Audiobook15 hours
Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World
Written by Eileen McNamara
Narrated by Amanda Carlin
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
In this “revelation” of a biography (USA TODAY), a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family’s most profound political legacy.
While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter, Eunice, was hijacking her father’s fortune and her brothers’ political power to engineer one of the great civil rights movements of our time on behalf of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Her compassion was born of rage: at the medical establishment that had no answers for her sister Rosemary, at her revered but dismissive father, whose vision for his family did not extend beyond his sons, and at a government that failed to deliver on America’s promise of equality.
Now, in this “fascinating” (the Today show), “nuanced” (The Boston Globe) biography, “ace reporter and artful storyteller” (Pulitzer Prize–winning author Megan Marshall) Eileen McNamara finally brings Eunice Kennedy Shriver out from her brothers’ shadow. Granted access to never-before-seen private papers, including the scrapbooks Eunice kept as a schoolgirl in prewar London, McNamara paints an extraordinary portrait of a woman both ahead of her time and out of step with it: the visionary founder of Special Olympics, a devout Catholic in a secular age, and an officious, cigar-smoking, indefatigable woman whose impact on American society was longer lasting than that of any of the Kennedy men.
While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter, Eunice, was hijacking her father’s fortune and her brothers’ political power to engineer one of the great civil rights movements of our time on behalf of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Her compassion was born of rage: at the medical establishment that had no answers for her sister Rosemary, at her revered but dismissive father, whose vision for his family did not extend beyond his sons, and at a government that failed to deliver on America’s promise of equality.
Now, in this “fascinating” (the Today show), “nuanced” (The Boston Globe) biography, “ace reporter and artful storyteller” (Pulitzer Prize–winning author Megan Marshall) Eileen McNamara finally brings Eunice Kennedy Shriver out from her brothers’ shadow. Granted access to never-before-seen private papers, including the scrapbooks Eunice kept as a schoolgirl in prewar London, McNamara paints an extraordinary portrait of a woman both ahead of her time and out of step with it: the visionary founder of Special Olympics, a devout Catholic in a secular age, and an officious, cigar-smoking, indefatigable woman whose impact on American society was longer lasting than that of any of the Kennedy men.
Author
Eileen McNamara
Eileen McNamara spent nearly thirty years as a journalist at The Boston Globe, where she won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and was among the first to raise the alarm about clergy sexual abuse. She is now the director of the journalism program at Brandeis University. She is the author of Eunice, Breakdown, and The Parting Glass (with Eric Roth).
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Reviews for Eunice
Rating: 4.4600000799999995 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
25 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was the very interesting life story of perhaps the most underrated of the members of the famous Kennedy clan: Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She had a drive that was unmatched and relentlessly pursued the cause of the mentally challenged. Because her own family was touched by this, Eunice had an inside look at a highly controversial subject at the time of her initial involvement.Eunice may have achieved great things, such as helping to bring about the Special Olympics, but she was a deeply flawed individual. They way she went through personal assistants was just staggering. Her inability and her unwillingness to talk about any personal tragedy had a profound effect on her family and the people in her employ. I know that we couldn't have been friends, despite the fact that I admire her greatly for the work she did.A fascinating and well-balanced account of a previously uncovered, crucial piece of the Kennedy family puzzle.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An amazing story. She has jumped to the top of my list of people who have died that I would most like to talk to if I could. Very moving!!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inspiring life storySome people will find in this book a disgusting story of wealth and privilege. I find it inspiring. It is the story of a bygone era where political strength was built on service; a time when wealth brought with it public responsibility.The Kennedy family, all of them, were competitors, and Joe and Rose never let them slide. The kids were well trained in history, debate, rhetoric, expository writing, and sports. Once upon a time, these were the tools of statesmen. Family wealth provided tutors and coaches, and the family work and play ethic is to strive to be the best you can be. I was particularly charmed by the intra-family mini-grant program that funded public service projects the college-age grandchildren thought up. Only the good ideas got funded.Be the best you can be was the motto and with it the corollaries: Surround yourself with advisors who are the best you can find, and be sure that within your circle of advisors are people who do not agree with you but are still the best in their field. Contrast that with today when barely-educated, unread people, who happen to be rich or celebrities, surround themselves with people just like themselves forming a homogeneous mass of people who know no history and then pronounce that their truth is the only truth.Eunice's lifetime of hard work for the mentally and physically handicapped, and the birth of the Special Olympics is fully described in the book. Her and Sergeant Shriver's work with Peace Corps and related youth jobs programs is less thoroughly presented but still adequate.I received a review copy of "Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World" by Eileen McNamara (Simon & Schuster) through NetGalley.com.