Bobby Kennedy

Bobby Kennedy is likely the most famous alumnus of my law school, so I thought it would be fitting to become more familiar with his life before I graduated. Toward that end, I began reading Evan Thomas' Robert Kennedy: His Life, and have been richly rewarded. I think the cover blurb actually says it well, calling the book an "unvarnished but sympathetic and fair-minded portrayal." Thomas isn't afraid to show RFK's darkness, but he also gives a more complex and complete explanation for where the darkness came from, and at what it was aimed.

A funny tidbit for UVA Law folks, here's the reaction when RFK was named attorney general at thirty-five, having yet to actually practice law:

In the faculty room at Bobby's alma mater, the University of Virginia Law School, the announcement of RFK's appointment as attorney general was greeted with a "roar of incredulity," recalled Mortimer Capilin, Bob Kennedy's old tax professor (and soon-to-be Jack Kennedy's commissioner of internal revenue).

For those who've never visited the building, almost half of all rooms at the UVA School of Law are named for Mortimer Caplin (or so it seems).