| Two hundred thousand American soldiers at war | | | | He then narrates many of the images, many with |
| with troop surges that would rise to half a million. | | | | detailed captions. I was also surprised to see one |
| A shooting at the University of Texas that left 14 | | | | from my hometown of Everett, Washington, with |
| dead and thirty one others wounded. The | | | | a photographer from the then, Everett Daily |
| assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the Tet | | | | Herald, as he captures an image of Robert. |
| Offensive in Vietnam, the rise of Eugene | | | | The book is almost two hundred pages and is |
| McCarthy. A country with the enraged spirit of | | | | filled with many images that were never published. |
| the young that was not only felt in America, but | | | | Bills wife was cleaning out some boxes and ran |
| over most the world. | | | | across 2,000 photographs - in unopened boxes - |
| Does this sound like a familiar story? It was forty | | | | that were sent to him when Life magazine folded |
| years ago and still the politics of war and policies | | | | in 1972. Among them were 500 photos from his |
| of paranoia grip a nation. | | | | Kennedy assignment. |
| The one shining light that gave the nation hope | | | | Many images cover one and third pages and Bill |
| was extinguished before his time and Life | | | | was able to capture so many wonderful moments |
| Magazine Photographer Bill Eppridge was able to | | | | of Kennedy interacting with people from his |
| capture the enthusiasm and possibilities that | | | | convertibles that he insisted on using. Along with |
| Robert Kennedy brought to the country in "A | | | | isolated photos of faces in the crowds during his |
| Time it Was" | | | | speeches. |
| The book starts with a great introduction by | | | | Especially interesting is the contact sheet that |
| Author and Journalist, Pete Hamill. Pete was a | | | | recorded the scene in the ballroom, just before |
| friend of Robert Kennedy's and persuaded him to | | | | the shooting and right after with the infamous |
| run for President. He shares with the reader the | | | | photo of busboy Juan Romero holding Kennedy's |
| early beginnings of the campaign and details the | | | | head. Bill shares these last moments as he |
| night of joy in winning the California primary and | | | | explains frame by frame what he saw and |
| remembers the chant of "We want Bobby, we | | | | captured on film. |
| want Bobby" as Sirhan Sirhan stepped into the | | | | Those of us who were not old enough to |
| light and created another dark chapter in this | | | | understand the politics of the Sixties will get a |
| nations history. | | | | good visual history lesson. I also came away with |
| Bill Eppridge shares his story where he took a | | | | a sense what it must have been like to be a |
| photo of Bobby as he smoked a cigar on Air | | | | photojournalist with access during a simpler time. |
| Force one, during President Lyndon B. Johnson's | | | | Where everything is not so polished and |
| Northeast campaign tour. This was the first time | | | | perfected down to every minute detail. Where |
| a Life photographer was able to document an | | | | the world was in a crazy time like today, but |
| entire trip of the president of the United States. | | | | hope was just an election away. |