Kate Clifford LarsonCritiques

Everyone has heard of Harriet Tubman. Everyone was taught in grade school about the fearless female "Moses" who rescued her people from slavery and who famously "never lost a passenger" on the Underground Rail Road. After grade school though Tubman is largely omitted from text books and class discussion save for a few meager sentences to remind you of the platitudes you were taught in first grade history, indeed, finding a scholarly work on Tubman's life at all is a tricky prospect and most searches online or through library databases will yield mainly children's books.

The result of this glaring and galling omission is that most people, myself included, tend to have a very feeble grasp on the true measure of Harriet's courage, skill, historical importance, and impact.

Everyone knows she escaped slavery only to return to the south multiple times to save others. Most don't know she returned time and again to the same area she escaped from, sometimes the very same plantation she had fled, each new mission growing increasingly, almost unbearably dangerous as the slave owners of Dorchester county Maryland, doubled, then trebled their guard in the face of the ever rising number of successful runaways from their small county.

Everyone knows Harriet was a conductor on the famed Underground Rail Road, and most even know of her impressive track record of never losing even a single passenger. But far too few people know Harriet was also a valuable asset to the Union army during the civil war, or that she personally orchestrated and led an immensely successful military raid into Confederate territory that resulted in the saving of some seven hundred people and almost no Union casualties.

And finally, everyone knows Harriet Tubman was a hero who acted on her convictions and helped enslaved people escape to freedom. But almost no one knows the true tragedy of this brave woman's life. The fact that she spent her whole life helping her family and anyone else in need yet died in dire financial straits due in no small part to being denied a salary and pension from the U.S. Army for years after her invaluable service. The fact that she served her country with the highest distinction during the horrors of the Civil War yet was forcibly and violently thrown out of a whites only railway car years later, resulting in a broken arm while fellow passengers simply jeered or yelled for her to be thrown off the train entirely. The final and perhaps greatest indignity would come only after her death. Following the Civil War Tubman's legacy and memory was passed over as too controversial and too upsetting, the figure of a former slave freeing others from the heinous institution of bondage didn't mesh well with the spirit of forgiveness, reconciliation, and historical white washing that pervaded the country. The result of this glossing over are apparent even today, as I mentioned earlier this remarkable and unique historical figure still struggles to get full attention from authors, historians, and the public; the dearth of adult materials on Tubman's life and exploits is truly saddening.

To sum up, this biography is an excellent resource as well as a captivating read (although credit is due in no small part to the remarkable and fascinating nature of Harriet's life itself). The author understands the importance of Tubman as a largely forgotten historical figure and this perspective informs her writing in a crucial way. Do yourself a favor and read this book about one of America's truly great heroes, not another general who happened to be present at a critical battle or another president whose marble facade doesn't hold up well under historical scrutiny, but a truly brave a selfless hero who risked everything for her family and country even when no reward or even recognition was forthcoming.

Book on CD narrated by Bernadette Dunn

Subtitle: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

After two healthy boys, Rose and Joseph P Kennedy had a baby girl, whom they named Rosemary. She was apparently healthy and robust, but as she grew to toddler age, it was clear that her development lagged behind her siblings. Soon her younger sisters, Kathleen and Eunice, surpassed Rosemary’s capabilities, both physically and mentally.

Larson does a fine job of detailing Rosemary’s life, and that of the Kennedy family. Their ups, downs, successes and tragedies have been chronicled frequently, but little has been known about Rosemary.

The Kennedy’s did all they (and their money) could in order to provide sheltered educational opportunities for Rosemary, but as she grew up her behavioral issues exacerbated. When she was in her early twenties, Joe decided the best treatment was a newly touted operation – a frontal lobotomy. His expectation was that Rosemary’s emotional outbursts would stop, leaving her more docile and obedient. Unfortunately, the operation went awry, and Rosemary was left with severe mobility issues as well as extremely limited intellectual capacity. Joe eventually placed his oldest daughter at St Colletta’s School in Jefferson, Wisconsin, where she lived out her life in a private cottage, with two full-time caregivers.

Intent on building a political dynasty, Joe and Rose Kennedy insisted on keeping their oldest daughter’s condition a secret from all but a few close friends. Even Rosemary’s younger siblings knew little about her. Rose didn’t see her daughter for decades. Only Rosemary’s sister Eunice visited with any regularity. And Eunice, along with her children, worked to form several charities to care for and support those with mental, intellectual and mobility disabilities.

Bernadette Dunn does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She has clear diction and sets a good pace.

While you may know that President John F. Kennedy was one of nine children in a wealthy, ambitious, East Coast family, you likely haven't heard much about his sister, Rosemary, whom the family kept hidden away for most of her life. Due a congenital abnormality, or possibly her rather traumatic birth, Rosemary was mentally disabled and struggled from her earliest childhood to keep up with her siblings in their physical and intellectual endeavors, and the family went to great lengths to keep this knowledge secret.

Rosemary's story is tragic and highly disturbing. I had a visceral reaction to the imagery of a nurse spending two hours pushing Rosemary's tiny infant head back into her mother's womb, merely because a doctor had not yet arrived. The irony of Rosemary being lobotomized due to her perceived as a threat to family's political ambitions, while her mental and physical state following the procedure proved to be even more unacceptable, is really heartbreaking. Sadly, Rosemary wasn't the only child who suffered from having Joe and Rose Kennedy for parents: much of what all of the children experienced from their parents we would today consider emotional abuse. I kind of feel pity for them all.

# Rosemary
1. Be united in the home and outside it. It does no good to be disrespectful and rude to your spouse. What I learned from my parents marriage is that time May go on but miscommunication, ignoring, silent treatment and hurt do not make a happy one. Treating each other with respect, love,and a firm commitment to each other through being faithful in word, in thought, and in action. Never let the children split you up. Never let your disagreements as a couple be known outside the home and especially amongst your children or they will use it to separate you. Be open with your children yet honest in your relationship through keeping the lines of communication open in all areas feasible so that it is easier for others to ascertain where you are coming from.
2. Don’t control your children. Give them parameters to follow but otherwise let them be free.
3. Treat people with disabilities with honor and respect and learn from them. Never look down upon them or be rude. Always show kindness and care towards them and those around them.
4. Just because someone or a relative has a disabled family member does not mean that you should treat such person as disabled. They are a human being with feelings and emotions and thoughts of their own. Treat them as a valued member of society.

Biggest Takeaway

Treat your siblings right even those who are I’ll. Remember family first, family always. Reach out to your siblings and check on them. You are the cornerstone to healing the relationship between them and your parents. Keep working at it and it will bear fruit! Believe that.

What I Learned

What the Kennedy’s did to their daughter Rosemary by lobotomizing her was wrong. I think she should have been given the chance to go to a community where they knew how to care for disabled people through integrating them into society instead of leaviNg them in an institution. I liked how her siblings reached out and cared and made sure she was okay.

Quote in Summary

“Love those with differences from your own. You never know what blessings that individual has in store for you.”

nonfiction - biography of Civil Rights icon (daughter of a preacher from a share-cropping family in Mississippi) and history of the movement, and some of the long history of injustices and violence leading up to and throughout the movement.

well written and thorough, as well as inspiring, a portrait of a great lady and details about other important events and figureheads of the time. I haven't read the previous biographies written about Hamer, or her autobiography, so I can't say how this compares, but it was really good.½

Kate Clifford Larson has delivered a stirring and extremely readable biography of an extremely important and inspirational--though I expect not well enough known at this point--figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. Fannie Lou Hamer was the children of tenant farmers, and became one herself, in Jim Crow Mississippi. With very little education but with a burning drive to learn and an iron-willed dignity that would not allow her to sit still for the horrific realities of 1950s and 60s Mississippi, Hamer gradually became involved in the grass roots efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help rural Blacks attain voting rights in the face of furious, violent and often deadly resistance by segregationist whites. The book begins with the story of Hamer's childhood and family life, of necessity intertwined with an in-depth description of the depravities and horror of Jim Crow oppression, which was brutal and ubiquitous. When, as an adult, Hamer went into town to attempt to register to vote, she came home to find that her white landlord was promising to evict Hamer, along with her husband and children, unless she promised to go back to town the next day to rescind her registration. Hamer replied, "I registered to vote for me, not for you," and her landlord followed up on his threat. Later, in a Winona, Mississippi, jail cell, Hamer and four of her companions received vicious beatings, and Hamer was raped, for the crime of trying to integrate a bus stop diner. The beating left Hamer's health compromised for the rest of her life. But Hamer, due to her articulate, passionate speeches, her inspirational singing and her drive and inclusiveness, nevertheless became a powerful figure in the movement, to the extent that she was the keynote speaker before the Democratic National Committee when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a Black party organized to fight the seating of the fiercely segregationist Mississippi Democratic contingent at the 1964 Democratic Presidential Convention in Atlantic City in 1964.

In addition to being a wholly compelling biography of a fascinating figure, Larson's book also provides an important "from the inside" history of SNCC that compliments and in many ways expands upon the more global history of that organization, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson, which I read a year or two back. The biography also provides an effective description of the full deadly fury of Jim Crow. So in some ways the book is hard to get through, especially over the first 50 pages or so, as many of its details are horrific and depressing. Once Hamer moves into adulthood and begins her freedom-building activities, the book becomes a page-turner. This is one of the best, most fascinating, if sometimes depressing, biographies I've read over the past 10 years.½

This was a fascinating but heartbreaking read. I have never really read anything about the Kennedy family so the background on Joe and Rose Kennedy was really interesting but also set up the framework for the tragedy of being a Kennedy that didn't live up to their high standards. One can see why their children were very successful but also troubled. I know times were different then and our understanding of intellectual disabilities and mental health issues have come a long way but I think that only increases the sadness of this situation. I read somewhere that there was another book about Rosemary written around this same time but that this one was the better of the two and it was an engrossing read and I highly recommend it!

Truthfully, by the end I lost all respect for both Joe and Rose Kennedy. Yes, they suffered many hardships and losses, but in their desire for money, position, and power, they did a lot of harm to their own family. Joe comes over as a horrible man, Rose as a weak, spineless woman, and the harm that befell their oldest daughter was not necessary. I understand that it was a large family, but they had the money to do things better. Rosemary's birth was a real tragedy and I blame the doctor and nurse for that. Rose had to have been in such stress and pain, but afterwards she was more interested in their position than her own family.

The book was well written and the narration well done. I especially liked what was eventually done for the mentally handicapped by the family, especially Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her family.½

Joe Sr. was an awful man. Plain and simple.

This engaging biography uses diaries, correspondence, and family interviews to uncover Rosemary, who exhibited developmental delays & would later undergo a devastating lobotomy & the lengths gone to conceal her existence.

This was a book club selection. I found it interesting enough, although I would not have chosen to read it myself. What a bad period in time for the mentally challenged people of our country!

Heartbreaking story of a woman who affected one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in America in deep and wide-reaching ways. I alternated between being furious with her parents for what they did to her and realizing that in the 20s-40s when she grew up she was lucky to have the advantages their wealth and power brought. Deeply moving, tragic, and ultimately hopeful.

The conspirators treatment of Weichmann was just despicable. That being said, I really liked the book. Very interesting and well written.

Harriet Tubman stated that on the Underground Railroad she never ran her train off the track and never lost a passenger. But the strong, young, enslaved woman who took off from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to freedom in Pennsylvania and then returned time and time again to free her relatives, friends, and anyone else who was willing to escape slavery, was much more than a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She was also a mystic, a master of disguise and a spy, recruiter, nurse, and laundress for the Union Army during the Civil War. She was a close friend of Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Secretary of State William Seward, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Susan B. Anthony and other leaders in the Abolitionist and Woman’s Suffrage movement, and a tireless fundraiser for both causes.

John Brown referred to her as “General,” because of the qualities he saw in her: military leadership, organizing and recruiting skills. Four years after Brown’s execution in 1859 for his failed raid on Harpers Ferry, “On June 1, 1863 Tubman became the first woman to plan and execute an armed expedition during the Civil War.” She led a raid with three Union gunboats up the Combahee River in South Carolina to attack Confederate warehouses and stockpiles of grain. In addition to the stores destroyed in the raid, 756 slaves rushed to the gunboats eager to be taken as contraband. Most of whom then volunteered to join the United States Army.

Immediately after the war, she worked in Virginia as a nurse tending wounded soldiers, before returning to her home in Auburn, New York, where she continued to care for her parents, adopted daughter, and took in anyone who was down and out, especially former slaves. She worked as a speaker and fundraiser for Woman’s Suffrage, and civil rights for the newly emancipated citizens following the backlash of racism and violence that erupted following the end of Reconstruction. She continued to work to support herself and her household as a farmer, brickmaker or whatever she could do to make ends meet. Although a skillful fundraiser for causes that she believed in and fought for, she also gave away her own money to anyone who needed some, despite the urging of many of her prominent friends and supporters to keep some for herself.

When she died in 1913 her fame and place in American history was already established, but her reputation and importance, waxed and waned with time. Although she continued to be celebrated in children’s books throughout the twentieth century, only one biography for adult readers was published in 1943 after its author had been turned down by multiple prominent publishers who felt that there would be no market for it. Larson’s twenty-first century biography, so well written, and exhaustively researched is a joy for readers. It fills in much that was left out of earlier, and sometimes inaccurate, accounts of Tubman’s life.

This was the very sad story of Rosemary Kennedy, child number 3 and first girl in a family of 9. She was brain damaged at birth and for 20+ years the entire family tried to make her "normal." They provided the best care money could buy. However, in 1941, during the war, when the family was scattered, her father, Joe Kennedy, decided she should have a lobotomy and proceeded with it against the wishes of several members of the family. She was unable to walk, speak, etc. following that surgery. Very very sad.

I'm only giving this 3 stars because there is SO MUCH speculation by the author. I do a good enough job making up horrible stories in my own mind, I don't need an author adding their own. Just give me the facts.

If you want a biography that is almost strictly facts, this is it. There really is not much of a story - more a chronology of her life. It got boring reading about Rosemary going from one school to another especially for the wrong reasons. In the beginning it was about trying to help her but later it was an image issue for the parents who were social climbers. Her mother Rose is depicted as a caring but strict mother though later on the father took over charge of Rosemary while Rose spent lots of time at spas. Unfortunately that is when trouble happened with the lobotomy. Rosemary's sibling were her happiness as a youngster as well as a family friend. The results spurred the siblings to improve mental health issues. A lot of cheering for the Kennedy family by the end.

I LOVED this book!
The author's focus on Harriet and her community was beautifully done.
I can not reccomend this biography highly enough.

Rosemary Kennedy, the third child of Joe & Rose Kennedy, was born in 1918. The doctor was late in coming to the home birth, and a nurse instructed Rose to hold her legs together and not push, to delay the baby's arrival til the doctor could get there. This delay deprived Rosemary of oxygen, leaving her learning disabled and mentally challenged. The Kennedy family was wealthy and powerful. In that day and age, having a retarded or mentally ill family member was a stigma, an embarrassment that the Kennedy family did not want. Rosemary's mental challenges were kept a secret. She was moved from school to school for decades as her parents searched for a way to make her seem "normal.'' When it finally was realized that Rosemary would never reach the intelligence and poise of her siblings, her father made a chilling decision. He had Rosemary lobotomized. She lived the rest of her life tucked away in an institution in Wisconsin. Her personality and character almost completely erased. Rose Kennedy publicly stated that an "accident'' had rendered her daughter mentally incapacitated. The truth would not be revealed for decades.

I listened to the audiobook version of this biography by Kate Clifford Larson. Larson gives background on the parents, the family, and the competitive, demanding lifestyle of the Kennedy clan. Rosemary just didn't fit into the family, causing frustration for her parents and siblings. Decades were spent trying to "fix'' her, rather than help her live within her capabilities.

As a mother, this book was hard for me to take. I am so glad that I didn't grow up in an age where families hid children who weren't perfect and where there were no services or assistance to help them grow into functioning adults. And I was shocked that Joe Kennedy would choose to have his daughter lobotomized to keep her from embarrassing the family. What a horrific and terrible choice! Then he hid her away in an institution in the midwest and never saw her again. Wow -- how cold and callous. The political aspirations of his sons were more important than the life of his mentally challenged daughter....so he had her lobotomized. For 20 years nobody in the family asked where Rosemary was or attempted to visit her because Joe had complete control over his family. When he died, Rose and the family visited Rosemary and even brought her home for visits. Rose tried to say that she didn't realize what was done to Rosemary, but documents have since proven that was not the case.

Some good did come from the events though. The Kennedy family, especially Eunice Shriver, backed many important programs for special education, including the Special Olympics. In later years, the Kennedy siblings did admit that they had a retarded sister and that the care and quality of life for those with mental challenges should be a priority.

Rose Marie "Rosemary'' Kennedy died in the Wisconsin institution in 2005 at the age of 85.

This book does a great job of presenting facts about Rosemary's life, before and after her surgery. It details what the family did to educate and try to accommodate Rosemary's limitations and mood swings. Larson doesn't pull punches about how mental illness, retardation and physical deformities were considered a stigma, something to be hidden away. The concept of Eugenics was big at the time, and declared that any abnormalities were due to genetic inferiority. The Kennedy Clan kept Rosemary a secret to prevent any damage to the family's social standing. They weren't the only wealthy, powerful family to do so -- the practice was common. So sad. But later efforts by the Kennedy family paved the way for education programs, social services and much better care for mentally and physically challenged children and adults. I'm glad that some good came from the situation in the end. And, Rosemary was very well treated and loved by the nuns at the Wisconsin institution where she lived out the rest of her life.

The audiobook is narrated by Bernadette Dunne. She reads at a nice pace. Her voice is pleasant and easily understood. I have partial hearing loss, but was able to easily understand Dunne's reading. The audiobook is almost 8 hours in length.

Kate Clifford Larson presents a well-rounded history of Rosemary, and the Kennedy Family's attempts to help her. She gives details both from Rosemary's point of view and the family's. She also includes historical facts and the era's attitudes towards the mentally challenged to explain why certain decisions were made, not to excuse those choices. The book is very well researched and written, but disturbing.

This was a very interesting historical book. I have always been an Abraham Lincoln fan and had not read about Mary Surratt. I do believe she knew of the plan but how much is a mystery. Did she really need to be executed? I'm still not sure. Good read

Rosemary Kennedy was a very beautiful Kennedy daughter, but through circumstances of her birth, was intellectually challenged. Even though she was presented to the Queen of England as a debutante and traveled widely, she was unable to keep up with her siblings. In her twenties she became incorrigible and Joe Kennedy decided to lobotomize her which put her in a home for life. Most of this was kept from her brothers and sisters. When they eventually discovered her situation, this caused them to be a champion for those who were disabled.

EXCELLENT!

This book is more about Rosemary's parents than Rosemary, whose mental disabilities may have been due to a nurse pushing her back into the birth canal for two hours until a doctor finally arrived for her home birth in 1918.  Father Joe was apparently the one who approved her lobotomy in 1941 - he didn't research it enough and came across as having it done because Rosemary's behavior was becoming a potential problem for her brothers' political futures.  Mother Rose rarely visited her institutionalized daughter and often passed off care of her nine children to take vacations instead.  Bernadette Dunne does a good job reading the audiobook, but the print or electronic version is better because it includes photographs of Rosemary, as well as author Kate Clifford Larson's note (which explains her interest in Rosemary - she has a son with a mental illness), extensive endnotes, and an index.

What stands out the most to me from this book are:

What I learned about Rosemary's birth and how childbirth was handled by the medical profession at the time. Which made me angry as Rosemary's problems could have been avoided.

What I learned about the Kennedy family, especially Rosemary's mother. She had some extraordinary ways about her and some good and some not so good (IMO) methods for raising her large family.

That emphasis on education and high achievement worked well for most of the Kennedy children, but not Rosemary. It was heartbreaking to read (hear) in her own words her longing to do well and be accepted by her father. But of course she could never measure up.

Rosemary was sheltered but also included in the upper class life of a well connected family. Some of their decisions about her were to avoid family embarrassment or scandal. At times this was a sad read, but a fascinating as as it touched on many historical events and figures and brought out of the shadows a story that needs to be told so that it won't be repeated in the future.

Highly recommended, especially for those that like to read about history.

EXCELLENT!