Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy

Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy reaches its "definitive look" goal with a balance of stately respect for its subject and uncompromising disclosure of available information. This biography begins with the 2008 news of Edward Kennedy's diagnosed malignant glioma and then rewinds to his childhood, relating anecdotes about his clowning, good cheer, and bad spelling, among other things. The years in boarding schools, at Harvard, in military service, at Harvard again, and in law school receive their due. As a newly-minted lawyer, he worked on brother Jack's campaigns for the U.S. Senate and then the presidency. With John F. Kennedy in the White House, a not-yet-thirty Ted didn't get much help (at least overtly) from either JFK or the attorney general, Robert Kennedy, when he campaigned for a Senate seat. His first election victory in 1962 marked the beginning of an unbroken string of re-elections and forty-six years (and counting) in the most exclusive club in the world.

LAST LION neither digs up new knowledge nor relies on new interviews. Instead, it modestly triumphs as a synthesis of already available but scattered mainly journalistic material. It engagingly and fluently covers both the personal and professional milestones of Senator Kennedy's life. Editor Canellos and the team of Boston Globe reporters who brought this material together don't avoid controversies and scandals such as the Harvard cheating episode and, of course, Chappaquiddick. In fact, the biography consigns about thirty-four pages to events surrounding the Mary Jo Kopechne death, including Kennedy's statement that, " 'I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to police immediately.' " But this isn't a tabloid expose or a hack job; the facts are presented, but generally the steady tone of LAST LION is empathetic and admiring in a low-key manner.

Ted Kennedy's personal life -- his marriage to Joan that ended in divorce, his years of returned bachelorhood and "dating," and then his marriage to attorney Vicki Reggie in 1992 -- also receives its due but isn't stressed out of proportion. Often mentioned -- and rightfully so -- is Kennedy's surrogate fatherhood to his many nieces and nephews. The children of John and Robert Kennedy needed someone to attend their first communions, their school and sports events, and he, they testify, was always there. As LAST LION notes, however, the children could not escape their own share of scandals and problems.

This biography doesn't fixate on (or gloss over) the watershed assassinations of President Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy. In the long term, their deaths forever remain personal tragedies for the youngest brother, but they also put pressure on him to "finish" their legacies in the White House, leading to several attempts to secure the nomination before he resolved to remain a legislator. Many stories of Kennedy's kindnesses to fellow senators and his ability to reach across the aisle to get legislation passed are also a part of LAST LION, particularly in the last decades after Kennedy decided " '...the pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is."

In all, Kennedy has authored "roughly 2500 major bills." George Washington reportedly told Thomas Jefferson, " 'We pour our legislation in the Senatorial saucer to cool it.' " Kennedy has had other ideas. The book notes: "...Ted marshaled all the Senate protocols and courtesies to the service of a quietly aggressive political agenda." In the 2008 presidential election, Kennedy refused to endorse a Democrat for some time, but finally, to the dismay of many Hilary Clinton supporters, he rallied to Obama's side. And President Obama has said of him, " 'He is somebody who battled for voting rights and civil rights when I was a child. I stand on his shoulders.' "

Ted Kennedy inspires passionate feelings from both his supporters and detractors. Whichever camp you, reader, fall into, this book is recommended. Ted Kennedy's determination to live a public life in government under hardships of his own and not his own making is attentively and thoughtfully documented in LAST LION. 4.5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. I need to preface this review by saying that I am an independent voter from Massachusetts. I have voted for Ted Kennedy for the US Senate, but did not vote for him when he ran for president. In short, I think I went into this book open minded. I already knew much from the early part of the book, Ted's younger years, through bios I have read about Jack and Bobby Kennedy. I did enjoy learning more about "the other Kennedy" in those early chapters. As the book got into the 70's and 80's, there was much that I learned about Ted Kennedy, and I found so much of his behind-the-scenes work in the Senate fascinating. This book definitely touches upon Ted's many flaws in his personal life, in that they did have an effect on his public life. I felt that this book covered the man and the senator quite well. It was a very engaging read. This biography was respectfully written, and avoided some of the details of Ted's indiscretions. I felt it was accurate, but did not look to embarrass him. This book lets the reader see why Ted Kennedy is such a respected senator by so many in both parties. There's lots to like about this book. This book does not attempt to psycho-analyze Ted. Yet, Ted Kennedy does come alive in this, especially in the second half of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about Ted Kennedy. I felt it was honest and balanced. I have lived in Mass. all my life, and my family and I thoroughly supported John F. Kennedy. We were devastated the day he was assinated (the day after his assination was my husband and my wedding day!) We spent our "honeymoon" in Washington D.C. at his funeral.

Ted has been maligned and castigated in the press for years and years with his many problems in his personal life, and yet, thoughout it all, he has always championed the common working people of our country and this state. We are just common working people, not priviledged wealthy folks like Ted is. Yet, he has kept us in the forefront of his mission in Washington, D.C.

I felt that the book was very fair and balanced. It did not gloss over Ted's shortcomings, but it also pointed out many of the personal losses and problems that he has had to deal with since he was a very young person.

My husband also read and enjoyed the book and felt that it is a fair portrayal of one of the finest Senators that we have had in this country. Former School Librarian

I was amazed that the review count was so low until I noticed that the people who actually had read it gave it high marks while those who gave it one star chose to attack the subject. The high reviewers did a much better job than I ever could at detailing the highs and lows of the life of Ted Kennedy as detailed in the book. What was amazing to me was how the accounts of Kennedy's life corresponded with what I remember as it happened (yes, I am that old that I remember it all).

I would like to note that the one-star reviewer who said it was a sad title rip off missed the very beginning that explains the title. I don't know how they missed it if they read the book. Anyway, it was a quote by John McCain: "I've described Ted Kennedy as the last lion of the Senate...He remains the single most effective member of the Senate if you want to get results."

I hope the book does well on the charts as it is highly readable and thorough and it doesn't try to make the failings or triumphs of Kennedy any more or less than they actually were or still are.

Most biographies about the Kennedys are either written to make them look better than they are or worse than they are. This team effort by the Boston Globe is right in the middle. It appears to be an honest effort to
summarize the nature of Ted Kennedy: his substantial personal failings, coupled with his efforts to compensate for those failings with overarching leglislative accomplishments and small acts of personal generosity.
Until I read this book, I never believed those who said Ted Kennedy had more impact on American legislative history than Jack or Bobby. But I believe it now.
More than Jack or Bobby, Ted was a natural politician, and a natural Senator. He was a throwback to his maternal grandfather, "Honey Fitz," who loved meeting people and plunging into crowds.
JFK had said that he would rather read a book on an airplane than talk to the guy next to him. JFK didn't like the backslapping, hail-fellow-well-met part of politics. That's not to say that he wasn't good at it, but he didn't like it.
RFK was shy and arrogant at times, and didn't really come out of his shell in terms of enjoying meeting people until 1968.
But Ted was the image of "Honey Fitz,"---he loved going into pool halls and Knights of Columbus halls to backslap and meet people. Of the three brothers, he was the best one-on-one politician. But most importantly, these one-on-one skills made him a great Senator, since so much of being a successful Senator is about relationships with other Senators. Jack and Bobby were bored with the legislative branch, yet this
book shows why the Senate was home to Ted Kennedy.
There is little doubt that had Ted jumped into the 1968 Presidential race after Robert Kennedy's death, that he would have been the nominee and been President instead of Nixon.
A year later, Chappaquiddick changed everything, and it should have. As the book points out, the fact that he may have been driving drunk and was with a woman other than his wife pale in comparison to the larger question: why did he wait so long to report the accident?
He would never be President, but he tried anyway in 1980. The book largely glosses over his failure to present a united front with Carter after his defeat, which led to the Reagan realignment in 1980. If he had
set aside his differences with Carter and campaigned hard for him,would things have been different in 1980? Who knows. Probably not.
The most interesting part of the book is the transformation the book describes when Kennedy met and married Victoria Reggie, the daughter of
a powerful Louisiana political family. His second wife seemed to change things in a significant way. Ted's relationship with Victoria led to his basic redemption in public opinion as a "Lion of the Senate," a man that would receive honorary Knighthood from the Queen of England.
The one trait in Kennedy that stands out, in spite of his enormous personal failing at Chappaquiddick and in other instances, is his basic generosity. The book correctly portrays EMK as a guy who made some huge mistakes, but who is capable of great generosity, and whose skill at getting legislation passed is second to none.