The Last Kennedy

by Robert Sherrill

The decorative dust jacket adds much to this first edition, first printing hardcover. The jacket shows very minor wear along the edges from shelving. Name and inscription inside front cover. Book is like new inside, free of markings, bright and clean. /lh

239 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Constance · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, Mr Sherrill was far too repetitive and used phrases from the 70's. This was probably so since it was written in that decade. He was definitely not a fan of the Kennedys. He did state this. This is not a feel good book about Edward Kennedy.

The last 30 pages put me to sleep. It is a boring account of Chappaquiddick. If you were a teen ager in the 60's you will remember hearing about it, but not quite understanding what you heard. This book is kind of the same way.

[Jon]

With Ted Kennedy seriously ill and his political career at an end, I thought I'd salute him in a special way...by reading a scathing, denunciatory book about him, focusing on the Chappaquiddick disaster, by muckraker-with-brains Robert Sherrill. Sherrill finds the Kennedys "very ordinary" guys who managed to convince any number of voters that they were somehow different--more idealistic than other politicians. He delves into the Chappaquiddick accident, in which Robert Kennedy's former assistant Mary Jo Kopechne was drowned (or suffocated to death, maybe) after Ted's car (which he was presumably driving) went off a bridge, in meticulous detail. Even more interesting is Sherrill's focus on the cover-up Kennedy and company pulled off, and the (deliberate?) ineptness of almost every official who dealt with the case. An opening chapter discusses John and Robert Kennedy and their infamous father, Joseph, who influenced Ted the least, making Ted, ironically, Sherrill's favorite Kennedy brother, though as he says, that's "not saying much." Sherrill also discusses Nixon's response to Chappaquiddick, suggesting that with Kennedy removed as a serious opponent, Nixon's administration quickly became more reckless, which led to the Watergate scandal. Essential reading for anyone interested in 20th-century American politics, political corruption or the Kennedy family.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A critical analysis of Senator Edward Kennedy's political career, leading up to and following the death of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969. From the very introduction of this book, it is obvious that Sherrill is not an admirer of the Kennedy clan. Sherrill details the activities of politicians and local officials of Dukes County, Massachusetts, following the accident in which Kopechne died in Kennedy's car following a party on the island. From the facts presented, it would appear that the local law enforcement officials acted neglegently in investigating the discrepencies between available evidence and accounts told by Kennedy and his fellow partiers. Of particular interest to me was the fact that my vague recollection of the details seems not to have been because of my memory failure over time, but more because there were so many questions that were never resolved at that time. This book came to my reading list via the bibliography of The Kennedys by Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner.