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Last Lion

Last Lion
Last Lion
The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy  
This edition: eBook, 480 pages
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List Price: $12.99
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Description


No figure in American public life has had such great expectations thrust upon him and fallen short of them so quickly. But Ted Kennedy, the gregarious, pudgy, and least academically successful of the Kennedy boys, became the most powerful senator of the last half century and the nation’s keeper of traditional liberalism.

As Peter S. Canellos and his team of Boston Globe reporters show in this intimate biography, Ted witnessed greater tragedy and suffered greater pressure than his siblings. He inherited a generation’s dreams and ambitions, and was expected to help confront his nation’s problems and to build a fairer society. But political rivals turned his all-too-human failings into a condemnation of his liberal politics. As the presidency eluded his grasp, Kennedy was finally free to become his own man. He transformed himself into a symbol of wisdom and perseverance.

Now, in two new chapters, Last Lion reveals how Kennedy battled cancer while helping Barack Obama bring about the biggest reform of health care in the nation’s history, and how he said good-bye to his family, friends, and enemies.

Perceptive and carefully reported, drawing from candid interviews with the Kennedy family, Last Lion captures magnificently the life, historic achievements, and personal redemption of Ted Kennedy, and offers a fresh assessment of his enduring legacy.


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"In 400 brisk but detail-rich pages, the book...sketches a poignant portrait."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"If you want a peek inside America's royal family, this is a must-read, with details that only Boston Globe reporters could know."
-- Tim O'Brien, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A balanced, nuanced, warts-and-all portrait."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"A timely if not revelatory portrait of a flawed figure who 'never expected to become the custodian of his family's sorrows' but found a way to transcend the role."
-- Alex Altman, Time
"A readable, relatively objective study of the once most-vilified man in contemporary American politics."
-- The Washington Times
"With the publication of Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy, we get a fresh look at how this man's gothic imperatives -- blood loyalty and inherited duty -- would make him the greatest U.S. senator of modern times."
-- Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball and author of Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America
"Last Lion is a fine biography, a graceful summing up an extraordinary life that is not yet over. It shows little sign of having been written by a team of seven, and it does not carry the tone of an obituary. With its anecdotes and political tales, it captures the wit, humor, and grace of Ted Kennedy and establishes his place, 'as much a part of the Capitol as the dome or the Rotunda beneath it.'"
-- Ken Bode, The Boston Globe
New York Times, October 4, 2009
...month. (Mr. Kennedy?s lengthy legislative career and his death have renewed interest in other books about him; ?The Last Lion,? edited by Peter Canellos of The Boston Globe, rounds out our list. Also to be noted is ?Edward M. Kennedy: A ...
Vermont Public Radio, August 28, 2009
...John McCain calls Ted Kennedy the 'last lion of the senate...the single most effective member if you want to get things done.' Achieving that status among conservatives like McCain was no small feat for the liberal ...
Wellesley Townsman, August 11, 2009
...that emphasize the process of listening to different styles. Peter S. Canellos is one of the editors of ?Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy.? ?Last Lion? is the collaborative effort of Boston Globe staff who have written about Ted ...
Edmund Evening Sun, April 21, 2009
...federally funded program operated by the State Health Department. And, as detailed in a recent book titled The Last Lion, the legislation that created the WIC program was sponsored by the senior senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy. ...
EPolitix.com, March 16, 2009
...Edited by ? Peter Canellos Published by ? Simon and Schuster $28.00 Usually books written by a group are not a success because they suffer from the same problems as a press release ...
The Connection.org, February 16, 2009
...as much esteem as Massachusetts' senior senator, Edward 'Ted' Kennedy. His legacy is explored in a new biography, 'Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy.' We speak with editor Peter Canellos ...