Which Kennedy Did the Most Good?

Fanning the flames of a dynastic torch, Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara rekindles interest in Kennedy lore with her book Eunice:  The Kennedy Who Changed the World. McNamara's 300-page history lesson offers the psychological and practical details of why and how the frequently ill and frail woman harnessed love and rage to champion rights of the mentally retarded and unborn in the United States and around the world.  

Honoring their mother's life work, Eunice Kennedy Shriver's five children granted McNamara, the director of journalism at Brandeis University, access to thirty-three private boxes of never-before-seen scrapbook-esque memorabilia. Private conversations with the five (Bobby, Maria, Timothy, Mark, and Anthony), family friends, and archivists at the JFK Library in Dorchester helped the author reframe the history and histrionics of the legendary Kennedy clan.