All This Marvelous Potential, Matthew Algeo
All This Marvelous Potential, Matthew Algeo
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All This Marvelous Potential
Robert Kennedy's 1968 Tour of Appalachia

Author: Matthew Algeo

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 7 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2020

Synopsis

In the winter of 1967–68, Robert F. Kennedy, then a US Senator from New York, ventured deep into the heart of Appalachia. As acting chairman of a Senate subcommittee on poverty, RFK went to eastern Kentucky to gauge the progress of the War on Poverty. He was deeply disillusioned by what he found. Kennedy learned that job training programs were useless, welfare programs proved insufficient, and jobs were scarce and getting scarcer. Before he'd even left the state, Kennedy had determined the War on Poverty was a failure—and he blamed Lyndon Johnson.

Robert Kennedy wasn't merely on a fact-finding mission, however; he was considering challenging Johnson for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he needed support from white voters to win it. His trip to eastern Kentucky was an opportunity to test his antiwar and antipoverty message with hardscrabble whites. Kennedy encountered deep resentment in the mountains, and a special disdain for establishment politicians. A month after his visit, RFK officially announced he was challenging Johnson for the Democratic nomination. Four months after his visit, he was murdered. He was forty-two.

All This Marvelous Potential retraces RFK's tour of eastern Kentucky and provides a new portrait of the politician—a politician of uncommon courage who was unafraid to shine a light on our shortcomings.

About Matthew Algeo

Matthew Algeo is the author of Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure, The President Is a Sick Man, and Pedestrianism. An award-winning journalist, Algeo has reported from four continents for public radio's All Things Considered, Marketplace, and Morning Edition.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Al

I’m a big fan of Algeo. Most of his books deal with quirky lost stories of history and while this one isn’t quirky per se, it is surely a lost detour. In 1968, Robert F Kennedy went to Eastern Kentucky, the poorest part of the US to see what he could do to help. I have to admit I wanted to read this......more

Goodreads review by Paul

Two days in February of 1968 drew the public’s attention to the very real and hidden poverty of our country and the promise of addressing it. At the time, events, books and articles focused on the poverty of the Appalachian area where one could see the destruction and dissolution of a beautiful natu......more

Goodreads review by Brett

I was a little wary of reading this title, as it looked like it could be a tad tedious, but it ended up being one of the best books I've read in awhile. The book is based upon the visit by RFK to the Appalachia region of Eastern Kentucky in 1968, right before his Presidential run. In reality, the bo......more

Goodreads review by Michael

This book wasn’t the play by play of RFK’s visit I thought I was going to read about. The author writes well about Eastern Kentucky’s people and places, but I purchased the book to learn more about RFK’s time there and his thoughts on it. Tommy Duff had a sad life indeed, but Robert Kennedy is who I......more

Goodreads review by Matthew

The 1960s were a tumultuous time in America. There were changes that seemed to be happening virtually everyday. The war in Vietnam was an issue that seemed to touch every American family, rioting consumed many American cities, and in the mountains of Appalachia coal was beginning to lose its' place......more

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