and hours immediately after the incident. Short version: he drove off the road and into a lake, missing a small vehicular bridge, at night, after he had been drinking. He simply missed the turn. While he was able to free himself while trapped upside down in his submerged car, his passenger Kopechne could not. Ted managed to escape, and said he attempted several times to dive back in and try to rescue her, could not. He exercised bad judgment for driving, but I truly think it was just an accident, not intentional, and that he was not having an affair with her (despite what the media and many Republicans later tried to claim). However, what happened next was definitely not an accident, and not excusable: he failed to report the loss right away, and even waited many hours the next day before reluctantly doing so. Even then, he gave tortured explanations of what happened. It was worse than what he and his handlers wanted people to believe, and at the same time it wasn't like her murdered her. It was a horrible accident, and he behaved poorly afterwards. It sounds like she was going to die regardless of what he did afterwards, but how he handled it left a lot to be desired. In many ways, this was a death knell to any chance that he could one day become President.
The other serious incident was a 1964 plane crash. How he survived - let alone was not paralyzed - I don't know. Gabler includes a photo of the plane wreckage, and that small plane was pretty much destroyed. Kennedy was a passenger, along with fellow Senator Birch Bayh (who saved his life). The plane crashed at night in Massachusetts due to pilot error, with both the pilot and one of Kennedy's friends being killed in the crash. There was a long, painful recovery for Kennedy as he could literally do nothing except lay in bed for months while his body attempted to heal. He then had to undergo therapy to be able to walk again. From then on, he suffered from back pain, and frequently had to wear a brace.
Much of the last one-third of the book is taken up by Kennedy's fights with Nixon and his administration. Nixon hated the Kennedys (Ted included even though they had never personally clashed) and was paranoid about Ted running against him in 1972. Gabler spends a lot of time talking about the darkness of Nixon's personality, and his war against Kennedy. Nixon definitely was fixated on Kennedy. However, at times, I thought that Gabler went too hard on this: Nixon was paranoid with a lot of people and things, not just Ted Kennedy. At the times the narrative seemed to be more anti-Nixon than it was about Kennedy. I don't want to say that Gabler harped too hard on Nixon, because he did a lot bad things (and some illegal ones). But this was not a nuanced take, and at least for myself, I try to view Nixon as neither a villain nor as an icon. At any rate, there were a few times where I started to wish he would get back to Kennedy's story and not focus so much on Nixon's many foibles.
The book ends after Nixon's impeachment, with Kennedy being viciously attacked - literally and figuratively - over the issue of busing in Boston. Ted had not really had much if anything to do with this issue, yet he ended up unwittingly becoming the face of it for angry racist white Irish people in Boston. He was taken aback as he had always been very pro-Irish and was very responsive to the needs of his constituents. But he was pro-Civil Rights, and some folks there were incensed that their children might be bused to other schools not as close to their homes, and just as much, be going to integrated schools. Gabler ends the book by writing of Ted's confrontations with many of these people, and how they turned ugly quickly, and helped to solidify in Kennedy's mind that now was not the right time for him to run for President. So, much as in prior years for various reasons, Ted bowed out of the 1976 presidential contest before it even got underway.
One of Gabler's themes is that time had been ticking down and had now expired on the so-called liberal hour. And Kennedy had tried to squeeze out of that hour as much legislation and liberal movement as he could get despite the conservative headwinds brought on by Nixon, the backlash to Vietnam, the Southern (and Northern) reaction to the gains of the Civil Rights movement, and his own mistakes. And even though Nixon was now gone thanks to Watergate and his own immoral behavior, Kennedy was swimming uphill politically, and he knew it.
This is a very good book, though long. It is detailed, extensive, and balanced: Gabler by no means worships Kennedy nor buys into the Kennedy mystique. He also points out how the name was as much of a curse as it was a boon to Ted, and how he was unfairly portrayed and treated by people just because he was a Kennedy. I didn't even touch on Kennedy's difficult marriage to his wife Joan, or his numerous affairs, nor his son Ted Jr. needing to have one leg amputated. There is a lot in this book, and it is only the first volume! The writing is excellent, with a good mix of level-headed analysis interspersed into the narrative.
Grade: A-
June 5, 2021
This is a really thorough account not just of Ted Kennedy's life but also the liberalism of the 1960s under his brothers and LBJ and the beginnings of the conservative backlash that began with Richard Nixon (this is volume 1 of 2 so it only goes through 1975). It takes us from his childhood as the last and least of the Kennedy family, struggling under the standards set by his older brothers and the weight of his father's expectations that their family be a perfect set of smart, talented, charismatic, and attractive people. This required that he absorb and bottle up all the trauma that came with falling short of those expectations and his feelings of loneliness as he, unwanted by his parents, was shipped around from school to school. Not processing these traumas was compounded as he entered adulthood and saw his brothers violently killed one by one, leaving him thoroughly broken at the time of the accident on Chappaquiddick. This biography takes a more positive view of Ted than many accounts of that accident, suggesting that it was the cumulative weight of that trauma that caused him to act inexplicably when confronted again with death, rather than political considerations as many have guessed. But the book is also a history of the moralism and liberalism in politics of that era, from Jack's young and optimistic aesthetic that, especially after his death, opened many Americans up to making personal sacrifices to advance liberal causes for the greater good. It moves through Bobby taking up that mantle, and then Ted, while Chappaquiddick and Vietnam began to erode the moral authority associated with the Kennedys and, by extension, the liberal movement, helping lead to the conservative swing that would dominate the 1970s and 80s. But, Gabler suggests, they also, in dooming Ted's presidential aspirations, freed him to move further left as the country moved right, as seen in the final chapters detailing his push for Medicare for All in the 70s and the violent backlash he faced in Boston for supporting busing to integrate schools at a time when many politicians, including the one who last year became the first to ever defeat a Kennedy in Massachusetts, opposed it. All in all I really enjoyed reading this and learning about the complex factors that allowed a brief moment of liberalism and social progress to flourish, and I'm excited to read about the continuation of the fight for those ideals in a conservative national environment in volume 2!
June 1, 2021
This book took me awhile to get into. There’s a considerable amount of information and Ed Kennedy appeared to be a minor person in it. The 40s-60s in which his brothers were far more important than Ed was. But after he has his car accident in Chappaquiddick, the book changes. It doesn’t over Chappaquiddick well, it seems too willing not to take Ted’s behavior seriously, you’d barely know he was involved, but Ted’s growing power as Senator and his position as Nixon’s foil, is fascinating. I didn’t know that Nixon started Watergate because he’d heard rumors that Kennedy and McGovern were secretly talking to Castro. It makes sense Nixon sent Cuban refugees to be the burglars. There was a lot of information I hadn’t known such as McGovern writing the rules for the Democratic Primaries which made him the nominee, basically taking out party bosses from having a say. Gee that worked out well. The relationship with Joan and causes for the deterioration of their relationship. It seems hypocritical to put her up as an alcoholic when he was drinking just as much. The sad story of his son with cancer and doctor’s advice at the time. The back and forth on healthcare and Kennedy’s attempt to get a national insurance program. Lots of great information I never knew before.
March 28, 2021
Catching the lion by Neal gabler is a awesome book. It taught me a lot about Ted Kennedy I did not know. A must read for history buffs.
February 7, 2021
Incredibly well researched and well written. Thoughtful perspectives regarding Edward Kennedy and his family, as well as excellent insights into American politics. Some of the chapters are a bit dense but all contribute to the author’s historical perspective. The early years of Joe Kennedy Sr. and the evolution of his family and politics are among the most fascinating aspect of the book.
October 17, 2023
Thank you Crown Publishing for the free book. Ted Kennedy was at the center of the '60s, from his brother's presidency to the war that brought LBJ down. Catching the Wind isn't a quick read, but it's a window into a transformative era and the limits of the Kennedy mystique.
January 10, 2021
While providing an interesting theme of transgression and repentance as EMK’s story, this book is too long. The unending details of Congressional legislation could have been abbreviated- should have been abbreviated. Having just read new JFK biography, this book’s portion on family dynamics is quite different.
I feel a sense of accomplishment for having gotten through this. Not sure I’ll live long enough to read Vol. II when it’s published.
I feel a sense of accomplishment for having gotten through this. Not sure I’ll live long enough to read Vol. II when it’s published.
November 20, 2024
I was quite anxious to read this since so many people play fast and loose with the facts involving Ted Kennedy's life (namely the amount of misinformation about the Chappaquiddick accident), but surprisingly the author did a really good job of portraying Ted in an unbiased, factual, and human way. The only thing preventing it from getting a 5 star rating is the author is wholly inaccurate when writing about Ted's relationship with Bobby (RFK). The author fell into that weird historically inaccurate pitfall of believing Bobby was "ruthless", when in reality he was an extremely compassionate and deeply emotional person who championed rights for minorities and the poor, years before Ted did. Not that that negates anything Ted did, but both of them can be important champions for the disenfranchised, it doesn't have to be one or the other. The author pitting them against each other was an odd choice which isn't accurate to their actual relationship.
January 20, 2021
quite the door-stopper (736 pages for this first volume). Per the author note he spent 10 years on it and read just about everything -- only got an interview from one of Ted's sons.
As might therefore be predictable........there are some boring skimmable parts, for me mostly when he's going over and over the back-and-forth on successful or failed attempts to get a bill passed. One of his themes is the not-controversial-to-my-knowledge contention that Kennedy was an unusually effective legislator in spite of all his personal and behavioral issues, and that's of course important, but I didn't need quite so much granular detail to back it up.
Nothing new on Chappaquiddick -- author is dismissive of the notion that Kennedy was having any sort of affair with Mary Jo Kopechne, reiterates at length Kennedy's various explanations of his actions (confused, wished it weren't true, numb, tried everything..............) and just sort of leaves hanging the bizarre delays in reporting the accident (hmmm, call the police or set up a meeting with my advisors to go over the implications of it all and sleep it off? not that tough a call it would seem, but apparently so).
I'd forgotten how close in time that event was to moon landing, which is my dominant memory from that month for sure. Other episodes brought back a lot of memories -- RFK assassination for sure, '68 presidential campaign [somehow the author failed to mention the clever "I'm a Humphrey-Muskieteer" t-shirts thick on the ground among my classmates, in honor of our classmate Ned Muskie, who was running for VP"], etc.
Other factoids were new to me -- i'd either not heard or forgotten that Kennedy went to Portsmouth Priory for a bit -- brother school to my high school also run by Benedictines. Apparently he hated it, so maybe that's why it doesn't come up much. Also kept a "No Irish Need Apply" sign on the wall of his office. Sometimes hard to convince the young people that we're not so many generations away from having been looked down on in this country.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble just like this book does, so I'll bring it in for a landing. If you just can't get enough Kennedy material, by all means take a look. Otherwise, I'd say it's optional. And try Anthony Lukas' Common Ground if you want a focus on the Boston busing controversy that gets a lot of play toward the end of this book.
As might therefore be predictable........there are some boring skimmable parts, for me mostly when he's going over and over the back-and-forth on successful or failed attempts to get a bill passed. One of his themes is the not-controversial-to-my-knowledge contention that Kennedy was an unusually effective legislator in spite of all his personal and behavioral issues, and that's of course important, but I didn't need quite so much granular detail to back it up.
Nothing new on Chappaquiddick -- author is dismissive of the notion that Kennedy was having any sort of affair with Mary Jo Kopechne, reiterates at length Kennedy's various explanations of his actions (confused, wished it weren't true, numb, tried everything..............) and just sort of leaves hanging the bizarre delays in reporting the accident (hmmm, call the police or set up a meeting with my advisors to go over the implications of it all and sleep it off? not that tough a call it would seem, but apparently so).
I'd forgotten how close in time that event was to moon landing, which is my dominant memory from that month for sure. Other episodes brought back a lot of memories -- RFK assassination for sure, '68 presidential campaign [somehow the author failed to mention the clever "I'm a Humphrey-Muskieteer" t-shirts thick on the ground among my classmates, in honor of our classmate Ned Muskie, who was running for VP"], etc.
Other factoids were new to me -- i'd either not heard or forgotten that Kennedy went to Portsmouth Priory for a bit -- brother school to my high school also run by Benedictines. Apparently he hated it, so maybe that's why it doesn't come up much. Also kept a "No Irish Need Apply" sign on the wall of his office. Sometimes hard to convince the young people that we're not so many generations away from having been looked down on in this country.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble just like this book does, so I'll bring it in for a landing. If you just can't get enough Kennedy material, by all means take a look. Otherwise, I'd say it's optional. And try Anthony Lukas' Common Ground if you want a focus on the Boston busing controversy that gets a lot of play toward the end of this book.
January 24, 2022
3.5 stars. This is a mostly interesting biography of Edward Kennedy, undone to some degree by the author's liberal and pro-Kennedy bias. I say that even though I mostly agree with the politics of Kennedy and, apparently, the author.
The first half of the book was better than the second, in my opinion. While the story of the Kennedy clan is pretty familiar, the focus on Ted and his status as the youngest, of whom the least was expected, was a valuable perspective. The author goes through Ted's early life, showing that his greatest political influence was his maternal grandfather, rather than his own father. He does a good job of reviewing the Harvard cheating scandal, Ted's service as an attempt to atone for that (though not without preferential treatment arranged by his father), and his early years as a lawyer. I liked the many discussions of his relationships with his brothers Jack and Bob, though the author perhaps engaged in speculative psychoanalysis to an excessive degree.
Ted's decision to basically take over the crusade of his brother Bob was well-presented, including his struggles to reconcile's Bob's vision with his own Senatorial style. But I thought that the story began to lose some credibility after the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
The author asserts that Ted could have had the 1968 nomination for the asking if he had wanted it. I think that overstated the case. It was clear from the materials prior to the assassination that Robert Kennedy was destined to lose the nomination to Humphrey because the political bosses were behind Humphrey. No matter what Mayor Richard Daley said, was it realistic that the political insiders, largely loyal to Lyndon Johnson, would have abandoned Humphrey to support a 36-year-old Ted Kennedy, just because he wanted them to? I have my doubts. The author makes a similar assertion with regard to the 1972 nomination. Yet he says that Ted could not have won in 1976 because of Chappaquiddick. I would think that Chappaquiddick would have been as great a hindrance in 1972.
It was really in the discussion of Chappaquiddick where I thought that the author started to lack objectivity. He basically accepts all of Kennedy's explanations without question. Really? I think that even a Kennedy sympathizer would have doubts. Certainly it was plausible, or likely, that the long delay in reporting the accident to the police was motivated by an attempt to concoct an explanation for the incident that did not involve Kennedy driving the vehicle. The author dismissively reviews the many criticisms of Kennedy's conduct and then ultimately concludes that the coverage of the incident was out of proportion to the actual facts. Tell that to the family of the victim, Mary Jo Kopechne. Overall, the discussion of Chappaquiddick read like it was prepared by a defense attorney for Kennedy.
The details of Kennedy's personal life were very illuminating. Certainly his his behavior at Chappaquiddick was reprehensible. His treatment of his wife was equally despicable. His cruelty toward his wife, his lack of empathy toward her and his own drinking and constant womanizing were disgusting. He even stooped to trying to gain sympathy for himself because his wife had a drinking problem. The impression I was left with was that while Kennedy may have been an effective, and even admirable, Senator, he was a terrible person.
The author's hostility to Richard Nixon was a bit over the top. Certainly, by any objective measure, Nixon was responsible for a lot of despicable acts. Still, the portrayal of Nixon, and his obsession with the Kennedys, bordered on the cartoonish. Nixon is presented as unrelentingly evil. Even when he adopted policies that would be considered today to be way out of step with conservatism, like establishing the Environmental Protection Agency, expanding Social Security, and improving relations with the Soviet Union and China, the author asserts that Nixon did not have any honorable motives, but was just trying to co-opt Ted Kennedy.
There was a lot of detail on Kennedy's work in the Senate, and I thought that was a plus. It was, after all, in the Senate where Kennedy made his greatest contributions to history. I liked the discussions of his work on the various issues that arose. Some of the treatment in these areas struck me a as bit too Kennedy-centric. The author went so far as to try to portray Kennedy as a major player in the Watergate investigation. He wasn't. Despite that, this part of the book was effective. The over-emphasis on Kennedy's role served to undermine one of the aims of the book set out in its introduction - the intent that the book not only be a biography of Kennedy, but that it also review the state of liberalism as a governing philosophy during Kennedy's tenure in the Senate.
The book ends strongly, with a discussion of the racist white riots against busing in 1975. That is not said to defend busing, which a lot of people opposed for all kinds of reasons. But there is no question that the Irish whites rioted and engaged in racist conduct, some of which placed Kennedy in personal danger, and which forever damaged his relationship (as well as those of other liberal Democrats in Congress) with the white working class. Liberal ideals proved to be no match for good old-fashioned American racism. The author is astute in observing that the politicians were happy to make the children of the working class their guinea pigs in the great social experiment of busing, while never having to face those issues themselves. Still, the disenchantment of white working class voters with liberal Democrats, occurring at a time when the Republicans were aligning themselves with white racists, brought about a change in American politics that persists to the present day.
The book ends in 1975 and one of the interesting conclusions that I drew was that the country hasn't made much progress since then. Perhaps it is because the structure of our government, primarily the Senate, but the issues that Kennedy fought over in the 1970s continue to be issues today. So in some ways the book was a testament to the ineffectiveness of our system of government.
It's a long book, but never boring and certainly a worthwhile read. Hopefully the second installment will be a little more objective.
The first half of the book was better than the second, in my opinion. While the story of the Kennedy clan is pretty familiar, the focus on Ted and his status as the youngest, of whom the least was expected, was a valuable perspective. The author goes through Ted's early life, showing that his greatest political influence was his maternal grandfather, rather than his own father. He does a good job of reviewing the Harvard cheating scandal, Ted's service as an attempt to atone for that (though not without preferential treatment arranged by his father), and his early years as a lawyer. I liked the many discussions of his relationships with his brothers Jack and Bob, though the author perhaps engaged in speculative psychoanalysis to an excessive degree.
Ted's decision to basically take over the crusade of his brother Bob was well-presented, including his struggles to reconcile's Bob's vision with his own Senatorial style. But I thought that the story began to lose some credibility after the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
The author asserts that Ted could have had the 1968 nomination for the asking if he had wanted it. I think that overstated the case. It was clear from the materials prior to the assassination that Robert Kennedy was destined to lose the nomination to Humphrey because the political bosses were behind Humphrey. No matter what Mayor Richard Daley said, was it realistic that the political insiders, largely loyal to Lyndon Johnson, would have abandoned Humphrey to support a 36-year-old Ted Kennedy, just because he wanted them to? I have my doubts. The author makes a similar assertion with regard to the 1972 nomination. Yet he says that Ted could not have won in 1976 because of Chappaquiddick. I would think that Chappaquiddick would have been as great a hindrance in 1972.
It was really in the discussion of Chappaquiddick where I thought that the author started to lack objectivity. He basically accepts all of Kennedy's explanations without question. Really? I think that even a Kennedy sympathizer would have doubts. Certainly it was plausible, or likely, that the long delay in reporting the accident to the police was motivated by an attempt to concoct an explanation for the incident that did not involve Kennedy driving the vehicle. The author dismissively reviews the many criticisms of Kennedy's conduct and then ultimately concludes that the coverage of the incident was out of proportion to the actual facts. Tell that to the family of the victim, Mary Jo Kopechne. Overall, the discussion of Chappaquiddick read like it was prepared by a defense attorney for Kennedy.
The details of Kennedy's personal life were very illuminating. Certainly his his behavior at Chappaquiddick was reprehensible. His treatment of his wife was equally despicable. His cruelty toward his wife, his lack of empathy toward her and his own drinking and constant womanizing were disgusting. He even stooped to trying to gain sympathy for himself because his wife had a drinking problem. The impression I was left with was that while Kennedy may have been an effective, and even admirable, Senator, he was a terrible person.
The author's hostility to Richard Nixon was a bit over the top. Certainly, by any objective measure, Nixon was responsible for a lot of despicable acts. Still, the portrayal of Nixon, and his obsession with the Kennedys, bordered on the cartoonish. Nixon is presented as unrelentingly evil. Even when he adopted policies that would be considered today to be way out of step with conservatism, like establishing the Environmental Protection Agency, expanding Social Security, and improving relations with the Soviet Union and China, the author asserts that Nixon did not have any honorable motives, but was just trying to co-opt Ted Kennedy.
There was a lot of detail on Kennedy's work in the Senate, and I thought that was a plus. It was, after all, in the Senate where Kennedy made his greatest contributions to history. I liked the discussions of his work on the various issues that arose. Some of the treatment in these areas struck me a as bit too Kennedy-centric. The author went so far as to try to portray Kennedy as a major player in the Watergate investigation. He wasn't. Despite that, this part of the book was effective. The over-emphasis on Kennedy's role served to undermine one of the aims of the book set out in its introduction - the intent that the book not only be a biography of Kennedy, but that it also review the state of liberalism as a governing philosophy during Kennedy's tenure in the Senate.
The book ends strongly, with a discussion of the racist white riots against busing in 1975. That is not said to defend busing, which a lot of people opposed for all kinds of reasons. But there is no question that the Irish whites rioted and engaged in racist conduct, some of which placed Kennedy in personal danger, and which forever damaged his relationship (as well as those of other liberal Democrats in Congress) with the white working class. Liberal ideals proved to be no match for good old-fashioned American racism. The author is astute in observing that the politicians were happy to make the children of the working class their guinea pigs in the great social experiment of busing, while never having to face those issues themselves. Still, the disenchantment of white working class voters with liberal Democrats, occurring at a time when the Republicans were aligning themselves with white racists, brought about a change in American politics that persists to the present day.
The book ends in 1975 and one of the interesting conclusions that I drew was that the country hasn't made much progress since then. Perhaps it is because the structure of our government, primarily the Senate, but the issues that Kennedy fought over in the 1970s continue to be issues today. So in some ways the book was a testament to the ineffectiveness of our system of government.
It's a long book, but never boring and certainly a worthwhile read. Hopefully the second installment will be a little more objective.
November 29, 2020
736 pages and this is only Vol. 1! Very Robert Caro and very good. I will suffice with the NYTimes review which is why I decided to get the book from the library. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/bo...
November 8, 2020
I enjoyed volume one of this fascinating biography of Edward Kennedy.
I learned a great deal about him and look forward to reading volume two when it's published.
I learned a great deal about him and look forward to reading volume two when it's published.
October 31, 2023
Long-winded and a bit of a hagiography.
November 28, 2020
First of a two biography of Ted Kennedy. Has a number of stories about his youth and early years. Not as critical as it could be, but still a good read.
November 28, 2020
I'm not a huge fan of biographies, especially of legislators, but Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour held my interest -- all 741 pages of it. And this is only the first of two volumes!
According to author Neal Gabler, as Teddy Kennedy was growing up, he was seen as the least (youngest) brother, but also the least talented, the least serious, least capable, least reliable. And then, through hard work, he defied all those low expectations and became one of the most important legislators in American history, becoming the "face of modern liberalism."
The book depicts Teddy's childhood as difficult, with a distracted mother and an emotionally distant father. Under intense pressure to live up to his older brothers and to fulfill his father's high expectations, Teddy faced emotional challenges from day one. The book follows Teddy through those early years, college, marriage, campaigning, scandals, legislative successes, up until 1975 (more to follow in volume 2).
Well written and exhaustively researched, the book is not just a biography of Teddy, but also a history of political power in the mid 1900's, including extensive sections devoted to John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.
While I found the book highly informative, I did get tired of the psychoanalyzing -- the author seemed to come up with a theory of Teddy, and then made all the facts of his life fit into that theory. And it was so repetitious! How many times did we have to read-- Teddy was the lesser son, the youngest, the plodder, the least, the one with a sense of inadequacy?
And did I say repetitious? Gabler often gave five or six versions of the same trivial event: Teddy said X and on another occasion he said Y and in a speech he once recalled XYXY and his mother said XY and his aide remembered YX, and his neighbor recalled YYX. If it doesn't matter, why give 6 versions of the same story? Did the phone call occur on Tuesday or Wednesday, and who was in the room? Tedious.
So, an interesting and comprehensive biography, a fascinating look at the work of politics and the history of liberalism -- but sometimes tedious. Take out all the repetitions and alternate stories and the book would've been much shorter and no less informative.
According to author Neal Gabler, as Teddy Kennedy was growing up, he was seen as the least (youngest) brother, but also the least talented, the least serious, least capable, least reliable. And then, through hard work, he defied all those low expectations and became one of the most important legislators in American history, becoming the "face of modern liberalism."
The book depicts Teddy's childhood as difficult, with a distracted mother and an emotionally distant father. Under intense pressure to live up to his older brothers and to fulfill his father's high expectations, Teddy faced emotional challenges from day one. The book follows Teddy through those early years, college, marriage, campaigning, scandals, legislative successes, up until 1975 (more to follow in volume 2).
Well written and exhaustively researched, the book is not just a biography of Teddy, but also a history of political power in the mid 1900's, including extensive sections devoted to John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.
While I found the book highly informative, I did get tired of the psychoanalyzing -- the author seemed to come up with a theory of Teddy, and then made all the facts of his life fit into that theory. And it was so repetitious! How many times did we have to read-- Teddy was the lesser son, the youngest, the plodder, the least, the one with a sense of inadequacy?
And did I say repetitious? Gabler often gave five or six versions of the same trivial event: Teddy said X and on another occasion he said Y and in a speech he once recalled XYXY and his mother said XY and his aide remembered YX, and his neighbor recalled YYX. If it doesn't matter, why give 6 versions of the same story? Did the phone call occur on Tuesday or Wednesday, and who was in the room? Tedious.
So, an interesting and comprehensive biography, a fascinating look at the work of politics and the history of liberalism -- but sometimes tedious. Take out all the repetitions and alternate stories and the book would've been much shorter and no less informative.
April 10, 2022
This book was so much better than I expected. Being in my 30's, JFK's and RFK's assassinations were already being taught in history books when I was growing up and had long since been considered "current events." When I learned that their younger brother, Ted Kennedy, was a senator, my assumptions was that he was lazy and living off of his brothers' names and to top it off he couldn't even reach the heights they reached. Especially when I heard of some of the scandals he was involved in.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
Sure, being a Kennedy opened up doors for him, but the bar was set unreasonably high. The family was structured in a way that it supported the oldest. As a kid, the expectations was that he would meet the standards of the rest of the family, but without the support. Then, as an adult, the concept was simple. The family would work together to push the oldest to the top, and then the oldest could pull everyone else up with him. But the oldest never lived long enough to help pull the others up. First Ted was all in on getting JKF elected, and then turned his efforts to getting RFK elected. But after their assassinations, not only were they not there to support him, but he had the added responsibilities of being a surrogate father for all of their kids. Leaving him with the most responsibilities, the most burdens, and the least supported.
Yet with all of that, he did more to shape America than his father or any of his brothers.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
Sure, being a Kennedy opened up doors for him, but the bar was set unreasonably high. The family was structured in a way that it supported the oldest. As a kid, the expectations was that he would meet the standards of the rest of the family, but without the support. Then, as an adult, the concept was simple. The family would work together to push the oldest to the top, and then the oldest could pull everyone else up with him. But the oldest never lived long enough to help pull the others up. First Ted was all in on getting JKF elected, and then turned his efforts to getting RFK elected. But after their assassinations, not only were they not there to support him, but he had the added responsibilities of being a surrogate father for all of their kids. Leaving him with the most responsibilities, the most burdens, and the least supported.
Yet with all of that, he did more to shape America than his father or any of his brothers.
October 30, 2022
Although I was a fanatic of The Kennedys for most of my teenage years, I had largely ignored the post-1968 period, mainly because of the horrible despair and tragedy one gets from seeing everything fall apart (although if it taught me anything, it's not get into drugs or alcohol). With this in mind, this meant that I didn't look too much into Ted beyond books which covered both periods because, let's be honest, leaving a woman to die in a car is horrific and emblematic of that decline.
As time went by and I figured that the stuff prior wasn't all roses either, I've taken perhaps a healthier view of this family and with this in mind, I've decided to start looking at this period in more depth. I liked this book in particular because it has given me an alternative view of Ted that I didn't really get through the more gossipy books on the Kennedy family. One can see how he was a tragic and flawed hero, yet would try to do the right thing and see his gradual transformation into something more liberal than his more Conservative brothers.
My only criticisms is that it felt overly dense at times and was perhaps slightly too lenient at Ted for the events of Chappaquiddick.
I'm personally looking forward to the next book.
As time went by and I figured that the stuff prior wasn't all roses either, I've taken perhaps a healthier view of this family and with this in mind, I've decided to start looking at this period in more depth. I liked this book in particular because it has given me an alternative view of Ted that I didn't really get through the more gossipy books on the Kennedy family. One can see how he was a tragic and flawed hero, yet would try to do the right thing and see his gradual transformation into something more liberal than his more Conservative brothers.
My only criticisms is that it felt overly dense at times and was perhaps slightly too lenient at Ted for the events of Chappaquiddick.
I'm personally looking forward to the next book.
November 30, 2020
What a research project to tackle. Gabler said in an interview he spent ten years researching and writing this book and the next volume.
I am sure Teddy had many flaws but this book focuses primarily on his devotion to his work and his focus on a worthy liberal agenda that continues to slowly gain traction. I found it a great read and although I read Joyce Carol Oates BLACKWATER and think it may be her best work, this was a different perspective on that incident that crushed Teddy's chance at the presidency.
Readers are allowed to see things from his shoes, the youngest of such a lauded clan, with high expectations and a live for today feeling because of the horrid losses throughout his life. I am ready to read the second volume but I guess I will have to wait until next year unless Neal sends me a galley. LOL.
I am sure Teddy had many flaws but this book focuses primarily on his devotion to his work and his focus on a worthy liberal agenda that continues to slowly gain traction. I found it a great read and although I read Joyce Carol Oates BLACKWATER and think it may be her best work, this was a different perspective on that incident that crushed Teddy's chance at the presidency.
Readers are allowed to see things from his shoes, the youngest of such a lauded clan, with high expectations and a live for today feeling because of the horrid losses throughout his life. I am ready to read the second volume but I guess I will have to wait until next year unless Neal sends me a galley. LOL.
March 14, 2022
Catching the Wind is volume one in Neal Gabler’s two volume biography of the late Senator Edward Kennedy. Gabler is clearly biased in favor of the youngest Kennedy but does not excuse the excesses and tragic shortcomings. The pressure to excel as a Kennedy was imprinted on Ted from infancy. Joe Sr enforced his own code to win, to redeem ethnic grievance, to uphold family above all else. Ted could never quite live up to all that especially when compared to his three older, martyred siblings. Out of a cauldron of confusion, tragedy, alcohol and philandering somehow Ted Kennedy forged a serious legislative record that would earn him the sobriquet “lion of the Senate”,succeeding in a conservative ascendancy and collaborating with ideological apposites. It is a story of sheer perseverance and willpower that would have escaped most mortals. Awaiting volume two.
November 5, 2023
An exceptional and detailed account of the first half of Kennedy’s life. Despite the familiarity of the pivot points in this life and the family history, there is still a careful retelling of the tale. Apart from the tragedies and reversals that visited upon and were self-inflicted throughout Kennedy’s life, there is a great deal of context to the events that Kennedy was central to and the role he played and could have played in American history. Apart from the personal narrative that Gabler could unfold in this party of the biography, the social dynamics that fed the rejection of the JFK-LBJ platform that influenced electoral outcomes in 1968 was quite revealing. The essence of a backlash against the liberalism that Kennedy advocated for in 1968 was sad and, in light in November 2016 and January 2021, struck familiar chords as George Wallace and Richard Nixon succeeded by tapping into a core of American society, that the nation is best off parting with, but has managed to revive on a generational basis.
July 29, 2025
This was a hefty and intense book to read; I read most of it during a long flight across country. I knew very little about Edward Kennedy's life prior to reading this book. I found myself drawn in by the depth of detail and the compelling narrative.
I thought the author did a great job portraying Kennedy as a complex, deeply human figure, shaped by his family, personal challenges, and the weight of public expectation. To me, the writing is thoughtful and thorough without ever feeling dry, which is no small feat given the breadth of the subject matter.
I came away with a much clearer sense of who Edward Kennedy was in the earlier chapters of his life. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel to learn how his story continues to unfold. But it'll be a while before I get to it.
I thought the author did a great job portraying Kennedy as a complex, deeply human figure, shaped by his family, personal challenges, and the weight of public expectation. To me, the writing is thoughtful and thorough without ever feeling dry, which is no small feat given the breadth of the subject matter.
I came away with a much clearer sense of who Edward Kennedy was in the earlier chapters of his life. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel to learn how his story continues to unfold. But it'll be a while before I get to it.
November 23, 2020
This was not a "sweeping biography" as the blurb claims. It does hit most of the highlights of "Teddy's" life, but I thought it strayed rather far afield into both JFK's and RFK's lives, as well as that of "Tricky Dick" to qualify as a Ted Kennedy biography. Very little of his childhood and youth. Covered a fair bit of his significance as a Senator, but little about the dynamics of legislation into which Teddy would most certainly have been immersed. Actually a relatively fair treatment of the events surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick, which surprised me based on the Teddy worship evidenced elsewhere.
August 12, 2021
Neal Gabler is an exemplary author who well-defined the context of Edward Kennedy. I read books on US history from the thirties to the seventies, but I am amazed at what I didn't know.
Not only did I learn about Edward Kennedy, I learned about the world I grew up in, a kid from the seventies.
Also, the political decisions made in the decades before--especially healthcare--have formed the buttress we are fighting now.
I grew up with a negative opinion of Senator Kennedy based on my parents' biases. I changed my mind in my fifties when I began to hear good things about him. I am glad I read this outstanding book. I hope I can get ahold of the second volume of this set.
Not only did I learn about Edward Kennedy, I learned about the world I grew up in, a kid from the seventies.
Also, the political decisions made in the decades before--especially healthcare--have formed the buttress we are fighting now.
I grew up with a negative opinion of Senator Kennedy based on my parents' biases. I changed my mind in my fifties when I began to hear good things about him. I am glad I read this outstanding book. I hope I can get ahold of the second volume of this set.
December 15, 2025
If you're a "Boomer", you should really read this book because it's likely you never heard of or learned much of the background of legislation in the 1960s and 1970s. The behavior of elected officials and their staff members may leave you wondering how our country has survived this long. But it also explains to some extent how Donald Trump has gotten away with all he's done in his two administrations. The book is also a good look at what it was like to be the youngest Kennedy and it wasn't fun much of the time. There was a lot of loss and sorrow in this family and it took a great deal of chutzpah to deal with it.
January 3, 2021
The book delivers as promised - not just a biography of Ted Kennedy but the life of the Liberalism of that time. While reading I felt in mourning for that more optimistic time when people felt they could make a difference and had leaders to look to for raising aspirations.
Sad that Volume 1 covered so many deaths - President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr.- and the death of that time in history. The author makes it all come alive. He also relates the death of Mary Jo Kopechne without the sensationalism that is often part of that tragedy.
Sad that Volume 1 covered so many deaths - President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr.- and the death of that time in history. The author makes it all come alive. He also relates the death of Mary Jo Kopechne without the sensationalism that is often part of that tragedy.
March 3, 2021
I started this book eagerly, but found myself skimming more than reading once past the first 250 pages or so. If you're going to take a deep dive (736 pages, not counting a lengthy introduction) into someone's life, you had better be a good writer and a better self-editor. I found Gabler's habit of starting paragraphs and sentences with "And..." and "But..." to be an annoying affectation. There was also too much repetition, and perhaps too much speculation. That said, if you want a detailed account of Kennedy's first 43 years, this is the place to look.
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