"Robert Kennedy is one of the most enigmatic figures of twentieth-century American politics, with a personality that blended ruthlessness and compassion. In this short biography, Aronson doesn"t shy away from theorizing about the psychological roots of Kennedy"s contradictory nature. He also exhaustively reports rumors of the era, from Joseph Kennedy"s alleged Mafia connections to J. Edgar Hoover"s sexual preferences ("it is likely that he was attracted to men"). The narrative tends to jump around quite a bit, offering information in the course of thematic arguments rather than chronologically, and the facts sometimes seem to get lost amid rumors and speculations. In particular, Kennedy"s time as attorney general, senator, and presidential candidate receive less emphasis than one would expect. This entry in the Up Close series proves more effective as a character study than as an introduction to its subject"s life and times and will be of most use to readers with some prior...