The life and achievements of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Law School alumnus of 1959, will soon be chronicled by Prof. Emeritus James Young in the Miller Center's Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project.\nThe project will be made up of more than 75 hours of past interviews with the senator, as well as interviews with 170 other political figures and friends of Kennedy, Young said.\nThe interviews were a part of a six-year, $3.5 million initiative to illuminate Kennedy's 46-year senatorial career. Kennedy himself first initiated the project in 2004 and selected the Miller Center to conduct the interviews, Young said, noting that the project evolved to focus on more than just Kennedy's senatorial career.\n"The point [Sen. Kennedy] wanted to get at was to make this instructive in the study of how laws are made and the legislative battles of our time," Young said.\nFurthermore, Young said Kennedy wanted the public to engage in a deeper understanding of how the Senate really works and hoped this project would lead to further study of the legislative body.\nYoung conducted all of the interviews with the senator from 2005 until 2008 - when the late senator was diagnosed with brain cancer - in both Washington, D.C. and the senator's home in Hyannis Port, Mass. Kennedy passed away Aug. 25.\n"We learned about Kennedy as a person, Kennedy as a legislator, Kennedy as a campaigner and Kennedy as a helper of people," Young said.\nHe also said the interviews reveal a different side to Kennedy that the public rarely experienced.\n"I think what you get is a more contemplative Kennedy that you don't see in the Senate, looking back over the history of his time and looking back over his own motivation and beliefs," he said.\nKennedy's role as a legislator contrasted greatly with that of a president, whose executive orders and vetoes, Young said, cannot be mimicked by senators, who must work with others and gain votes to pass a bill.\n"[Sen. Kennedy] understands that he can't command what he would like to see done," Young said. "He has to persuade others to do it; he has to pay attention to their views and their feelings."\nJanet Heininger, senior fellow for the project, said oral histories such as this one provide scholars with a chance to read between the lines and focus on the stories that are often left untold. As such, she said the interviews focus mainly on the gray areas of his life and political career. Heininger also noted, though, that almost everyone she spoke with, regardless of their accordance or disagreement with the senator's political views, remembered Kennedy with affection.\n"They had enormous respect for his ability, his dedication, his perseverance, and his unbelievable hard work," she said.\nBecause interviews are still being conducted, full transcripts from past interviews have yet to be released, Heininger said. These transcripts are subject to full revision by the subjects themselves, who can edit and add detail to their commentaries. Once this process is complete, the full transcripts will be released online, at the Miller Center Library and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, she said.
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