Johnson, Lyndon Baines

Dereliction of Duty : Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

Average customer rating:

Interesting subject matter, bad book
Recent history ignored - again
Made me realize that we might be heading in same direction!
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
Incisive & Devastating

Dereliction of Duty : Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
H. R. McMaster
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Southeast Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam
The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century
The Army and Vietnam

ASIN: 0060187956

Amazon.com

For years the popular myth surrounding the Vietnam War was that the Joint Chiefs of Staff knew what it would take to win but were consistently thwarted or ignored by the politicians in power. Now H. R. McMaster shatters this and other misconceptions about the military and Vietnam in Dereliction of Duty. Himself a West Point graduate, McMaster painstakingly waded through every memo and report concerning Vietnam from every meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to build a comprehensive picture of a house divided against itself: a president and his coterie of advisors obsessed with keeping Vietnam from becoming a political issue versus the Joint Chiefs themselves, mired in interservice rivalries and unable to reach any unified goals or conclusions about the country's conduct in the war.

McMaster stresses two elements in his discussion of America's failure in Vietnam: the hubris of Johnson and his advisors and the weakness of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dereliction of Duty provides both a thorough exploration of the military's role in determining Vietnam policy and a telling portrait of the men most responsible.

Book Description

"The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C." -- H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion)

Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning new analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on recently released transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. It also pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants.

Dereliction Of Duty covers the story in strong narrative fashion, focusing on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately deceived the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Congress and the American public.

Sure to generate controversy, Dereliction Of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting subject matter, bad book.......2007-04-03

The subject of the is book is very interesting, so I struggled through to the end (with plenty of skimming), but this guy can't tell a story. Too dry, too long, no sense of style.

Tayloe Nickey

Recent history ignored - again.......2007-03-24

This book presents a lacerating indictment of Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other ancillary characters in the run-up to the Vietnam War. Short sighted political thinking on the part of Johnson, equally short-sighted inter-service rivalries amongst the Joint Chiefs (as well as a failure to speak out in the face of idiotic strategic military decision making), and a hubristic sense of infallibility on the part of McNamara are described - with compelling historical evidence - as the key sources of the fiasco. The parallels with the war in Iraq are obvious. A disturbing work that once again demonstrates that far too many political and military leaders are seemingly incapable of (a) learning from history, and (b) acting on anything but the most narrow, short-term agendas - mostly centered around the advancement of their careers.

Made me realize that we might be heading in same direction!.......2007-02-18

I was blown away by DERILECTION OF DUTY, written and read by
H.R. McMaster . . . though written some 10 years ago, it is perhaps
even more relevant now than it was then because of the Iraq conflict.

McMaster, a West Point graduate, thoroughly researched the
decisions that led to the conflict in Vietnam . . . he points out that
we were repeatedly lied to as a nation, not only by President
Johnson, but by Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor, and a whole
host of other individuals.

In retrospect, I'm glad that "only" 58,000 Americans died
from that conflict . . . but what scared me the most in listening to
this book was that we seem to be heading in the same direction!

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".......2007-01-22

The above quotation from George Santayana perfectly explains why Major McMaster's 1997 book is so richly relevant today. The debacle that was the Viet Nam War is a story of hubris, intransigence, misplaced ideology and unbridled ego that led to the needless deaths of 58,209 American soldiers and over a million Vietnamese.

The war was predicated on a lie, maintained by lies and even today, thirty years later, most of what we think we know about the war turns out to be lies.

The war led to the downfall of at least two presidents, and even more importantly, world opinion toward the United States. Our national policy since the defeat in Hanoi has been one of "trying to recover our national dignity" at home and trying to rekindle trembling respect in the world community.

It is supremely ironic therefore that the policymakers who could benefit most from the lessons of Viet Nam seem not to have studied the facts behind the lies, and instead rely on some of the same failed advisors whose faulty military strategy got us into this mess. It is not only ironic but appalling.

Incisive & Devastating.......2007-01-14

This is the most incisively devastating book I have ever read on military history. When I finished reading it, I felt like I had taken a punch in the abdomen. Words like "riviting", "masterpiece" and "moving" tend to be wasted on most books, but not this one. This is a model in historical writing.

The book begins with the Kennedy administration and covers it in two chapters; most of the detail begins with Johnson's accession in Nov. 1963. As told here, nothing Kennedy did made America's entry into the Vietnam war inevitable, but JFK certainly did a lot to move us in that direction. Kennedy's administration is described as being complicit in the assassination of Diem, ending any semblance of political stability for good. Ironically, Kennedy is pictured as being nonchalant about the brutal murder of the South Vietnamese leader just a few weeks before his own assassination.

The remaining 293 pages take the reader through a detailed examination of what must have been every meeting that either Johnson and his advisors or the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had between Nov. 1963 and July 1965. He describes a process by which Johnson strictly prevented the most senior officers of the armed forces from participation in substantive discussions. Time after time they were presented with a final policy they had no hand in forming.

Secretary of Defense McNamara takes the heaviest fire, for while Johnson was both deceiver and deceived, McNamara was fully aware of differing views by members of the JCS and deliberately suppressed them, in some cases falsifying memos by presenting one copy to subordinates and then removing pages before giving it to Johnson, and the pages remaining would have McNamara's pre-formed policy.

Johnson is described as terrified that public discussion of his Vietnam policy would undermine his "Great Society" programs, always insisting that there was no change in policy from Kennedy even as U.S. involvement was dramatically escalated. Johnson also skillfully manipulated the JCS, taking advantage of inter-service rivalries, playing senior generals against one another. If only he had been as skillful in foreign policy.

Average customer rating:

Very good, though a little too much analysis
One of the best presidential biographies i've read
Good, but given unfettered access, should have been great
One Odd Dream
Well written tribute of a great President

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
Team of Rivals
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga
Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir
Truman

ASIN: 0312060270

Book Description

Doris Kearns Goodwin's classic life of Lyndon Johnson, who presided over the Great Society, the Vietnam War, and other defining moments the tumultuous 1960s, is a monument in political biography. From the moment the author, then a young woman from Harvard, first encountered President Johnson at a White House dance in the spring of 1967, she became fascinated by the man—his character, his enormous energy and drive, and his manner of wielding these gifts in an endless pursuit of power. As a member of his White House staff, she soon became his personal confidante, and in the years before his death he revealed himself to her as he did to no other.

Widely praised and enormously popular, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream is a work of biography like few others. With uncanny insight and a richly engrossing style, the author renders LBJ in all his vibrant, conflicted humanity.

Customer Reviews:

Very good, though a little too much analysis.......2007-06-19

When I bought this book, I was warned by a cousin of mine, who teaches history at GW, that the book would contain a lot of phsycology, and he was right.

Now, this is still a very good book, second only to Master of the Senate in terms of biographies about LBJ, but I found the phsycology a little bit boring. That is the only thing that prevents me from giving the book 5 stars.

There is a lot of interesting insight, helped along by the fatc that Goodwin knew LBJ, and interviewed him repeatedly. I would advise everyone interested in LBJ, the Presidency, Civil Rights, or Vietnam to read this book. It is great.

One of the best presidential biographies i've read.......2006-05-17

An amazing biography of a man who might have been one of the best presidents in our history had he not been seduced into the disaster of Vietnam.

Goodwin had unprecedented access to Johnson and weaves her personal insights into a well told story about a fascinating man.

Good, but given unfettered access, should have been great.......2006-01-21

Dr. Goodwin was given what few biographers, certainly presidential ones, rarely are: access. Both working in the Johnson Administration and working with LBJ in his later years on his memoirs she had numerous conversations with this highly controversial politician. She gives a balanced reveiw, especially given that her closeness early on in her career.

I found the book to be quite good and educational but very short of the other, more recent biographies that have done so well on Washington, Lincoln, Adams, and Jefferson. While Dr. Goodwin's credentials are beyond reproach, perhaps her writing in terms of narrative style, has imporved quite a bit from this book, written some thirty years ago. Do not misunderstand, it is well worth reading but it is not in the same league with "No Ordinary Time" or "Team of Rivals" - two great works of hers.

Two Chapters that are must reads are "The Great Society" and "Vietnam". Both give terrific insight into LBJ's mind when one looks back on the certain failures of the latter and many of the former and asks "what was the administration thinking?". Many questions to these can be found in those two tightly written chapters.

A book worth reading but certainly not "The" book on LBJ the way David Herbert Donald's was with "Lincoln".

One Odd Dream .......2005-06-07

Whatever your political views might be about this political party or another, there is no arguing that Lyndon Johnson had a long and productive political career. There is also no arguing that his personality was almost as large as the events that he took part in. All of this is covered by this very engaging and interesting one volume look into this presidents life. The author gives the reader a nice overview of LBJ's up bringing, takes you through his political life right to the presidential years. There is a constant battle within the book as to what was more interesting, the odd, ego driven and larger then life personality of LBJ or the significant issues that he covered especially during the presidential years.

What I found most interesting about this book was the view into LBJ's personality. It is surprising to me about just much of an egomaniac LBJ was. You have to wonder if it was the massive "me first" view of the world that gave him the ability to pass through the legislation he did or was his political skill such that it exaggerated his ego. Overall I found the book very enjoyable. There was a lot of great bits of info tossed in and the book did not get bogged down into legislative details. I did think that the authors admiration for LBJ seeped into the reporting, but overall it did seem fair. What I was left with was not a better view of his accomplishments, but just how unique a man he was. If you are interesting in LBJ, American Presidents or just the twentieth century, then I would recommend this book.

Well written tribute of a great President.......2004-12-10

A great biography of one of the greatest Presidents of the twentieth century. Lyndon Johnson, whether people like it or not, has left an indelible mark on American society with his programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, his tough and admirable stance on civil rights, and, in a very different way - his war in Vietnam.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, who first met Johnson while a student at Harvard, and became close to him in his later life, has written a book that is much a memoir of her times with the man as it is a general overview of his life. Other reviewers have complained that her study of Johnson is too psychological, and places too much importance on linking his childhood experiences to his later life. I strongly disagree. Too many biographies of important people seem to gloss over their childhood, but understanding a person's childhood is paramount in understanding how it shaped their outlook on life. Another common complaint of this book is that Goodwin is not critical enough of Johnson, but again, anyone who has read this book properly will know this is simply not true. Goodwin time and time again highlights Johnson's flaws - his tendency to withdraw from competition if he felt there was the slightest chance of him losing, his childlike love of power, and his inability to admit where he went wrong. If anything, I believe the author does not praise Johnson high enough.

Vietnam of course was a mistake, no one in their right mind would claim otherwise, but domestically, Johnson was an undeniably outstanding President. People have time and time again claimed that Vietnam was the main factor that undermined Johnson's Presidency, which I agree with, but I also think the other big mistake Johnson made was becoming President after Kennedy. Lacking his predecessor's good looks, charm and charisma, Johnson was never going to win over the American people in the way that Kennedy did. But his ingenious negotiating skills, his concern for the country's poor, and his stance on civil rights that saw him do more for African Americans than any other President in history barring Lincoln, means that Johnson was more than a worthy successor. His Great Society programs, while not as successful as he would have hoped, still helped in the fight against poverty. Even with Vietnam, many contemporary historians contend he had fewer options than was believed at the time, and the way Nixon initially handled the war before pulling out shows that Johnson should not be judged so harshly on the subject as he has been.

A beautifully written tribute to a great President and an equally fascinating character.

Flawed Giant: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960-1973

Average customer rating:

A dry take on a fascinating time
Greatness and Disenchantment
Well written, comprehensive, and timely but depressing
Johnson Placed the USA Squarely in the Vietnam Morass
Lack of true leadership

Flawed Giant: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960-1973
Robert Dallek
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960 Volume 1 (Lone Star Rising)
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President
Nixon Reconsidered
President Nixon: Alone in the White House

ASIN: 0195054652

Amazon.com

In the opening pages of Flawed Giant, readers meet a downtrodden politician whose greatest ambition--the presidency--is tantalizingly close but seemingly out of reach. JFK's elder by almost 20 years, Johnson was a reluctant and unenthusiastic vice president. When he finally realized the office, his satisfaction there was marred by his difficulty in reconciling his deeply held beliefs and political expediency. In this sequel to the critically acclaimed Lone Star Rising, biographer Robert Dallek concentrates on Johnson's White House years. In addition to expertly covering the major events of Johnson's presidency, Dallek probes lower-profile episodes that help expose Johnson's character. His agonizing search for a vice president in 1964 is one such example--in order to salve his ego, Johnson was adamant that he should win reelection without a Kennedy on the ticket and resisted both the Democratic party and Robert Kennedy right up until the convention.

Dallek is skilled at laying bare the man's complicated and even contradictory nature. At diplomacy, Johnson often seemed like a loud, brash American, yet successful trips to Southeast Asia and Africa as vice president prove his occasional adroitness in this area. One of Johnson's Achilles' heels, it seems, was paranoia; a firm believer in the fact that knowledge is power, Johnson rarely communicated his true intentions or feelings, even to his closest confidants or cabinet members, until the last. And he secretly tape-recorded thousands of conversations with people at all levels of government. Dallek avers that Johnson's impenetrability is the reason why much of his action on Vietnam defies explanation. And the dark cloud of the war now largely obfuscates Johnson's impressive congressional record. Careful to neither vilify nor deify his subject, Dallek devotes large sections of the book to both Vietnam and Johnson's major accomplishments in the area of reform and funding for programs such as civil rights, Medicare, clean air and water, the NEA, public broadcasting, and food stamps.

This engrossing biography is peppered throughout with snippets of its subject's trademark: colorfully idiomatic speech that brings him vibrantly to life. Based upon exclusive interviews with Lady Bird Johnson and Bill Moyers, as well as recently released papers and transcripts, Dallek's biography is a major contribution to the collective understanding of this man whose passions had a major impact on American society.

Book Description

Lone Star Rising, the first volume in Robert Dallek's biography of LBJ, was hailed as "a triumphant portrait of Lyndon Johnson as rich and oversized and complex as the nation that shaped him." Now, in the final volume, Dallek takes us through Johnson's tumultuous years in the White House, his unprecedented accomplishments there, and the tragic war that would be his downfall. In these pages Johnson emerges as a character of almost Shakespearean dimensions, a man riddled with contradictions, a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven: "A tornado in pants." Drawing on hundreds of newly released tapes and extensive interviews with those closest to LBJ--including fresh insights from Ladybird and his press secretary Bill Moyers--Dallek takes us behind the scenes to give us a portrait of Johnson that is at once even-handed and completely engrossing. We see Johnson as the visionary leader who worked his will on Congress like no president before or since, enacting a range of crucial legislation, from Medicare, environmental protection, and the establishment of the National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities to the most significant advances in civil rights for black Americans ever achieved. And we see for the first time the depth of Johnson's private anguish as he became increasingly ensnared in Vietnam, a war he did not want to expand and which destroyed his hopes for The Great Society and a second term. Exhaustively researched and gracefully written, Flawed Giant reveals both the greatness and the tangled complexities of one of the most extravagant characters ever to step onto the presidential stage.

Customer Reviews:

A dry take on a fascinating time.......2005-12-04

I sped through last year reading all three mammoth books in Robert A. Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning LBJ biography series, and found them an incredibly readable, detailed portrayal of a man who was half megalomaniac, half incredibly gifted politician, a complex American Shakespearean character whose presidency crumbled into self-induced tragedy. Caro hasn't written the final book in his series yet concentrating on LBJ's presidency, so I decided to check out a competing LBJ biography by Dallek focusing on those years. And it's solid history, with great insight into LBJ's character and the disastrous decisions he made in Vietnam that undermined all the powerful social changes he achieved in civil rights and Medicare. Yet "Flawed Giant" is also kind of a slog, which Caro's books weren't. I can't quite put my finger on it, but Dallek lacks the fluid prose, deft research into place and era, and storytelling talent that Caro brought to LBJ - I was able to read hundreds of pages about dry as toast subjects like congressional redistricting and vote tallies and found them compelling reading under Caro. Yet here, I ended up getting bored silly by Dallek's bland recitation of the ups and downs of Vietnam, which you think would be interesting stuff. Dallek is a bit more even-handed in his appreciation of LBJ than Caro, but it just all felt a little too much like work. Guess it goes to show that it's as much in the storyteller as it is in the story. I'll be eagerly awaiting Caro's take on this same era, whenever it comes out.

Greatness and Disenchantment.......2005-11-16

Robert Dallek completes his two volume biography of Lyndon B. Johnson with "Flawed Giant". Its a well written book that tells the story of a brilliant politician who is overwhelmed and outmatched by events he failed to anticipate.

The book begins with Johnson in the unhappy position of serving as Vice President under John F. Kennedy. A most difficult place for a man of Johnson's ego and stature to find himself. Nevertheless, Johnson struggles and does the best he can with this job obtaining recognition in his efforts to further U.S. diplomacy abroad and advance the space program.

On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy is assassinated and Johnson becomes President. No one could ever accuse Johnson of not seizing the moment and this he does masterfully. Within a year, he obtains passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a number of domestic initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and improving quality of life for Americans that become known as the "Great Society". Johnson's accomplishments as President all took place during the first two years of his presidency. Some of those accomplishments include the Head Start Program for disadvantaged children, a federal student loan program for college students, the Job Corps program for kids who dropped out of school, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which enfranchised millions of blacks, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Medicare.

Johnson proves his skill as a politician by defeating opponent Barry Goldwater with almost 62% of the vote in the 1964 election. Unfortunately, these same skills waned as time went on. By the end of 1965, the positive accomplishments of the Johnson Presidency had come to an end. Johnson inherited the Vietnam War from his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. However, he made a series of mistakes after doing so. First, he concluded that America had to hold onto South Vietnam and prevent a "take over" by the North. He never grasped that the conflict was not an attack by the communist world upon the free world, but simply a regional civil war that had gone for decades. Second, he failed to grasp early on that the conflict was not winnable by conventional means, so he committed 500,000 American soldiers. Third, he failed to understand that the American people wouldn't stand idly by for years supporting such a war with no measurable progress being made. Fourth, he failed to consider steps such as simply withdrawing when it did become apparent that the war was unwinnable.

As the Johnson Presidency unfolds, the accomplishments of the Great Society are overwhelmed by the Vietnam War. Johnson finally realizes his mistake at the end of his presidency. He announces he won't run again and initiates peace talks with North Vietnam.

One must look at Johnson carefully and not jump to conclusions. He was a complicated man who did much good during his presidency. Sadly, though, he will most likely be remembered for the Vietnam War which cost America 58,000 lives.

Well written, comprehensive, and timely but depressing.......2005-09-08

Over the last several years I've read more than 30 presidential biographies, usually letting Amazon reader's guide me to the best choice. While I would place Dallek's LBJ Volume 1 in the top five presidential biographies, Volume two is not quite in the same class. Dallek continues to write well, and I think he presents a complex man and a very difficult time in a balanced way. But over half of this biography details the morass of Viet Nam, and it is truly depressing to read as Johnson and his advisers relentlessly lead the country over the cliff.

During the first two years of LBJ's presidency he led the US Congress to pass some of the most significant legislation in our history - Medicare, greatly increased low income housing, legal aid, increased funding for education and student loans, the most important civil rights legislation of the 20th Century, and the Great Society legislation, a muddled effort to end poverty.

Then, slowly and inexorably LBJ took the US deeper and deeper into Viet Nam. Dallek argues that whatever other geo-political factors were involved, LBJ's drive to be a great president and his fear of failing made the Viet Nam catastrophe inevitable. Johnson simply could not admit to being the first president to lose a war, he couldn't cope with the reality of the corruption of Viet Nam's leadership, and he couldn't stand to be honest in telling the American people just how poorly the war was going. Dallek presents a president who was increasingly paranoid of a nonexistent communist menace influencing the anti-war movement and of Bobby Kennedy leading JFK's ghost to steal LBJ's legacy.

Today, there are numerous editorials comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam (or denying any comparison). I've yet to see an article comparing President Bush to LBJ, and in most ways they are polar opposites. Still, this biography is very timely. There are unmistakable similarities between America's descent into the two wars, Iraq and South Viet Nam's lack of resources to provide leadership to their own people, our leaders' reluctance to level with the US, the isolation each president sought to avoid criticism, and a society that was so polarized by other issues that it is somehow ok to not take an objective look at the facts of the war.

Johnson Placed the USA Squarely in the Vietnam Morass.......2005-05-15

Capt. Lance Sijan, USAF Medal of Honor winner, was tortured to death while a captive in a North Vietnam prison. Gerry Coyle, Army PFC, died in Tay Ninh . Bill Fahey, Marine PFC, died in Quang Tri . Leo Matylewicz, an Army Spec 4, had his body literally blown to pieces in Kontum. Dave Rozelle was killed in Quang Tri while a Marine Lance Corporal. Tom Malloy, Army Spec 4, died in Bien Hoa. Mike Turose's body was never recovered for a return home or even a burial when his F-4 was shot down over North Vietnam. Dick Christy was killed over Cambodia when his forward air control aircraft was shot down. Mike Bosiljevac's remains were not recovered until Vietnam opened up to allow forensic search teams years after the war was over - 20 years after he was shot down over North Vietnam. Mike Blassie's remains were placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. in 1998 DNA testing identified the remains as Mike. He had been shot down over An Loc.
Why do I list these men killed in Vietnam as the introduction to this review of Robert Dallek's biography of Lyndon Johnson - "Flawed Giant"? Because Lyndon Johnson as President of the United States from Jack Kennedy's assassination until 1968 might as well have pulled the trigger or pressed the button that sent them to their deaths. Jane Fonda may have posed on the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft weapons but Lyndon Johnson placed those men in harm's way - for no reason other than his fantastic ego. Let me quote Dallek's afterword:
"Vietnam was a larger mistake. It was the worst foreign policy disaster in the country's history. Aside from the sacrifice of the many brave men and women who lost their lives or suffered because of the conflict, there seems nothing heroic about the struggle. ... Vietnam was a morass. The battlefield clashes and constant discussions in Washington and Saigon about the war were a confusion leading nowhere. ... the planning for Vietnam led to unproductive commitments in what came to seem like an open-ended conflict.
...
"The principal products of administration discussions about the fighting were false hopes, self-generated illusions, and paranoid fears of domestic opponents, who were not the Communist dupes Johnson believed them to be but men and women devoted to the national security and well-being as anyone in the government and military."
"Johnson knew from the first that he might be pursuing a losing case in Vietnam."
"Even less flattering to LBJ is the reality that he also pursued the war for selfish motives. To admit failure on so big an issue as Vietnam would have been too jarring to Johnson's self-image as a can-do leader."
During the 1964 presidential campaign when Johnson ran against Goldwater, one of the Democrat slogans was "If you vote for Goldwater your sons will be in Vietnam." Well, my parents voted for Goldwater and I ended up in Vietnam.
This book covers the years from 1961 to Johnson's death in 1973. Of course there is more than Vietnam. Johnspn's outstanding record on civil rights is well covered. But, for me, I cannot help but think about being in the Boy Scouts with Mike Turose and wondering what our futures would be after we got out of engineering school. Fortunately for me. I ended up with a future. Thanks to Lyndon Johnson, Mike didn't.

Lack of true leadership.......2005-03-22

Dallek presents a sympathetic yet accurate portrait of Johnson's time in the White House. I was amazed at the weight given to political considerations by Johnson and his administration. Johnson's focus on his Great Society programs and re-election trumped his concerns over American men sacrificing their lives in Vietnam. The lasting impression I got from Johnson's handing of Vietnam was that he was completely befuddled and hoped the problem would resolve itself with the insertion of more men and more money. Grave foreign crisis require leaders. Unfortunately for the people of America, Johnson was not up to the task. Dallek's portrait of Johnson shows a President unwilling (or unable?) to make the hardest decisions in the realm of foreign affairs.

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage)

Average customer rating:

Caro strikes again with another masterful biography
Master of Biographies
Johnson or the Senate?
Engrossing read.
To understand how legislatures exercise power, look no further

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage)
Robert A. Caro
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2)
The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Truman
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream

ASIN: 0394720954
Release Date: 2003-04-25

Amazon.com

Robert Caro's Master of the Senate examines in meticulous detail Lyndon Johnson's career in that body, from his arrival in 1950 (after 12 years in the House of Representatives) until his election as JFK's vice president in 1960. This, the third in a projected four-volume series, studies not only the pragmatic, ruthless, ambitious Johnson, who wielded influence with both consummate skill and "raw, elemental brutality," but also the Senate itself, which Caro describes (pre-1957) as a "cruel joke" and an "impregnable stronghold" against social change. The milestone of Johnson's Senate years was the 1957 Civil Rights Act, whose passage he single-handedly engineered. As important as the bill was--both in and of itself and as a precursor to wider-reaching civil rights legislation--it was only close to Johnson's Southern "anti-civil rights" heart as a means to his dream: the presidency. Caro writes that not only does power corrupt, it "reveals," and that's exactly what this massive, scrupulously researched book does. A model of social, psychological, and political insight, it is not just masterful; it is a masterpiece. --H. O'Billovich

Book Description

The most riveting political biography of our time, Robert A. Caro’s life of Lyndon B. Johnson, continues. Master of the Senate takes Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 through 1960, in the United States Senate. Once the most august and revered body in politics, by the time Johnson arrived the Senate had become a parody of itself and an obstacle that for decades had blocked desperately needed liberal legislation. Caro shows how Johnson’s brilliance, charm, and ruthlessness enabled him to become the youngest and most powerful Majority Leader in history and how he used his incomparable legislative genius--seducing both Northern liberals and Southern conservatives--to pass the first Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction. Brilliantly weaving rich detail into a gripping narrative, Caro gives us both a galvanizing portrait of Johnson himself and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings of legislative power.

Customer Reviews:

Caro strikes again with another masterful biography.......2007-05-17

The third installment of the years of Lyndon Johnson takes readers deeper into his character and reveals an interesting time in United States history. The first 100 pages of this book are an overview of the Senate's history and Caro tries to show how tradition bound the Senate is. Lyndon Johnson's battles and dominance over men are shown once again and this time he appears a little more likeable. Johnson is still cold and calculating and hard to like but he is looking more human. His stance on civil rights is purely political but you can see some compassion when he feels groups are mistreated. The battles of the South, west, and northern liberals in his own party are fascinating to read about. Caro has as always done his homework and his efforts to show you how even a simple water rights bill impact civil rights are well illustrated. It is over 1000 pages of readable material so this is not for the faint of heart. If you do undertake to read the book however you will not be disappointed. LBJ's hopes at the 1956 convention are dashed when the convention nominates Stevenson yet again and he is unable to secure the VP post. This book ends before the 1960 convention but does show his last year's in the Senate where LBJ returns to his old ways of dominating men. Overall this was an excellent book and very enjoyable.

Master of Biographies.......2007-03-17

This is the best biography I have ever read! I bought this book hoping for a nice, readable biography of LBJ. I got not only that, but also an incredible history of the Senate, short biographies of Leland Olds and Richard Russel, and 300 pages about the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This book, despite its length, is very easy to read, and I sped through it. I'm now waiting desperatley for the last volume, which is going to be called The Presidency.

Johnson or the Senate?.......2007-03-06

I bought this book because Caro's biography of LBJ is masterful. But if I had zero interest in LBJ, I'd have been thrilled with the understanding it provides of the Senate.

And, if you are a partisan, be prepared - this book shows the failings of both parties in the 20th century US Senate. It won't help you "prove" one party is better than another.

Engrossing read........2007-02-08

As a Senate staffer many of my colleagues suggested Master of the Senate for a comprehensive history of the modern institution. Although I have yet to read the first two installments of the Lyndon Johnson series Caro's depiction of the Senate and the labrythine of parliamentary rules that stood in the way of Civil rights legislation is fascinating and enough to make me read his other installments. Although a reader might find oneself hating the institution and many members (Richard Russell for example) for their intransigence for progressive civil rights legislation, invariably, you find yourself understanding the potential power of the institution and those that have been able to utilize that power. Brilliant read.

To understand how legislatures exercise power, look no further.......2006-11-16

Master of the Senate is the payoff for the previous two volumes, just as Johnson's Senate career is his payoff for almost 30 years of politicking. We see him in a political institution whose potential has gone unexploited. We see him understand the structure of the place better than anyone alive at the time or, possibly, alive before him. We see him take the job of majority whip when no one wanted it, because no one understood the power that was available from that position, and watch him mercilessly exercise that power on those around him. It is, I suggest, impossible for anyone -- or at least any male -- to read Caro's books and root against Johnson. It's the story of a man harnessing power, spiced up every now and again by stories about the sex that that power bought him -- in particular with Alice Glass, whom many people in the books describe as the most beautiful woman they have ever seen. Which male could resist smiling and feeling envious? (An exception: I think it would be very hard for anyone, male or female, to support Johnson against Coke Stevenson while reading Means of Ascent.)

But these books aren't just the story of one man; if that wasn't clear in the first two books, it's certainly clear in Master of the Senate. This is an institution that had, for nearly 150 years, been a joke: old, doddering men arguing endlessly and deciding on nothing, stalling all forward progress on civil rights as the South dominated, and occasionally calling into question the entire basis of our republican system of government; if the Executive Branch is the branch that does all the work, and a bunch of sleepy octogenarians kill all progress, then perhaps we've got this democracy thing all wrong. I now understand that the Senate's label of the "World's Greatest Deliberative Body" was probably not intended as a compliment.

The basis of this (intentional) slowness in governance, Caro notes, is its tradition of unlimited debate. The Framers intended the Senate to be a check on the passions of the grimy masses, with all the positive and negative connotations that go along with that. Caro's pervasive fairness brings out both the benefits and the harms that this endless deliberation delivers. The tradition of filibustering -- only possible in the Senate, and only then possible because unlimited debate is allowed -- killed civil-rights legislation for 100 years. But unlimited debate also cooled the public's desire for blood when Douglas MacArthur returned from Korea. And it's here that Caro delivers his best punches.

Through careful, plodding deliberation, the Senate managed to convince the American people that even their hero MacArthur may not have understood the dangers he was getting into by provoking the Chinese. MacArthur attacked President Truman quite publicly for following a policy of "appeasement" in Korea, but prolonged questioning revealed that MacArthur -- by his own admission -- wasn't thinking outside of the immediate theatre of war in which he was fighting. When asked whether intervention in China would lead to Russian advances on Europe, or a Russian invasion of Japan, MacArthur gave no satisfactory answer. Into this vacuum moved George Marshall and Dean Acheson to present the Truman Administration's case that they were thinking of the wider world, and MacArthur simply wasn't. They won the battle of ideas, and Caro makes the case brilliantly that this battle could only have been fought in the U.S. Senate. For all its failings, it's filling a role that the House could never hope to fill.

Caro's understanding of legislative power fills a vacuum, as he points out: everyone understands viscerally how executive power works (this is the power of guns, and of individual men pounding out policies), but few have studied legislative processes. Caro's study is brilliant, and should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand American history or power politics.

Average customer rating:

LBJ and revisionist history
Giant book for a Giant of a Man
First Rate History
Little in which to have confidence
Sound Premise, Lousy Editing

LBJ: Architect of American Ambition
Randall Woods
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power
FDR
Mellon: An American Life
Andrew Carnegie

ASIN: 0684834588

Book Description

For almost forty years, the verdict on Lyndon Johnson's presidency has been reduced to a handful of harsh words: tragedy, betrayal, lost opportunity. Initially, historians focused on the Vietnam War and how that conflict derailed liberalism, tarnished the nation's reputation, wasted lives, and eventually even led to Watergate. More recently, Johnson has been excoriated in more personal terms: as a player of political hardball, as the product of machine-style corruption, as an opportunist, as a cruel husband and boss.

In LBJ, Randall B. Woods, a distinguished historian of twentieth-century America and a son of Texas, offers a wholesale reappraisal and sweeping, authoritative account of the LBJ who has been lost under this baleful gaze. Woods understands the political landscape of the American South and the differences between personal failings and political principles. Thanks to the release of thousands of hours of LBJ's White House tapes, along with the declassification of tens of thousands of documents and interviews with key aides, Woods's LBJ brings crucial new evidence to bear on many key aspects of the man and the politician. As private conversations reveal, Johnson intentionally exaggerated his stereotype in many interviews, for reasons of both tactics and contempt. It is time to set the record straight.

Woods's Johnson is a flawed but deeply sympathetic character. He was born into a family with a liberal Texas tradition of public service and a strong belief in the public good. He worked tirelessly, but not just for the sake of ambition. His approach to reform at home, and to fighting fascism and communism abroad, was motivated by the same ideals and based on a liberal Christian tradition that is often forgotten today. Vietnam turned into a tragedy, but it was part and parcel of Johnson's commitment to civil rights and antipoverty reforms. LBJ offers a fascinating new history of the political upheavals of the 1960s and a new way to understand the last great burst of liberalism in America.

Johnson was a magnetic character, and his life was filled with fascinating stories and scenes. Through insights gained from interviews with his longtime secretary, his Secret Service detail, and his closest aides and confidants, Woods brings Johnson before us in vivid and unforgettable color.

Customer Reviews:

LBJ and revisionist history.......2007-06-13

Randall B. Wood's brilliant biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson was ten years in the making, but came out at exactly the right time. As is the case with George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson's administration was undermined by a war that became deeply unpopular: "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" became a popular chant, and though the sloganeers of the sixties were better than those of today, the sentiment is exactly the same. As Wood shows, the Vietnam war had profound consequences for LBJ's administration, in the same way Iraq is having disastrous consequences for George W. Bush.

There the similarity ends for the two presidents from Texas. LBJ's days were marked by what may be called a "revolution from below." Profound attention was paid to the needs of the poor and blacks in Johnson's Great Society programs. nd in a glaring difference with what is occurring today, the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 really changed the lives of the less well to do, so that far fewer of them went into bankruptcy, as they had in Johnson's growing up years in east Texas. The ush years have been, by contrast, marked by the increasing inaccessibility of the best medicare care to the poor, along with profound pressures on middle-class and poor Americans who just can't afford to pay for private health insurance.The Bush administration has been inclined to ascribe rising medical costs to innovation that allows doctors to do more. But this is only part of the story. The other part is a tendency for Washington to allow the healthcare industry to charge more and more.

What is most fascinating about the Woods biography is the demonstration that Lyndon Johnson was profoundly influenced by his family's embrace of early 20th century progressivism.And it wasn't always easy. his father, deeply in debt, and an alcoholic to boot, stood up against the Ku Klux Klan. He very easily could have been murdered. As a state legislator, Sam Ealy, Jr. always voted against moneyed interests in the state. LBJ's mother, Rebekah, had been a reporter for an Austin newspaper, a prolific reader her entire life, and probably would have felt comfortable with today's social justice Christians. In his early twenties, Johnson spent more than a year teaching and becoming the principal of a small school made up of poor Mexican children. He never forgot them.

The book is not all about doing good. Johnson's womanizing, abusiveness and egoism all come out very clearly, but Woods's complex, 900 page biography carefully and intelligently demonstrates the full measure of Johnson's prolific talent. "He (LBJ) is far ahead of most of the intellectuals--especially those Northern liberals who have beco0me, in the name of the highest motives, the new apologists for segregation," writer Ralph Ellison wrote in a magazine interview i early 1967. "President Johnson's speech at Howard University spelled out the meaning of full integration for Negroes in a way that no one, no President, not Lincoln nor oosevelt, no matter how much we love and respected them, has ever done before."

Giant book for a Giant of a Man.......2007-03-13

Informative and absorbing, "LBJ: Architect of American Ambition" is certainly one of the best bios I've read in a while. Woods' narration, though somewhat uneven at times, never loses focus on the long reach of Johnson's ambition, which is apparent from his boyhood to the halls of Congress, and throughout his controversial presidency. Not content with only explaining his forceful and often manipulative methods, Woods allows the reader to dive into LBJ's mind to explore the (largely) altruistic motivations behind his eccentric, almost schizophrenic behaviors.

Heralding over an era that he envisioned as a continuation of FDR's New Deal, LBJ's dreams came crashing under the events of the tumultuous 60s; that of Vietnam and urban riots. To paraphrase a comment once made by the father of a friend of mine, no political figure fit the mold of a Shakespearean Tragedy as LBJ did.

While I agree that the editing was most certainly shoddy and that Woods' standing as a historian gives him little room to allow such careless mistakes, I must respectfully contend that the book should not suffer anything more than a 2-star deduction as other reviewers have done. Save for situations in which an author is purposefully misleading or misconstruing the facts to push foward an agenda, such errors seem more benign in nature, and as such, context should be the focus. Should I use this book as a source for a future paper and/or project, I'll be sure to take note to double-check for accuracy; but as a more casual reader looking for a book to bring this character to life, I found that Woods' overall style accomplished that objective.

This book tells his story in a way that is sympathetic to his cause, but unflinching in revealing Johnson's flaws in more ways than one. With such a larger-than-life character as its subject, I can only hope a revised edition is not too far ahead in the future.

First Rate History.......2007-02-04

This is a substantial book--both in its length of 884 pages and the character of the man that it records. LBJ was an enormously controversial President--albeit not as much as this fellow that is presently "Occupying" the White House. He was hated on the left for his hawkishness on the Vietnam War. He was hated on the right because he was an FDR Democrat and was big on civil rights. Something that conservatives fought tooth and nail during that period of time--I know, I lived thru that period of time, and I remember it quite well.

Johnson was a tragic figure. A President who tried to do very much good for poor people and civil rights, but was brought low by the Vietnam War and his fear of being labeled a "Communist appeaser" by the rabid right of that time. Time does not see to have improved the right's disposition--or judgment for that matter.

Woods records Johnson's lamentable personal infidelities towards his wife, his overbearing and immature egotism, and his larger than life presence in his social and political environments. Despite all of his many faults, he always maintained a sincere and deep concern for the least amongst us. Along with his egotism, he was also a profound idealist. He truly believed that by promoting the right government policies that he could help change and transform America for the better. And he was capable of delivering. Whether it was civil rights, the war on poverty, job corps, the beginnings of environmental oversight by the federal government. He was a true successor of FDR.

A fair and sympathetic book about a most interesting man and extremely able President. If you believe that the civil rights legislation was a worthy endeavor, then you might want to read this book to get some idea of one of the two--along with Martin Luther King--main architects of the civil rights revolution of the 60's. Additionally, Woods gives a very good overview about how Johnson was pulled deeper and deeper into Vietnam--against his better judgment.

Little in which to have confidence.......2006-12-09

Almost all reviewers acknowledge that this book is well written but filled with factual errors. The real debate is over how important the errors are. I think they are very important for two reasons. First, the number of errors and kinds of errors suggest the author does not have a grasp of his subject. If this historian knew his period, he would not have made most of these mistakes in the first place, and if he did, he would have caught them himself in a less fatigued moment. Didn't he even read his own manuscript? Accuracy is the responsibility of the author, not the editor. These errors just would not have slipped by a competent historian, not in these numbers. Second, if the reader finds that what he or she knows about is wrong, how can the reader have confidence in what he or she doesn't know about? The short answer is one can't. There is no way of knowing if what this author says is right or wrong. For these reasons, the whole book is unreliable. Interesting as it is, and it is very interesting, one just can't have confidence in it. This is not trivial. This is not an editorial problem. This is fundamental. Too bad. The author is trying to make an important argument that needs making. In more reliable hands, this book would have been an enormous contribution to the literature, perhaps a masterpiece.

Sound Premise, Lousy Editing.......2006-12-02

As one who believes Lyndon Baines Johnson was an effective, significant president. I looked forward to reading this book. Many of the books that have been written about President Johnson tend to focus on his shortcomings. I believe that while Vietnam is the "elephant in the room" that will forever be a part of his legacy (in a negative sense), it is important to remember that Johnson was a remarkable political leader. He led the United States Senate like no one did before him or anyone has since. Robert Caro's Master of the Senate covers Johnson's 12 years in the Senate and ranks along T. Harry Williams Huey Long as one of the finest books ever written about modern American politics. As president, Johnson provided the leadership that resulted in Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, federal funding of education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Randall Woods provides a sympathetic and highly readable biography of LBJ. However, his work is marred by a litany of sloppy factual errors that are to say the least, distracting. Early on, Woods refers to Jackie Kennedy's green blood stained dress. The dress was pink. He refers to Alabama Senator John Stennis. John Stennis represented Mississippi. Woods states that Frank Lausche reprented Indiana in the United States Senate. Lausche represented Ohio. The book locates the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy at the Embassy Hotel. In reality, the assassination took place at the Ambassador Hotel. Albert Jenner is listed as being a senator from Indiana, when in fact, the senator in question was named William. It is not uncommon to find one or two errors in a book from time to time. However...there were so many in LBJ:Architect of American Ambition, one has to seriously question whether or not this book was edited or proofread by anyone. So, while I would give the book a B+ for content and overall understanding and interpretation of the subject, the editing is among the worst I have ever seen in a political biography.

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)

Average customer rating:

Get The Dirt On Lyndon
Amazing biography
Lyndon Johnson, Part 1
Dissecting The Bunton Strain
Hissstorical

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)
Robert A. Caro
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2)
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage)
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Truman
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream

ASIN: 0679729453
Release Date: 1990-02-17

Amazon.com

The profound understanding of the uses and abuses of power Robert Caro displayed in his 1974 biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker, is a scathing achievement the author surpassed with panache in this, his second book. Caro's dogged research and refusal to accept received wisdom results in an eye-opening portrait that unforgettably captures the titanic personality of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973). Though stronger on Johnson's duplicity and naked self-promotion than his intelligence and charm, Caro nails it all. He chronicles the evolution of an attention-demanding youth from the Texas hill country into a seasoned congressman who would abandon his ardent espousal of the New Deal as soon as it ceased to be expedient. The dirty details begin with college elections that earn young Lyndon a reputation as a crook and a liar; Caro goes on to unravel financial shenanigans of impressive ingenuity. Johnson's consuming desire to get ahead and his political genius "unencumbered by philosophy or ideology" are staggering. The White House, Great Society, and Vietnam lie ahead when the main narrative closes in 1941, but the roots of Johnson's future achievements and tragic failures are laid bare. This biography may well stand as the best book written in the second half of the 20th century about personal ambition inextricably linked with historic change. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered. In this book, we are brought as close as we have ever been to a true perception of political genius and the American political process.

Means of Ascent, Book Two of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, was a number one national best seller and, like The Path to Power, received the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Customer Reviews:

Get The Dirt On Lyndon.......2007-06-21

Robert Caro combines the skills of muckracker, tabloid journalist, and serious scholar to produce this magnificent volume. I read Means of Ascent 10 years ago and loved it, and Path to Power is even better.

Amazing biography.......2007-05-10

Robert Caro's biography is one of the great series ever written. This first book looks at the things that shaped LBJ's early life. The first part is focused on the parents and grandparents of LBJ. The times growing up in Texas were very interesting to read about and while I was afraid this book would not be interesting I was proven wrong quickly. The hill country is a fascinating place and you can see the poverty that Texas experienced even before the depression. Most striking is Lyndon Johnson's childhood where he was an almost constant terror to his parents who loved him anyway. He would runaway constantly. After running away to California he came back and was involved in a series of local gangs and street races. His parents were finally able to talk some sense into him and he went to college
Lyndon Johnson continued his pompous attitude at college and was notable for creating the political scene at Southwest Texas teachers college. He was constantly in debt during his college years but played the political game well becoming friends with the president of the university and other top students. Although leaving college several times hew as able to thrive there. He was able to gain a job in Washington DC as a congressman's aide afterwards and built his power base.
Lyndon Johnson was an expert at the political game and he played it well in DC. This book categorizes his rise from congressman's aide to congressman in the 10th district. It shows how he built his network, worked with and against Sam Rayburn, FDR and his wife Lady Bird. Through it all he truly is shown as a manipulator and an expert political operator. He is morally reprehensible as a person throughout the entire book which was not something I expected to find. For a book about LBJ's early years this is absolutely amazing. It is so well written and you cannot wait to read what is in store next. I cannot wait to read the next three books in the series!

Lyndon Johnson, Part 1.......2007-02-04

This is the second book by Robert Caro I've read, the other being Master of the Senate. Caro's work I'm sure is probably considered the most thorough and all-encompassing study on the life and career of Lyndon Johnson. Path to Power starts with the Bunton and Johnson families who moved to the Texas Hill Country. Caro's description of this region is impressive and very effective. Establishing this setting and its nature and its isolation, we get to learn about the early years of Lyndon Johnson. This book takes us up through 1941 when Johnson first ran (and lost) a race for the U.S. Senate.

It's the Hill Country that receives a lot of attention in the first part of the book, what the land was like, how people's hopes and fortunes could be broken by it, and so forth. The nature of the Bunton and Johnson family lines, i.e. their habits, their ambitions and how they lived off the land. Anyway, these early years of Lyndon Johnson and his family, with special focus on his father who was a well-respected public servant in the Texas Legislature, are all detailed.

The Lyndon Johnson that emerges from this book is nothing short of an attention seeking, power grabbing individual who would stop at nothing to achieve his goal. His way of courting and winning favor with older people, his political savvy that came into being at the Teachers' College at San Marcos, and so forth served as indicators of the sort of man that was developing. If his father was respected and known for his principles, the son would be known for his do and say anything approach to achieve power at a higher level. This is Caro's Johnson, maybe it's a bit rough and maybe too critical at times (though his interpretation could be head-on), but that's what you'll see in this book.

To mention some of the periods in Johnson's journey to position and power, we read of his years as a teacher and debate coach, his years as a Congressional secretary, Johnson's role in the New Deal years as state coordinator of the National Youth Administration, his run for and election to Congress, his money ties to influential businessmen and lobbyists and others who would provide huge sums of money (at that time) for Johnson's political ambitions and on and on. His political skills in cultivating relations with people in power was certainly notable and his knowledge and use of political tactics and maneuvering are amazing to read about.

The book culminates with his first run for a Texas U.S. Senate seat in 1941 upon the death of one of that state's sitting senators. This section of the book is utterly captivating in terms of the unfolding nature of the primary campaign, the characters involved, the voting fraud and its aftermath. Caro's work on the career and character study of Lyndon Johnson is an impressive body of work. His assessment of Johnson in this book is not flattering, though we do see the immense political skills possessed by this remarkably ambitious man who would indeed one day achieve the highest office.

Dissecting The Bunton Strain .......2006-11-14

It's no accident that the first two books by Robert A. Caro have the word "Power" in the title. Power is what interests him, and in Lyndon Johnson, Caro has the perfect figure for analyzing how power is amassed and used within a democracy.

The first in a published trilogy extending to Johnson's election as Vice President in 1960, "Path To Power" presents Johnson as a skilled amasser and user of power for its own sake. No ideology bound him, no loyalty for God or man. He courted women based on their wealth and social standing, picked his associates by virtue of their acquiescence, and focused all his energy on personal glory.

There was something inside him, Caro explains, that made him hard, beyond his simple and needy upbringing in the Texas Hill Country. It had something to do with a family on his father's side named the Buntons, people so cold that when Lyndon was born, his grandmother, a Bunton, tried to dissuade her husband from visiting their grandchild, believing, as Caro puts it, that "charity begins at home."

Perhaps there was more to Johnson than such self-interest. If so, Caro doesn't say. Perhaps it comes out in later volumes, but it's clear here that Caro, for all his stellar, admiring prose of Johnson's rise, doesn't like the man. Fortunately, this wasn't so clear before the publication of "Path Of Power" in 1982, meaning that many of Johnson's closest friends and associates (including his widow Lady Bird) were willing to share honest insights about LBJ, who would have still been in his 60s at the time Caro began his research, just a year after the resignation of Johnson's successor as president.

Caro does write pointedly about Johnson, but not without a sense of dramatic purpose. In fact, there's a kind of grudging admiration in Caro's narrative for a man who toughed out every day of his life in such an uncompromising manner. Like many readers here, I was struck by how like Shakespeare's Richard III LBJ is portrayed, not only that he's so amoral but presented so that we half-root for him to get away with such tricks as masking himself as a New Deal liberal to get Franklin Roosevelt's ear and playing up to the paternal instincts of House Speaker Sam Rayburn, whom he then knifes.

Writing about his days at San Marcos Teachers College, where he transformed himself into a shadow leader with the help of a secret society, Caro writes: "He had won believing in nothing - without a reform he wanted to make, without a principle or issue about which he truly cared." Caro makes clear this didn't change at all when Johnson became a U.S. congressman, preferring to exercise his slick tongue in the cloakrooms and hallways rather than the House chamber itself, where entire years went by without him addressing his fellow Members from the floor.

Caro's take on Johnson makes "Path Of Power" entertaining, but it's his broader view of the times LBJ lived that makes the book so compelling beyond the bounds of traditional biography. There are so many layers in Caro's narrative, such as the hard lives women led in central Texas during the Depression, various colorful Texas politicians LBJ aligned himself with or against, and the often underhanded way business and politics came together in the early 20th century.

Is it unfair? Caro does dwell on the negative, and ignores at least in this volume the possibility Johnson had some redeeming qualities beyond his professional abilities. But that may have been a function of Johnson's growing as life went on; it's clear that he was a sneaky, ruthless, miserable character in his early days chronicled here. A couple of his underlings, though still devoted, have to excuse themselves to regain their composure as they recount their boss's hard ways.

There are bios that connect the dots but bore you silly, others that use lives as platforms for wowing you with the author's eloquence. Caro writes masterfully but keeps your focus securely on the story and the real-life history behind it, making you feel like a passenger on Johnson's amazing journey. Even the footnotes are captivating. You will be surprised how quick a read 800 pages can be.

Hissstorical.......2006-11-10

Very comprehensive, informative and historical read. Although I was looking for a book that got right into the life of LBJ, this book historically sets you up for the fashioning of the larger than life persona-- LBJ. You will also need to set aside time to digest, not a quick read, albeit engaging.

Texas in the Morning: The Love Story of Madeleine Brown and President Lyndon Baines Johnson

Average customer rating:

A Foggy and Romanticized Rendition
A person to person opinion!
Worth the price for the information contained inside.
LBJ meets the romance novel

Texas in the Morning: The Love Story of Madeleine Brown and President Lyndon Baines Johnson
Madeleine D. Brown
Manufacturer: Conservatory Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History
The Elite Serial Killers of Lincoln, JFK, RFK & MLK
Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K.
Dr. Mary's Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, ... Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics
American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond

ASIN: 0941401065

Customer Reviews:

A Foggy and Romanticized Rendition.......2001-12-06

This book reminded of me a child telling a story about the excitement and fun of a carnival, and while I might appreciate the child's viewpoint and comprehension of the carnival, I had the adult's perception of knowing better and wanting more. This is a very incomplete and undocumented tale, like a child's leftover cotton candy -- a bad-tasting remnant from a trip to the carnival and a reminder of the flashing lights, the excitement, and a ride on the ferris wheel. And like a child, the author told her story without a mature understanding of what a carnival really is -- a lot of flashing bright lights, games and rides, crowds, noise, dirt, and smoke and mirrors. This book is at best, a foggy and romanticized rendition of historically important events. I truly believe that posterity will demand a clearer picture and better documentation of the claims made by the author.

A person to person opinion!.......2000-04-14

I purchased "Texas in the Morning" directly from Madeleine Brown at her home in Dallas. She was kind enough to invite myself and the Senior Class of 2000 from Roberts High School in Roberts, Montana to her home for lunch. Madeleine was a very gracious host, seemly honest and forthright. I read her book thoroughly on the airplane on the return trip home. It was intriguing and very interesting. I question her having so much patience, but not her commitment to both this relationship and her book. An excellent book for a person with an open mind!

Worth the price for the information contained inside........1999-10-07

The author is no word beater when it comes to writing skills, but she obviously knew President Lyndon Johnson very well. No one reading this book could not take her seriously. Madeleine Duncan Brown was part of history. She was indeed a secret lover of LBJ. In fact, she bore and raised his only son. The most interesting passage in the book takes place on Thursday night in Dallas, Texas, November 21, 1963, at the home of Clint Murchison. Read the book for the details of that night as Johnson whispers in the author's ear, "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never emparrass me again--that's no threat--that's a promise." A must read for JFK assassination researchers.

LBJ meets the romance novel.......1998-02-20

If you are interested in political biography skip
Texas in the Morning. This book reads like a bad
dime-store romance.

I was hoping that Madeleine Brown would have some
insight into the character of LBJ. She doesn't.

Amazon.com

The second installment in a projected four-volume biography of LBJ that opened with The Path to Power, Means of Ascent shines a harsh light on the early political years of one of America's most paradoxical presidents. The man who would later ram civil rights legislation through a reluctant Congress, and then be brought down by Vietnam, came out of a political swamp--Caro gives a graphic picture of the Texas democratic political machine at its most corrupt. The climax of the book is LBJ's election to the Senate in 1948, an election he won by 87 dubious votes out of almost a million. That vote arguably changed history. This book won the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

Book Description

Robert A. Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson, which began with the greatly acclaimed The Path to Power, also winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, continues -- one of the richest, most intensive and most revealing examinations ever undertaken of an American President. In Means of Ascent the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer/historian, chronicler also of Robert Moses in The Power Broker, carries Johnson through his service in World War II and the foundation of his long-concealed fortune and the facts behind the myths he created about it. But the explosive heart of the book is Caro's revelation of the true story of the fiercely contested 1948 senatorial election, for forty years shrouded in rumor, which Johnson had to win or face certain political death, and which he did win -- by "the 87 votes that changed history." Caro makes us witness to a momentous turning point in American politics: the tragic last stand of the old politics versus the new -- the politics of issue versus the politics of image, mass manipulation, money and electronic dazzle.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing look at politics in Texas.......2007-05-12

This book begins where Path to Power left off. It does give a quick recap so you can pick up here if you did not want to read the first one (although I recommend reading it as it is spectacular). The lies of Johnson's military service are almost too much to believe. His desire to retain elected office and achieve his goals remain unmatched as ever before. This book yet again shows how Johnson would lie and cheat his way to power. The Texas politics are truly among the most disturbing that you can see anywhere. The corruption is rampant and with an election where Johnson wins by only 87 votes the corruption was rampant. The race for the senate seat against governor Coke Stevenson who was one of the more principled Texas politicians is famous in Texas history. This book is wonderful at recounting that event as well as giving further insight into Johnson. Caro's writing is superb and the desire to find out what happens next is unmatched in other biographies. This is a must read for anyone interested in political history, biographies, or politics.

Reveals LBJ the scoundrel.......2007-05-04

This biography of LBJ, the second in a series written by Caro, covers briefly the humiliating early years in Johnson's life when his father was reduced to poverty, his college years, his time as a young congressman, and spotlights the infamous 1948 Senate race. The book also contrasts the life of Johnson's opponent in the 1948 Senate race, the venerated former Governor of Texas, Coke Stevenson.

Caro tries to show Johnson's naked political ambition throughout the book. Johnson could not stand just being one of a crowd, he had to lead the crowd and dominate his followers. He also shows how, once LBJ obtained power in the Congress, Johnson used it to his own benefit and the benefit of his supporters. Principal among these was the powerful Texas lawyer Ed Clark and the Texas construction and oil pipeline company, now a subsidiary of Halliburton, Brown & Root. Johnson did not use the office to benefit the people of Texas or for reasons one might commonly associate with Congressmen; in nearly twelve years as in the Congress, he introduced seven bills total. Two were passed and these affected his district only. In his first eleven years he delivered a mere ten speeches to the House of Representatives.

When it became clear to Johnson he was going to lose a political race, he resorted to other than honest means to win. Caro tells how the 1948 Senate race was not an anomaly, rather Johnson had been stuffing ballot boxes his entire political life. It did not matter how small the race or how paltry the office. Johnson stuffed ballots even to win Student Council elections at college and the "Little Congress" elections, a social club of political aides. What was important was winning at any cost and furthering his political ambition.

Also included in the biography is how Johnson came to own KTBC, a radio station in Austin, how the station was used by businessman and others to buy favors Johnson after they bought advertising slots on the station, and how awfully he treated the employees of the station. When confronted in public about these matters, Johnson would always claim that the station was owned by his wife and that he had no part in the ownership and operation of it. Caro shows that like most other things that Johnson claimed, this was a lie.

I highly enjoyed reading this book. The lust for power Caro describes gives credit to allegations (by other authors) that Johnson was involved in the death of JFK.

The Case Of The Missing Ballot Box.......2007-02-05

While the first volume of Robert A. Caro's biography on Lyndon Johnson read like epic fiction, his follow-up second volume, 1990's "Means Of Ascent," reminds me more of a crime novel, a closed-door mystery where a single missing ballot box presents us with a Maguffin for the proceedings.

You know about "The 39 Steps." Well, here's "The 87 Votes."

That was the final margin of LBJ's victory over Coke Stevenson in Texas's 1948 Senate Democratic primary, which as described by Caro here was one of the shadiest non-expressions of democratic will in the history of America's wildest, woolliest state. By buying off critical precincts, Johnson's handpicked goons, many of them armed, reported absurdly slanted returns, in some areas giving Johnson more than 100 votes for every one for Stevenson's.

Caro writes: "The unwritten laws, the ethics, the morals of Texas politics were so loose and elastic that it was difficult to break them. But Lyndon Johnson had broken them."

Caro backs this up with impressive research, including interviews with key Johnson aides and a former pistolero named Salas proud of how he helped push Johnson over the top by casting 200 votes for him on behalf of absent, sometimes dead voters. As the story develops, Stevenson figures out what has been done to him and sets about to make things right, whereupon the fight of Johnson's career shifts to a courtroom, where a row of mysterious locked barrels are lined up before the court, each possibly containing the missing ballot box with its provably fraudulent votes. Can the box be found before the whole proceeding is rendered moot by a court order from Washington?

All this is very readable stuff, if a half-step below the impossibly high standard set with "Path To Power." It's not so much the narrower focus of "Means Of Ascent" (just the years 1941-48, fallow ones for LBJ except for this election), but the reduced scope from PTP one is aware of, especially at the start when Caro recounts much of the first book in a pedantic "what-we-have-learned-so-far" way. Caro's beef with Johnson is clear and valid, but it becomes more overbearing in this volume, especially as he keeps going to Coke Stevenson as an contrasting exemplar of political virtue. Others point to Coke being a segregationist as making this approach suspect; I just found him dull, and perhaps too proud for public office. A point Caro doesn't make but could is that for all his faults, LBJ wanted the job more.

I also think there is some wiggle room to account for Johnson's behavior Caro refuses to grant. Simply put, Caro uses a lot of second-hand testimony from foggy thinkers to make his darkest points, like quoting Salas at length. He didn't seem to stretch such testimony as far in "Path To Power," and as Robert A. Divine notes in his own Johnson bio, the end result seems to make Caro "a prisoner of people's memory" more than it ought.

But "Means To Ascent" is well-sourced, richly-detailed, and contains one of the most dazzling narratives this side of Hitchcock. It's no doubt not Caro's best LBJ book, but a singular and worthy piece of the larger puzzle Caro is still putting together.

Excellent, better than the first.......2006-07-25

There are a lot of reviews on this site that criticize Caro for making Means of Ascent a seperate volume, saying that there isn't enough here for a standalone book, that he rehashes too much. After finishing the book, however, I think nothing could be further from the truth. Let me explain.

The first book provides the essential context and builds LBJ up, allowing the reader to see the burgeoning of his political power and domineering personality. But it is in the second book, when he is driven to the absolute brink, when he "had to win" in the "all or nothing" 1948 Senatorial race vs. Coke Stevenson that his unique character bursts into full, dazzling bloom. It is this ratcheting up that makes this volume so necessary.

Caro's brilliant depiction of the epic battle between LBJ and Stevenson is like something out of Shakespeare, American-style. We have on one side, LBJ, who in a lot of ways is the dark version of the American story: a poor boy who rose from nothing by any means necessary, selling himself (often lying) and working himself (and everyone around him) to the absolute bone in order to get ahead; someone who gave everything he had in order to get the ultimate prize (and took unlawfully what he didn't earn). On the other side, in the almost too good to be true character of rancher-statesman Coke Stevenson, is much of what we cherish about the American character: self-reliance, hard work, dedication to principle, humbleness, duty. In this clash of the new vs. the old, of Johnson's do anything, say anything brand of media driven, money fueled politics (sound familiar?) against Coke's principled campaign in which issues and the real positions of the candidate actually mattered, we know who eventually won and the consequences such a victory had, but we can't help but wish that maybe the old way could have had one last hurrah. And that maybe the age of substance-less, meaningless politics that LBJ ushered in with his 1948 race could have been postponed a few years. You get the feeling that perhaps Caro feels the same way...but I digress.

Whether you agree with his implied politics or not, in Means of Ascent, it is unarguably clear that Caro has written an unparalleled legal and political thriller. Reading what actually happened in that fateful race between Johnson and Stevenson, I had to continually remind my self that YES, this REALLY DID happen in AMERICA just 50 years ago! The outright stealing of votes, the legal maneuvering, the armed showdowns between Mexican bandits and Texas Rangers (!!!)...it all seems like something out of some Third World banana republic, but it all happened, right here in America! And the final courtoom scenes will absolutely enthrall you, better than anything Grisham has ever written, for sure.

In the end, by reading this book not only will you learn what really happeend in the 1948 Senate election and how the current brand of media based politics came about, but you'll get a glimpse into the rather undemocratic way power works in this country. Sure, things have changed since then, but I have a feeling "the people" have quite a bit less power than they believe, and for this lesson alone, Means of Ascent is priceless.

Do yourself a favor and ignore all the naysayers. This is an essential volume of the series, and rightfully deserves its place as a standalone work. EXCELLENT!

Great work!.......2006-06-13

As good as volume one. Just so compelling. You learn to hate the man but love the story (just like his bio of Robert Moses - The Power Broker). You can't put it down - and could not wait to get the Master of the Senate. Caro is an author of the highest caliber. Give me volume four.

The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969

Average customer rating:

Read this in context
Lyndon Johnson - a man of action and few words!

The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Manufacturer: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
An American Life
The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
A White House diary
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973

ASIN: 0030844924

Customer Reviews:

Read this in context.......2007-04-03

As a personal memoir, this account of the Johnson presidency must be taken with a grain of salt, but overall, it is an interesting firsthand account of the considerations, assumptions, and goals that guided President Johnson in his decisions. Predictably, quite a bit of space is devoted to Vietnam, but aside from his defensive justifications in foreign policy, Johnson highlights the accomplishments and triumphs that were closest to his heart, domestic achievements like his civil rights legislation, the war on poverty, etc. Overall, the reader gets an impression of Johnson as a tireless worker with good intentions who did the best he could. The book is easy to tackle, being rather concise for memoirs of a presidential term (compare with Kissinger's near 1400 pages), well-written, and interestingly personal (instead of "the U.S. did so-and-so", you get "I thought that" "I said" "I called", etc.). It is not revelatory, it is not a complete history, and it is not the big picture, but it is an account of the decision-making process from a "vantage point". It is Johnson's personal apologia, his self-justification, his case for his own memory as an American president.

Lyndon Johnson - a man of action and few words!.......1998-08-05

The Vantage Point by Lyndon Johnson is an in-depth look at the Johnson Administration. The book focuses on a wide variety of accomplishments and events, both domestic and foreign, which shaped the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. The reader learns of the struggles that the conflict in Vietnam presented Johnson with, and begins to develop an accute understanding for the actions he took. In addition to the war in Vietnam, Johnson tells of the War on Poverty here in the United States. It becomes quite apparent that President Johnson was not a crooked politician, but a man of action who had the well-being of his fellow man at heart. Although some of the reading tends to be a little "dry," the author manages to instill a sense of respect, in his readers, for all he has done for America.

Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960 Volume 1 (Lone Star Rising)

Average customer rating:

Exhaustive bio on LBJ
An incredibly rewarding read
PROBABLY MORE EVEN-HANDED THAN SOME WORKS
Not Enough Personality
Presenting the good Lyndon

Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960 Volume 1 (Lone Star Rising)
Robert Dallek
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Medical History & Records | Administration & Policy | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Federal Government | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage)
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power
Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972 (Ambrose, Stephen E//Nixon)

ASIN: 0195054350

Book Description

Like other great figures of 20th-century American politics, Lyndon Johnson defies easy understanding. An unrivaled master of vote swapping, back room deals, and election-day skulduggery, he was nevertheless an outspoken New Dealer with a genuine commitment to the poor and the underprivileged. With aides and colleagues he could be overbearing, crude, and vindictive, but at other times shy, sophisticated, and magnanimous. Perhaps columnist Russell Baker said it best: Johnson "was a character out of a Russian novel...a storm of warring human instincts: sinner and saint, buffoon and statesman, cynic and sentimentalist." But Johnson was also a representative figure. His career speaks volumes about American politics, foreign policy, and business in the forty years after 1930. As Charles de Gaulle said when he came to JFK's funeral: Kennedy was America's mask, but this man Johnson is the country's real face. In Lone Star Rising, Robert Dallek, winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for his study of Franklin D. Roosevelt, now turns to this fascinating "sinner and saint" to offer a brilliant, definitive portrait of a great American politician. Based on seven years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this first book in a two-volume biography follows Johnson's life from his childhood on the banks of the Pedernales to his election as vice-president under Kennedy. We see Johnson, the twenty-three-year-old aide to a pampered millionaire Representative, become a de facto Congressman, and at age twenty-eight the country's best state director of the National Youth Administration. We see Johnson, the "human dynamo," first in the House and then in the Senate, whirl his way through sixteen- and eighteen-hour days, talking, urging, demanding, reaching for influence and power, in an uncommonly successful congressional career. Dallek pays full due to Johnson's failings--his obsession with being top dog, his willingness to cut corners, and worse, to get there-- but he also illuminates Johnson's sheer brilliance as a politician, the high regard in which key members of the New Deal, including FDR, held him, and his genuine concern for minorities and the downtrodden. No president in American history is currently less admired than Lyndon Johnson. Bitter memories of Vietnam have sent Johnson's reputation into free fall, and recent biographies have painted him as a scoundrel who did more harm than good. Lone Star Rising attempts to strike a balance. It does not neglect the tawdry side of Johnson's political career, including much that is revealed for the first time. But it also reminds us that Lyndon Johnson was a man of exceptional vision, who from early in his career worked to bring the South into the mainstream of American economic and political life, to give the disadvantaged a decent chance, and to end racial segregation for the well-being of the nation.

Customer Reviews:

Exhaustive bio on LBJ.......2006-06-21

For the foreseeable future, I think it's safe to say Dallek's two volumes will be the definitive LBJ biography for the simple reason(s) that it's unclear if Caro will finish his works and it is doubtful that anyone will soon take on the onerous task of researching Johnson's extremely complicated life ... and find anything new. This volume tracks LBJ's life up to the 1960 election and everything is here ... and I mean everything, from Johnson's lineage, his childhood and education, his work as a New Deal caretaker and Texas politician, his dubious "military service", his meteoric climb through both the House and US Senate, including his "election" to the latter and finally his acceptance as JFK's vice-presidential running mate. The reader meets the big (and small) personalities in LBJ's life including FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Sam Rayburn, Richard Russell and Hubert Humphrey as well as the truly dedicated people who worked ungodly hours for him. Dallek also does an admirable job in tracking the development of LBJ's character and motives, (and ego) while parsing through, at times, the frenetic activity of his life. Where this biography differs from others, (especially Caro's), is in Dallek's self-restraint in judging LBJ's actions and behaviors, (and there is a lot to judge). Others have made this out to be an omission on the author's part, I would beg to differ and label it as evenhanded. Dallek presents the facts and lets the reader make the call while other