Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Doris Kearns' 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.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Presidents, Politics, American History, Us Presidents

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of numerous U.S. presidents. Goodwin's book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995. Goodwin produced the American television miniseries Washington. She was also executive producer of "Abraham Lincoln", a 2022 docudrama on the History Channel. This latter series was based on Goodwin's Leadership in Turbulent Times.

Reviews

[CoachJim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyndon Johnson recruited Doris Kearns Goodwin to assist him in writing his memoirs at the end of his presidency. She had served as a White House Intern for the last year of his presidency. In her work with Johnson on his memoirs she is able to record LBJ’s personal views on some of the historical facts of his life and develops an understanding of his personality. In this book Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a psychological profile of Lyndon Johnson.

But it is in the author’s postscript that she makes the most important contribution to understanding Lyndon Johnson. As she states:

I would like to draw together a number of observations on the personalty and politics which come to mind by treating the material as a case study in the interaction of leadership, institutional momentum, and the forces of history.
(Page 369)

He had a childhood torn between the irreconcilable demands of this mother, who looked for intellectual and cultural achievements, and those of his father, who considered intellect and culture as unmanly.

Johnson seemed to equate the love and approval of his parents with his accomplishments. In his youth he was trapped in the impossible demands of an unyielding mother whose love was given only when he satisfied her wishes. This led to a life where he sought power and control to obtain these achievements.

Johnson’s pursuit of power and control should not diminish his extraordinary achievements. On the contrary, it should be viewed as part of the unique skill he displayed in obtaining productive social goals. It was power that allowed him to accomplish great works, and it was those works that brought love and gratitude.

His political career was marked by a need to avoid confrontation and divisions. “This inclination can be understood as a response to his particular family situation.” As the leader of the Senate he preferred to resolve differences by private conversations in order to avoid divisions in the Senate. This resulted in a reduction of floor debate and substantially reduced the Senate’s role in foreign policy. This would have a disastrous consequence in Johnson’s presidency as it weakened an important check that might have constrained his decisions on Vietnam.

Johnson failed to understand the differences between the function of the presidency and the Senate. His presidency allowed him to utilize his personal powers and abilities to deal with domestic matters, but proved inadequate when dealing with foreign affairs. His lack of experience and knowledge when dealing with foreign policy led him to rely on the advice of “experts”, something he would never have done with domestic issues. Here the effective politician was no longer effective.

Unlike his domestic agenda, in Vietnam he followed a course of what not to do. This was from a leader who always presented himself as a “Can Do” politician. Johnson discovered that the office of the presidency allowed him to conceal some of his exercise of power. This concealment would have disastrous effects on his presidency. The war in Vietnam would become his war, and when the results fall short of expectations it would prove destructive “for the man, the office, and the nation.” (Page 400)

Robert Caro is currently working on volume 5 of his multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, and I recently read Robert Dallek’s two-volume biography of LBJ. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream is 363 pages. That does not mean it was an inadequate biography. This book gives one a concise summary of the life and presidency of Johnson and most importantly analyzes his personalty and psychology. Being written by Doris Kearns Goodwin makes it an easy and entertaining read. This is an important and essential book for understanding the history of the 1960s and the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.

[Brett C · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If it hadn't been for Vietnam—how many times this phrase has been spoken in conversations assessing Johnson's place in history...Indeed, from the beginning, Johnson later claimed, he himself foresaw and weighed the devastating consequences of war on domestic reform, but in the end, felt he had no choice but to escalate the war. pg 251"

This was a shorter yet thorough account of the life and times of LBJ. I know there are other longer biographical accounts like Robert Caro (four volumes) and Robert Dallek (two volumes) but I can say I learned a lot from this one. Goodwin gave a smoothly written narrative that I wanted to keep reading. She began with his childhood, progressed through adolescence and college, and eventually into politics. Interesting there was some foreshadowing of cognitive-behavioral traits he developed as a child that would carry over into his adult life and as President.

Johnson naturally work his way from student body campus politics, eventually to a Congressman to Senator to Majority Leader to Vice President and finally to President. Goodwin explained his outlook and ambitions were steered from his childhood, molded by nurture, and reinforced in the life of politics.

Throughout his life Johnson had most successfully attained power in one of two situations: under conditions that allowed him to play apprentice to a master, whose power, by careful deference and emulation, he would use to increase his own authority until he had surpassed the other man's accomplishments or position; or under conditions that allowed him to assume the role of the caretaker, the strong protecting the weak. pgs 172-3

"Johnson was simply ill-suited, because of his legislative background, for the administrative aspects of the Presidency." (pg 291) The Great Society was a leap towards improving the quality of life for the average American: Civil Rights, voting rights, Medicare, education, housing, transportation, and more.

I do not want to be the President who built empires, or sought granduer, or extended dominion. I want to be the President who educated young children...who helped feed the hungry...who helped the poor to find to find their own way and who protected the rights of every citizen to vote in every election... pg 230

The escalation of the use of force and continued commitment to the conflict in Vietnam was fueled LBJ's own character flaws that he used since his days as Majority Leader in the Senate: his insistence on face-to-face relations, his secrecy and private negotiations, the intentional lack of communication, sycophantic expectations, and Johnson's lack of ability to effectively lead brought about the downfall that germinated from Vietnam.

By pretending there was no major conflict, by minimizing the level of spending, and by refusing to call up reserves or ask Congress for an acknowledgement or acceptance of the war, Johnson believed he could keep the levers of control in his hands. pg 282

The Vietnam War, unpopular polls, inflation, and unfulfilled early administration promises of a "painless war and profitable peace" (pg 302) led to LBJ not accepting the 1968 reelection as President.

Overall in my opinion this was a very informative introduction to the life of LBJ. I would highly recommend this as a good starting point for anyone interested in American history of that era. Also I would recommend Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H.R. McMaster. Thanks!!

[Stefania Dzhanamova · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biographer is rarely blessed with such access to a major political figure as the one Doris Kearns Goodwin had to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Although she first got to know him as a White House aide in the spring of 1968, she came in much closer contact with him at his ranch in Texas, during the last four years of his life. She was able not only to observe the former American President closely, but also to record his own explanations of his long and eventful political career, his childhood recollections, and even his retellings of some of his dreams.

I liked that Goodwin did not accept everything Johnson told her at face value. She was mindful of his tendency to exaggerate and to tell people what they wanted to hear, and she recognized that that much of what he, a public figure almost obsessed with being remembered by the future generations, told her were attempts to justify his actions during his presidency. This is why Goodwin offers no groundbreaking interpretations of Johnson's political style or adult character. However, much of what he told her about his childhood was not self-serving, but showed him as a vulnerable human being and explained, at least partially, where his insecurities, his strong power drive, and his manipulative skills came from.

The picture of Johnson's childhood that Goodwin paints is quite different from his renowned "rags to riches rise from a happy childhood, guided by an adoring mother and the example of a manly, principled father." Johnson recalled his mother, Rebecah, as a sensitive woman who could have become a great novelist had she not lost confidence in herself after the death of her father and married the rough, drinking, vulgar-speaking Sam Johnson. She was disappointed in her husband, and she expected her eldest son, the object of her intense adoration, attention, and ambitions, to make up for this disappointment. This kind of maternal love, Goodwin points out, can instill unique self-confidence that will sustain him in larger enterprises later on.

This kind of love also has its dangers, though. When Lyndon failed to meet her standards, Rebecah acted as if he did not exist. For instance, at the age of seven or eight he refused to continue his music and dancing lessons. In Johnson's words, "[f]or days after I quit those lessons she walked around the house pretending I was dead. And then to make it worse, I had to watch her being especially warm and nice to my father and sisters."

According to Goodwin, the price Lyndon would have had to pay for her complete approval would have been the rejection not only of his father, but also of his own masculinity, but young Johnson had the ego strength to refuse that alternative. Instead, he learned to walk a fine line between his parents: he adopted the rough, masculine ways and the political profession of his father, yet unlike his "daddy," he would achieve success and an ultimate capacity to do good for others.

In short, Johnson's confidence in his manipulative skills and his self-confidence served him well in his later political career. However, the conditional love he had received from his mother linked his own well-being with the approval of others, so he turned his energy and considerable skills toward mastery of the uncontrollable feelings of others, always seeking what he had lacked in childhood. "The problem was that each successful performance led only to the need for more. There was no place to rest so long as love and the self-esteem based on love depended upon another's approbations." He sought the approval he needed in elections. His insecurities were obvious in his fear of being alone – he could not stand to be by himself, not for an evening or for an hour – and in his need to control every aspect of his environment. Even one criticism he could not handle could destabilize him in a public speaking situation.

At some deep level, as Goodwin points out, Johnson equated manners and gentility with passivity and femininity, values that he could not use to model his own behavior but which, like his mother, still had strong hold over him. His attitudes toward the Kennedy intellectuals and the authority he gave them in foreign policy matters, where he felt his own lack of expertise, demonstrated this ambivalence. His passionate hatred of Robert Kennedy suggests that he was severely threatened by Kennedy's successful balance of tough and intellectual that Johnson could not emulate. His difficulties during his retirement in working on his memoirs were also based on this same ambivalence: he felt he should be refined and contemplative, but could not because these qualities were "effeminate" and not Lyndon Johnson. Of course, there was something else that prevented him from writing his memoirs, which Goodwin did not mention – he realized deep down that he had tragically failed at some of his presidential goals – but her theory is valid too.

Despite her emphasis on Johnson's motives and style, Goodwin was quite aware that Johnson's personality alone did not determine such policies as his decision to escalate the Vietnam conflict. Furthermore, she understood that Johnson's political skill in bending others to serve his own purposes could not be fully explained in terms of his childhood conflicts. He was an intelligent, energetic man who learned how to exercise power in several later contexts. 

Goodwin also shows how Johnson's perceptions of the world influenced his policy choices. With his simple faith in the American creed, he saw no need for basic changes in American institutions or beliefs. He imagined himself to be free of ideology. “I am ... a free man, a U.S. Senator, and a Democrat, in that order. I am also a liberal, a conservative, a Texan, a taxpayer, a rancher, a businessman, a consumer, a parent, a voter, and not as young as I used to be nor as old as I expect to be-and I am all these things in no fixed order.... At the heart of my own beliefs is a rebellion against this very process of classifying, labeling and filing Americans under headings." With a better delivery of governmental services, and a better environment, he believed, others would achieve as he had. In this erroneous perception lies the reason for his decision to escalate the American involvement in the Vietnam conflict. His notion that war could be uprooted by eliminating poverty, his tendency to equate the American way of life with the cause of civilization, and his faith in the ability of diverse peoples to reach agreements through reason all led him to misunderstand fundamentally the Vietnamese people and how to deal with them.

All in all, LYNDON JOHNSON AND THE AMERICAN DREAM is a great psychobiography that quite insightfully analyzes the complex personality of Lyndon Johnson. This book is by no means the most informative biography of Johnson I have read, but it does offer a glimpse at the aspects of Johnson's character most biographers overlook. There is one major failing in Goodwin's work. She could have given some of her interpretations more authority if she had checked her observations with others who knew Johnson and were very much available for contacting at the time she wrote her book. Otherwise, I highly recommend it. 

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Goodwin’s first major historical work.

"I was a twenty-four-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Harvard selected as a White House Fellow, a program designed to let young people work with the President and members of his cabinet. While I strongly opposed the war in Vietnam, I wholeheartedly supported the vast and innovative domestic programs of the Great Society. Little did I know then that I would struggle to come to terms with this conflict for the rest of my personal and professional life."

It’s a good book, but not great when measured against her later works or as in depth as Caro’s multi-volume examination of LBJ. Yet, those that would dismiss this book as having too much sycophantic content or subject to unbridled hero-worship are, perhaps, a bit misogynistic. Here is an example of helpful insight.

"Unlike Kennedy, he had not spent time in the states learning who the important powers were, who controlled the delegations. And without personal knowledge and touch his usually acute powers of perception were substantially reduced, leading him to the mistaken notion that the leaders of the Senate were also the leaders of the delegations, that if he could round up the Senators from Arkansas and Idaho, for example, he would secure their delegations."

Goodwin continues to give us great historical works. This book is worth reading but if you go elsewhere, at least read her new forward, something that can be downloaded for free.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Doris Kearns Goodwin does well here:

1) She digs deep into LBJ's personality. She knew him professionally, working in his White House, and quotes extensively from his direct conversations with her. He wanted her assistance in writing his memoirs, a project which never got off the ground.

2) She pinpoints his skillsets, what he's good at and deficient at, and how these skillsets help or hamper him in different institutional settings. She explains how his talent in one-on-one interactions and his ability to manipulate and coerce individuals help him attain power and accomplish things in the Senate. LBJ's penchant for secret dealmaking does not hamper him in the Senate. But in the presidency, a different type of leadership is called for. A president's constituents are many and widely-varying groups; they go beyond the one hundred Senators that a Senate Majority Leader has to please and cajole.

Where the book falls short:

1) Explaining personality and character is important in biography, but Goodwin goes overboard, using psychoanalytic theory (in easy-to-understand language for the masses) to explain nearly everything. As we know, viewing all a person does through the prism of his relationship to his parents is outmoded. There's nothing that dates a book more than references to Freud, Karen Horney, and Erik Erikson.

2) There's not enough delving into LBJ's accomplishments in the arenas of civil rights and the Great Society, particularly the latter. Martin Luther King, Jr. gets two lines in the index, five mentions in the book. What did LBJ think of MLK, and vice versa? How did these two leaders interact? Reading this book, we have no idea. There's also surprisingly little exploration of LBJ's personal and political interactions with JFK. Medicare, which today we think of as one of LBJ's signature achievements, and something that altered the American landscape forever, gets two superficial mentions. Yet "Psychoanalytic insights into" various things comprise 42 lines in the index. LBJ's dream "of being caged" is discussed on three different pages.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A number of years ago, I read Robert A. Caro’s four volume biography about Lyndon Baines Johnson. After reading Caro’s books I felt as if I had a fairly good understanding of Johnson.

This biography of Johnson is obviously biased. Doris Kearns Goodwin was a Ph.D. intern in the Johnson White House. He chose her to write his biography. Apparently, Goodwin found that in the year prior to his death, Johnson revealed more about himself to her than any other person. The book is much different from Caro’s work in that it is more personal and reveals more about his personal conflicts and insecurities.

The book is well written and meticulously researched. Goodwin is a master storyteller; so, she brings Johnson to life in this biography. I think both Caro and Goodwin came to the same conclusion about the man, but Goodwin’s is a gentler viewpoint. Johnson was a complex man yet Goodwin manages to capture the private person. This book is well worth the read; and if you were only going to read one book about Johnson, this one would be it.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is seventeen hours and one minute. There are two narrators of this book. Gabra Zackman who did the narration and Jim Frangione who did Johnson. I found this method of narration quite interesting.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream was meticulously researched political biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin. In addition, the author could draw on her time spent working in the White House from 1967 to 1969. After Lyndon Johnson’s term in office ended, Ms. Goodwin remained his confidante assisting him in the preparation of this memoir. In this beautiful book, Doris Kearns Goodwin traces the life of the 36th president’s life from his hardscrabble childhood in the Texas Hill Country to his early days in politics, from his leadership in the House of Representatives and the Senate to his rise to the presidency. Goodwin analyzes his dramatic years in the White House, including both his domestic triumphs in the development of A Great Society and the passage of Civil Rights Bill in honor of the slain John Kennedy. The author also documents his failures in Vietnam ultimately causing him to announce to the American people that he would not seek nor accept his party’s nomination and then proceeded to wind down the war and strive for peace in the region.

As this was drawn from the personal experience of Doris Kearns Goodwin as well as her many anecdotes about President Lyndon Johnson, and the many candid conversations they had over the years, this is a rich and a complicated portrait of one of our nation’s most compelling politicians. I will end the review with some of the countless quotations from this engaging memoir and a remarkable piece of history.

“Energy, goodwill, resourcefulness, enterprise, optimism, inventiveness, and exaggerated faith in self—these were the qualities, Johnson brought in abundance to his brief career in teaching and his lifelong career in politics.”

“On August 7, 1957, when the bill was finally approved by the Senate—the first civil rights bill enacted by that body in eighty-seven years—it was not Eisenhower’s bill or the Democrats’ or the liberals’; it was Lyndon Johnson’s. Assessed by Dean Acheson as “among the great achievements since the war,” and by the New York Times as “incomparably the most significant domestic action of any Congress in this century,” passage of the bill was a wondrous victory for Johnson.”

“There can be no doubt that Lyndon Johnson was among the most effective and powerful leaders in the history of the United States Senate.”

“If at the beginning of his address one missed the clipped delivery of John Kennedy, by the end one was grateful for the measured steadiness of Lyndon Johnson. Substantively, that address delineated the new leader’s resolve to urgently implement the priorities of his predecessor in the days ahead. The most important of these was civil rights.”

“‘The long, hard effort was over now, and I was glad to see it end.’ These were the words Lyndon Johnson used to describe his feelings upon his retirement from public life. The relief was both immense and genuine. Yet after thirty-two years of public service, with the end of his presidential responsibility, a terrible, perhaps impossible transition to the hill country awaited him.”

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I balked at the 22-page forward written by the author some years after publication, but as it turned out, that was by far the most interesting part of the book. This book was truly a stuggle to finish, but I persevered and after 8 weeks I got there! This was a very sanitized portrait of Lyndon Johnson, no controversy here other than what one would have heard on television during his presidency. No mention of the "Johnson Treatment," or ties to the assassination. Doris Kearns Goodwin was personally selected/drafted by LBJ as the person to help him write his memoirs, although it was published several years after his death. As such, it winds up being more of a psychological portrait of a troubled man with good intentions who just went down some very destructive paths.

I believe this is Kearns' first book, so I should not judge her too harshly. Her writing style here is characterized by very lengthy sentences sorely lacking in punctuation. A few commas here and there would have prevented me from having to read a sentence three times to understand just what she was saying. At times, someone is giving opinions but there are no quotes, so I wasn't sure whose opinion it was. Other times there are quotes but again, it's not always clear who is speaking. There are 20 pages of footnotes contained in a section at the back, but it's very tedious to keeping flipping back and forth, so after a while, I just didn't bother. All told, she turned a very interesting life story into something really quite dull. We hear very little about Lady Bird; it's almost as though he courted her, married her and then she just disappears until after his political life has ended; and almost nothing about JFK's assassination or MLK's in 1968. We hear about urban riots happening in the years before MLK's murder, and how he took it personally that these few "bad apple negroes" were messing up his grand plan, but we hear nothing about the riots that occured in the wake of it. That was quite disappointing particular in light of his strong commitment to the Civil Right Act of 1964. I mean MLK's murder is such a game-changing event, and not a word is said about it! It occured just after his decison not to run, and maybe he was so consumed by his own grief over that, that he turned a blind eye to the chaos that occured only days later.

On the plus side, I did learn some things about LBJ and feel that I now have greater insights into his presidency and the reasons for his actions. I remember his 1968 television address when he told America that he would not seek re-election. After reading this book, I now realize how shocking, yet welcome, this must have been for the nation. I also understand why he would make this decision since his re-election chances looked slim. What I didn't realize is the effect RFK's assassination played in 1968 election results and how that was key to the splintering of the Democratic party in 1968. So injured was the party, that Johnson was was actually courted to reconsider his March decision not to run. I would be interested in reading some less biased biographies of him at some point, although Robert Caro's multi-volume series is probably more LBJ than I'd be willing to take on. However, some of the LBJ books that deal with JFK's assassination might be worthwhile. I was always fairly neutral on whether he had any involvement with it, but now I wonder.

Sorry, I meant to keep this brief, but I always seem to get carried away. Thanks for reading!

[Alex Orr · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was Kearns' first book, and to a good extent, it shows. The writing is stiff and often very dry, with little narrative skill. Kearns' tendency towards amateur Freudian psychoanalysis also frequently comes off as cringe-worthy, even more so in an era in which most Freudian concepts have been shaken off as highly speculative nonsense. The book also gives virtually no historical context to most of the events that take place, though since it was originally published in 1977, it was probably thought at the time that no such background was necessary for events that had taken place just ten years before. Even so, the quick overviews of major programs like The Great Society and The Civil Rights Act left me feeling like I knew no more about them than when I started. No mention is ever even made of the historic meetings between LBJ and Martin Luther King, Jr. The bulk of the book really has to do with how LBJ managed his staff, how he skillfully worked his fellow politicians to gain power, and how Vietnam brought him down. Kearns does present a ton of first-hand quotes and experiences with LBJ, particularly as they dealt with Vietnam, his political motivations and machinations, and his legacy, but as a whole, the book is a bit of a slog to get through, and so much is left out that it ends up being neither a particularly enjoyable read nor a particularly informative biography. My guess is that this book would best be appreciated by folks who've already read a solid LBJ bio and might find the first hand accounts interesting, as well as the way that LBJ was obviously shaping the narrative Kearns was trying to put together. The fact that Kearns seems to aware of his attempts at manipulating her, and her apparent acknowledgement of that conflict, is actually pretty interesting on a meta-level, but again, it doesn't do much to forward this as a particularly good biography.

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote, and you can tell. It reads a little bit like a college thesis. The attempts at psychoanalysis and the comparisons to Machiavelli kinda got on my nerves and got in the way of the storytelling for me.

She worked with LBJ in the later years of the presidency and afterward, and those were the moments that were most interesting to me. Her writing about those times is so good, and you get a real sense of the type of person he was. You can also tell that she really loved him, and that respect comes through throughout the book. That's a good thing, but it doesn't feel as complex a portrait of him as it could've been. I'd like to read a memoir of her time with him.

I was surprised how much LBJ was like Nixon toward the end of his presidency -- paranoid, mistrustful of the Eastern Establishment, haunted by the Kennedy legacy.

Overall, this was a great intro to LBJ, and I'll read more about him. I read The Best and Brightest about the leadup to the Vietnam War, and I think I'll understand it much more now than I did then. This isn't the end all and be all biography, but I guess it's hard to sum up a man like this in one book.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doris Kearns Goodwin has written a comprehensive book of the life of Johnson from his childhood to his death.

We learn what motivated Johnson. Unfortunately not all of it was positive. Johnson was influenced greatly by his mother, who gave and then withdrew love based on Lyndon's accomplishments. It is clear from this book that Lyndon exhibited the same behaviour in his life: you could be his best buddy this week and ignored the next.

We also learn that he
-- made his fortune through the success of a Texas radio station
-- learned to love the political life from the experiences of his father, who was a local politician
-- was extremely successful in his Senate days because of his personal approach to dealing with his fellow senators and his very strong work ethic
-- attempted to be nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for President in 1960
-- failed that attempt miserably, but John F Kennedy selected him as his Vice Presidential running mate.

When Kennedy was assassinated Johnson
-- became President
-- attempted to win a war in Vietnam (we all know he failed)
-- attempted to implement domestic legislation which he entitled "The Great Society".

Johnson had an abject fear of failure. There were a lot of painful things to read about Johnson in this book. One thing that I did appreciate knowing is that Johnson had a philosophy that "the strong must care for the weak". He strived for power so that he could help others.

At the end of the book, the author summarizes her points in an Author's Postscript
I Personality, II Institutions and Events and III General Conclusions. In the second section the topics House of Representatives, Senate, Nomination Process, Vice-Presidency, and Presidency are encapsulated. I appreciated having this section as a means to review what I had learned.

My conclusion on Johnson is this: He was a complicated man who hungered to be powerful and remembered. I 'walked away' with the impression he was more pathetic than to be admired. I have some other books to read about Johnson and am interested in knowing whether other authors felt the same.

3 stars (Mainly because Johnson was portrayed in terms of his weaknesses. It was just very painful to read)

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great biography of LBJ. Previously I had read Robert Dallek's LBJ biography, and the two books complement one another to give a well rounded description of LBJ's character, personality, drive, public service, accomplishments, and also his shortcomings. This book has somewhat less analysis of policy and legislation than Dallek's book, but it has a great deal more character analysis. Goodwin worked for LBJ in the White House, and she spent countless hours with him on his Texas ranch during his post-presidential years. She came to know the man and understand his personality and his constitution as few others can claim to. This leads to a lot of psychoanalyzing, but in a very objective manner. She can relate Johnson in Johnson's own words spoken to her in confidence as an insider while at the same time discerning between what is verifiable and what is Johnson's wishful thinking or reinventing of reality, and then discussing what this reveals about Johnson and the way he saw the world, related to others, etc. I particularly enjoyed the anecdotes about Johnson's quirky, magnetic, and uniquely earthy personality; and I would have enjoyed even more of them. For a good understanding of Lyndon Johnson, and of America during the years from the Great Depression through the turbulent 1960s, read this very well written book.

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a used book sale on Constitution Ave., NW, in Washington DC many years ago and was enthralled with it. Here is a book that gives a reader access into former President Lyndon Johnson as he was, mainly during his Presidency and shortly after his return to Texas for the last time. Doris Kearns Goodwin first met Johnson when she came to the White House in 1967 to serve an internship from Harvard. And after Johnson left the White House, she also worked with him on his presidential papers. All in all, it was a very rewarding experience to read this book, which I recommend highly.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd heard a few things about President Johnson before reading this book: he was brash and egotistical, he held his dogs up by the ears, and he added a lot of welfare programs during his tenure. So, I didn't know much going in, but thought it would be an entertaining read, perhaps. But, I was disappointed to find out that "brash" and "egotistical" are not exaggerations of his personality, but almost nice ways of describing an extremely self-centered, egomaniac tyrant. A lot of times his petulant and controlling ways reminded me a lot of the proverbial two-year-old. Here's an example that comes off the top of my head of his ego bigger than the size of Texas: after presidency, he wanted his birth place and library to be the most attended of all the presidents. He meticulously tracked attendance, visited almost daily, and would berate the staff if attendance went down. In fact, when his library seemed to lacking the visitors he thought should be there, he told the staff to open earlier in the morning and stay open until late at night. Whew. That's just one of many.

Johnson was a man with many gifts: he had a great deal of energy, he was very smart, had an amazing memory, was extremely generous, had the art of persuasion down to a "t," and had visions of greatness for America; however, his self-centeredness in the end ruined him, turning his presidency into a nightmare, and leaving him a wreck mentally and emotionally as he lived out his last few remaining years of retirement from public life.

The author tends to focus on what made the man tick and does a lot of psychoanalyzing. In fact it almost seems a bit much at times, where every scene has to be explained in terms of how it fit into his personality and his past. She also gets stuck on a few main themes and it starts to feel repetitious at times. Her writing is decent, but I think she gets a little carried away with the psychology babble.

It was interesting finding out more about the problems and issues of the 60s, the Vietnam War, Johnson's Great Society programs, civil right issues, etc. The author goes down some political history "rabbit trails" that were sometimes more interesting than the parts about Johnson. She discusses the evolution of the presidential role and the course of congress through the years.

Now on to Richard Nixon. Oh joy.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a sucker for a good presidential bio and Kearns Goodwin's book is an exceptionally well-written, vivid, and engaging portrait of our colorful 36th president, who gave us the important legislation of his "Great Society," but ultimately tarnished his legacy and altered history forever by bogging us down in the waste of the Vietnam war. Although his legacy is now undergoing some serious rethinking by some historians (who have brought to light just how groundbreaking his Great Society legislation was and continues to be) the book still reads not unlike a Shakespearean tragedy as it nears the end. Highly recommended.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pale shadow of the Robert Caro epics but she was at least able to cover Lyndon Johnson’s entire life and the author has written many excellent books since this one. Rounding up to a four star read, there’s better options out there but you can do a lot worse.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...

“Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream” is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s life of Lyndon Johnson. Published in 1976 (just three years after LBJ’s death), this was Goodwin’s first biographical work. She is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian who has also written about John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft.

Context is critical to understanding any author’s perspective in writing a presidential biography, and Goodwin certainly brings a unique frame of reference to her coverage of LBJ. Having met President Johnson as a White House Fellow in 1967, she maintained a close professional relationship with LBJ until his death in 1973. And her husband (Richard Goodwin) worked in both the JFK and LBJ administrations.

This ostensibly comprehensive 400-page biography memorializes Goodwin’s discussions with Johnson during the decade-long friendship they maintained and attempts to extract from them the true nature of his character. The most intriguing portions of the narrative involve LBJ revealing to Goodwin what he presumably hoped history would remember of his personal and political legacy.

But the most intellectually interesting elements of the 1991 edition I read include the newly-written Forward as well as a lengthy Author’s Postscript. In these sections Goodwin describes the nature of her relationship with LBJ and provides a robust review of her analysis (and psychoanalysis) of his character. Anyone intrigued by LBJ should read Goodwin’s postscript, if nothing else.

Some readers are likely to find Goodwin’s efforts to get inside LBJ’s mind – no matter how interesting or successful she proves – too frequent and pervasive. In addition, anyone searching for the footprints of arduous, detailed research will find fewer (and less instructive) footnotes and sources than in later Goodwin biographies. And while she does an admirable job exposing his most notable strengths and weaknesses, she does not exhibit the same propensity for dissecting and analyzing his presidency.

And just as the author’s focus on Johnson’s persona overshadows his politics, much of his fascinating early life receives scant attention. The four decades in which LBJ grew up, worked as a teacher and eventually found himself in the midst of a lengthy congressional career takes Goodwin less than one hundred pages to explore. Robert Caro, by contrast, consumed nearly 800 pages covering the same ground.

As a result of Goodwin’s comparative brevity, the story of Johnson’s first bid for the U.S. Senate receives only a paragraph – the same amount of space she allocates for his service during World War II. LBJ’s successful (and wildly controversial) election to the Senate, which could easily form the basis of its own book, receives about a page.

Another consequence of the cursory focus on LBJ’s pre-presidency – but a natural consequence of Goodwin’s unique window into his life – is that the reader is never able to observe the incredibly enlightening relationships Johnson maintained with Sam Rayburn and Richard Russell. But perhaps even more critically, this biography fails to reveal the ruthless dexterity with which Johnson accumulated and wielded power as Senate Majority Leader.

Overall, Doris Goodwin’s “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream” capably fills an important niche by revealing the author’s perspective on her interactions with a complex and often conflicted politician. Despite its inherent flaws as a biography, this is a unique and often fascinating book which adds nuance and texture to the portrait of LBJ provided by most contemporary accounts of his life and character.

Overall rating: 3½ stars

[HR-ML · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lyndon Johnson had a well-read mother Rebekah who
taught elocution & debating and his father Sam a hard-
drinking farmer who dabbled in real estate. Money was
tight at times. Lyndon avoided certain avocations dad
thought 'sissy ' IE reading. Historian Goodwin surmised
LBJ learned from his father: doers had more worth than
thinkers. (Later in life, LBJ admitted his distrust of Eastern
intellectuals IE Harvard grads.) Sam served in the state
legislature for a time & took a strong stance against the
KKK.

Goodwin dug into the psychology behind LBJ's thought
process & decision-making: clearly beyond the scope of
her expertise, and annoying when repeated multiple times.
Example: LBJ's mother reportedly gave/withdrew affection
& this impacted on his future thinking & trust issues.

Goodwin touched on LBJ's roles as US Congressman, Sen-
ator, Senate Majority Leader and President. After the Pearl
Harbor attack, LBJ, while still in Congress, joined the Navy,
and served 1 year! Then FDR told all members of both houses
to return to DC.

Johnson created The Great Society for the public good IE
Medicare, Food Stamps, Model Cities, job training, college
loans. The controversy was LBJ's "secret war" in Vietnam
where the US already had advisors. Johnson took $ allocated
for Great Society programs and used it instead for bombing
No. Vietnam, and sending/ escalating the # of US troops in
Vietnam. LBJ's rationale: to prevent the spread of Commun
-ism & WW3. LBJ having insufficient funds for his domestic
& war programs caused inflation & adversely affected the
gold standard backing US currency.

Johnson did not comprehend US war protestors. Goodwin
stated his Cabinet, staff, and some members of Congress
felt LBJ paranoid about this. Johnson shared his theory
that Communists were behind the war protesters, news
reporters, and anyone who opposed his Vietnam stance
and actions. LBJ refused to concede Vietnam was un-
winnable. I can't help but think that Vietnam's abundant
rubber & tin attracted the US and may have extended the
war?

Goodwin praised LBJ as a brilliant negotiator. However he
found foreign policy 'a whole new ballgame.' As examples
LBJ projected that the people of Vietnam valued individual-
ism (actually thought selfish) & private land ownership
(actually trustees of land passed down by generations)
when actually the opposite was true.

Revised

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was about 12 I sent a letter to LBJ asking him to take my dog, a long-haired dachsund, so that I could get a collie. After all, he already had two dogs with floppy ears, right? I got an authentic autograph in return. Somehow that started my preoccupation with LBJ and his career.

At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was a newly commissioned play about the man - All the Way - which deals with the time between the death of JFK and the election of LBJ in his own right. It was absolutely fascinating and I want to see it again.

Thus I was prompted to buy Goodwin's book which was offered in their store. I have read Goodwin's Team of Rivals and find her style very easy to read and her scholarship impeccable. This book is no different. Goodwin actually worked in the White House with LBJ for awhile as an intern - not always directly with him - in spite of her opposing viewpoint on Vietnam. When he retired, LBJ sought her out and asked her to help him put his papers in order so that he could write his memoirs. She agreed to a part-time commitment because she had a teaching job at Harvard that she wanted to keep.

So she has personal knowledge of Johnson and his psychology. He is an amazing person, just as I always knew. Goodwin believes that, had it not been for Vietnam, Johnson would have gone down in history as one of our best presidents. I agree.

If you have any interest in the good ole boy from Texas, read this. Even if you don't, it's a great work on the history of the 50s and 60s in America.

[Ty Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insights. A good biography like this one dives into the personality and motivations of a person, instead of just summarizing events. Learned about LBJ’s background and political approach. Wonderful way to learn about the the legislative dynamics of the Civil Rights Act and the Vietnam War. Author is very authoritative on the peace movement and the Great Society as well. I recommend!

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was originally published in 1976 just years after LBJ died. The author is now quite well known but when she wrote this book she was relatively young but had had A considerable amount of experience working directly with LBJ including while he was president. She had a personal relationship with him which is described quite thoroughly in the introduction to the book which is quite lengthy.

I won’t try to explain this in detail but the author includes some psychological analysis of the life and experience of LBJ which she believes had a significant impact on how he operated throughout his political career. I found the book fascinating to listen to and it says on the cover that it won a Pulitzer Prize so I guess others liked it also.

Both the introductory chapter And the epilogue at the conclusion are included in the audible book. I think both are fascinating aspects of the book and cannot be ignored.

I don’t want to make too much of this comparison but both LBJ and Mr. Trump are habitual liars. One of the aspects of LBJ was that he operated with a good deal of reliance on secrecy. And his senate work he could be different people in talking with different senators. The author makes a significant point of showing how his MO worked quite well throughout his career and even through his first eight months as president after the assassination. But his MO didn’t work for his four-year term.

[Mark T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I was a war protester and my draft number was 33, I had no love for Lyndon Johnson during his presidency. Since then, I had come to appreciate his dramatic role in changing the face of civil rights in America. The behind the scenes look at Johnson, from his pragmatic days on Capitol Hill to his lonely decisions amid a group of "smart" advisors, was excellent.

As a side note, I spent a good portion of my business career in East Asia. You would be surprised at the number of Asians that are my age that feel that the American stand in Viet Nam saved them from communist domination. They had an entirely different perspective about the "domino theory" since they were the dominoes.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doris Kearns had privileged access to LBJ in the years after his retirement and this biography follows the chronological reminiscences of the former president within a broader historical framework punctuated by lengthy discussions about how government works and how Johnson mastered it until the fiasco of Vietnam brought his Great Society and presidency to an end. Although Johnson is revealed as a great storyteller (liar), Kearns' treatment of him is basically sympathetic despite their having been at antipodes as regards the war.

[Joseph Sciuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If it wasn't for Vietnam... Johnson would have been considered one of the greatest presidents, If it wasn't for Vietnam... Johnson would have been..." It is a refrain that one often hears when discussions about President Johnson are brought up and to a certain extent it has some validity.

President Kennedy sowed the seeds in Vietnam, President Johnson... Far from an expert when it came to foreign affairs... Watched it mature and turn into a deadly virus, and President Nixon, used it for political advantage and sacrificed an additional twenty-six thousand more US lives and hundreds of thousands of innocent Vietnamese lives. How Presidents Johnson and Nixon were able to live with themselves after leaving office is hard for me to fathom.

Doris Keans Goodwin's, "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream" gives the reader some amazing insights into the mind and psychic of President Johnson and how he was able to rationalize his oversight of a war that was never declared a war by Congress... A Congress who nevertheless contributed mightily to the war effort by supplying almost unlimited funds without asking any questions.

And yes, if it wasn't for Vietnam, President Johnson might very well have been considered a great President. His legislative achievements in his first three years in office are still to this day unmatched by any other administration, including FDR's New Deal. President Johnson's "Great Society" legislation and the speed in which the legislation was made into laws is a feat of astonishing cooperation between the executive and legislative branches of government. The fact that President Johnson was a legend and greatly admired Majority Leader in the Senate for twelve years had a lot to do with it. Sadly, the speed in which these domestic laws were passed left little time, in most cases, to put into place the structure necessary to implement and help the people it was intended to help.

Mrs. Goodwin's book, like everything else this great historian has written, is a must read. She brings to life one of the most complicated, intelligent, and flawed Presidents of all time. It is an amazing and stunning look at a president who, until this very day, a very small percentage of Americans truly know about, and yet his impact and accomplishments are still felt throughout the many cities and communities that make up our country.

[SD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily in my top three fav bios. DGK rocks.

[Clif · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dream of any biographer is to know the subject in person. Without knowing at the time that she would write a biography of LBJ, Doris Kearns (Goodwin) won a White House Fellowship during the Johnson administration when she was in her 20's.

This allowed her access to the daily goings on as an observer, but for some reason that she says she doesn't know, the president took a liking to her, was quite open in conversation with her and eventually trusted her to the extent that he asked her to help him write his memoirs after retiring to his ranch in Texas.

This intellectual intimacy allowed Kearns not only to hear the opinions of the chief executive but to question and even challenge him on them. The result is a clear examination of a distinctively peculiar personality as LBJ went from great popularity on the occasion of his beating Barry Goldwater for the presidency in 1964 to being the object of hatred over the Vietnam War, resulting in his early retirement with the refusal to compete in the election of 1968.

Kearns dips into psychology carefully, suggesting why LBJ behaved as he did while in no way claiming more than informed speculation, the most that any of us can do when we analyze others.

A man from rural Johnson City, Texas, LBJ had a demanding mother who praised what she felt was good behavior and gave the silent treatment when she did not, holding as a standard her deceased father who was a successful and cultivated man. LBJ's father was by contrast a person who did not always behave as his wife would want and in the background was a grandfather who would regale young Lyndon with stories of the old cattle drives filled with danger and hardships.

Central to LBJ's character was a theme of the times in his 1920's youth, part of the American dream of the title. If you worked hard you would prevail at any task and your character would be forged by the challenges you applied yourself to overcoming. There was an aphorism appropriate to any situation. My mother, born the same year as LBJ, was full of these tidbits of good advice such a stitch in time saving nine or the early bird getting the worm. One that sticks in my mind was "root, little pig, or die!" There was, hovering above every boy and girl of the time a clear image of the good man or woman that a child should strive to be. This resulted in much of the conformity that was so thoroughly rejected first by such as Lenny Bruce but then by many young people in the late 1960's.

LBJ took to the times. He rose through jobs where he would take on work a superior did not want to do and make himself indispensable. He won a seat in the House of Representatives, then one in the Senate, became vice-president and, with the death of JFK, president. Success came as he expected through hard work and long hours, the only bleak period being his time as VP when there was little for him to apply himself to.

He showed what ambition could accomplish when accompanied by a sincere desire to better the lives of others, something exactly the opposite of what we see in the man who thinks only of himself in the White House today.

LBJ had an almost supernatural ability to detect the wants and needs of individuals. For a politician, this is a golden gift as it allows productive bargaining. Johnson would corner this or that senator alone and far more often than not reach a compromise that produced something that senator wanted for his state. This was very productive both during his time in the Senate when legislation passed through at a rate that astounds the reader, as currently we witness the ability of one senator to bring legislation to a complete stop, and in his first years as president. He tailored his approach according to the likes and dislikes of the person he was addressing, being a down home boy with anecdotes to offer or a sober realist if that was what would appeal to the audience of one.

Coupled with this ability was LBJ's phenomenal memory that allowed him to retain a mental picture of every senator he dealt with, not just what each wanted in legislation but also personal likes and dislikes, and preferences for places to vacation or visit. If a fact finding trip needed to be taken to Japan, for example, he would recall that Senator X's wife loved Japanese art. Would that senator and his wife be able to go to Japan? This is a master at work.

Kearns gives excellent descriptions of how the parts of our government function, explaining how different is the job of representative and senator, allowing the reader to understand why LBJ excelled in Washington in each position he held, except VP, until his undoing by the Vietnam War.

In contrast to his deep understanding of his fellow Americans when dealing with them as individuals, he was at a loss to understand the war. Still working from aphorisms such as a winner never quits or one I heard him use: "We've got to nail the coonskin to the wall", Johnson could not understand how a "piss-ant" country could defy a superpower. He could not comprehend a people willing to die to the last man rather than yield to a foreign invader. His ability to negotiate and compromise, to get another party to see his side of an argument failed him when there was no opportunity for personal interaction. Above all the American fear of communism made Vietnam a chess piece rather than a real place. Johnson had visited there once during his days in Congress.

Realizing he was not a foreign policy expert, he yielded to those who had the credentials that said they were qualified to advise him. As always, none of the experts were from the country under discussion. With the notable exception of George Ball, the experts advised staying the course, though Secretary of Defense McNamama burned out and left office after years of trying to make war conform to efficiency studies. Finally the Tet offensive ended the delusion that progress was being made and the division of opinion in the US made Johnson see that he had lost the ability to bring people together. The war was his nemesis and it won.

LBJ longed to be loved by those who received the benefits he made possible, and there were so many that came under the heading of The Great Society. He would tell Kearns that he knew the American people loved him only to be dumbfounded by the strident way so many indicated that they didn't.

Though he had a towering ambition, Johnson was insecure. He reviled the silver spoon Kennedys and was so greatly concerned to not appear as a country bumpkin that his appearances before large groups of people were stilted, deliberately hiding the personal charm, colorful language and expert mimicry with which he would regale individuals or intimate groups.

He had haunting dreams of being paralyzed while others carried on around him and near the end of his life he would get into bed, pull up the covers and hold interviews with Kearns in this state.

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream is a classic biography and deserves to be for its intimacy due to the very special relationship of LBJ to Doris Kearns. Much can be learned of the way American government worked in 1960's as a side benefit of the life story of a man who more than any other knew how to work it.

NOTE: my copy was the first edition paperback. I notice that the author has written a new forward in the current edition.

[John Blumenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read several of Goodwin’s books and loved all of them (“Team of Rivals” is my favorite), but this one is just plain boring. Don’t get me wrong—I find LBJ a fascinating character who, had it not been for Vietnam, would arguably be considered one of the great Presidents. But Goodwin is way too analytical and annoyingly repetitive—she analyzes his skill at arm-twisting over and over, repeating the same details about his strategy. I got it the first time. It almost felt like padding. I flipped eagerly through the pages of her other books but this one was a slog.

[Jakub Dovcik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson will inevitably be compared with Robert Caro's books. But that would be unfair, for not just that this book is relatively short, compared with the monumental volumes of Caro (and Dallek), but it is also written in a very different manner, style and technique.

Whereas Caro spends almost a decade studying every available document, interviewing every possible person that would be relevant to his retelling of the story, Doris Kearns Goodwin had a close working relationship with LBJ and helped him with his memoirs, but had not focused closely on his papers and records. She was also much more engaged in opposition to the Vietnam war and worked on the Great Society programs as a White House Fellow (when Caro was still working on the Power Broker) so that her accounts have a more personal touch and relative limitation.

But her perspective is also very interesting, in that she was one of the "Harvards" that Johnson felt so insecure about - his interactions with her had a purpose and what she was able to gather from him was to a large extent (even though she reflects on it) meant to correct his record for the posterity among certain groups of people.

The biggest weakness of the book is its use of psychoanalysis and even references to Freudian theory. The author's conceptualisation of LBJ's personality is constructed around his frail relationship with his mother, which is almost wholly absent from Caro's or other biographers' narratives. At the same time she does not dive deep enough into his relationship with his father and the impact his loss of fortune had on LBJ.

Her analysis - both within the text and in the summarising afterword - of LBJ's uses of power is also rather naive and does not go into serious detail about LBJ's ties to the oil men and construction contractors like the Brown brothers, the origins of his wealth, his stealing of votes in 1942 and 1948 or membership in the Southern caucus. While she provides an interesting perspective of how LBJ would function in the House or Senate of different eras (in House he was in the worst of times for him, in the Senate in the best), her explanations of his uses of power as the Senate Majority leader are really shallow.

Absent is a dive into LBJ's relationship with Bobby Kennedy or Rayburn and John Connaly is not even mentioned. On the other hand, inner workings of the White House staff during the design and implementation of the Great Society are really fascinating (will have to wait for Caro's take on them for a while). This parts (and others too but to a lesser extent) read more like a work of academic political science, which was Doris Kearns Godwin’s occupation at the time of the writing of the book.

Although it is definitely an interesting portrayal of LBJ from someone that had direct and intense interactions with him, it must be understood from the perspective that LBJ had in interactions with the author as well as her relative biases as a relatively external person, brought inside LBJ's close proximity very late in his career. So, rather than a definitive account, in is an enjoyable and well-written view (except the Freud stuff).

[Mary Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Doris Kearns Goodwin worked for Lyndon Johnson in the White House and later helped him with his memoirs, which he never finished. She published this biography in 1976 shortly after he died.

Goodwin starts her book the same way his other biographers have started their books. She talks about Johnson’s childhood and family and tells many of the same stories of his youth and schooling. But unlike the authors who came after her, she psychoanalyzes the man from the point of view of his relationships with his family, particularly his mother. Goodwin quickly gives us the important facts of Johnson’s youth, his college years where we first encounter his astonishing leadership skills, and his job as a school principal, where we first see his ideals, ideals that were rare in a Southerner of the 1920s. She gradually stops psychoanalyzing, and starts showing us the man behind the public figure. He was a powerful man, unstoppable when he decided to get things done, whether to pass a bill or to change the rules in the Senate. He was very likable, he would tell you he loved you. He was an amazing storyteller. And he was a liberal from the start. And as he told Goodwin, “I never had any bigotry in me.”

Goodwin had rare insights into Johnson’s feelings, political tactics and beliefs. And the second half of the book is completely different from the first half and completely different from Johnson’s other biographies. Instead of showing us in great detail just how Johnson becomes “Master of the Senate” (by way of the House) as Robert Caro does so brilliantly, Goodwin skips the conversations, most of the machinations and the sketches of those who are important to Johnson’s rise to power, and shows us how Johnson justified his power grabs, his elimination of most debate in the Senate, his one on one conferences in the Senate cloakroom, his philosophy of power and action, and ultimately how he lived and worked with his great talent. Importantly, she never lets us forget that even though Johnson complained about the liberals when he was in the Senate (and they complained about him), and even though he often caucused with the Southern Democrats, he was always a liberal himself -- but also a pragmatist. He waited patiently until he was president, when he had the power to enact civil rights reforms. And his machinations in getting the Voting Rights Act passed shows how he used his immense knowledge of people and politics to work miracles.

Throughout his career, Johnson had an immense regard for the Presidency. He was a Roosevelt man, and later, as Majority Leader, he went out of his way to support Eisenhower’s policies, something his fellow Democrats didn’t appreciate. He believed that the President was the only one who could truly introduce formative legislation….which may partially explain why he did not push for civil rights causes until he himself was president.

As President, Johnson gave the US the Great Society – civil rights, education reform, Medicare, the War on Poverty and so much more. He had forty years of domestic service under his belt when he became President, and as President, he managed to give the nation what it needed most in the Great Society. Unfortunately, he also gave the US the tragedy of Vietnam. Here Goodwin shows us a man, unskilled in foreign policy, who trusts too much in his own advisors, lets himself be distracted from the Great Society, and ultimately damages his great gift to his own people by diverting most of his energy and much of the nation’s wealth to the Vietnam War. Goodwin is quite damning of his efforts in Vietnam, his secrecy, his bad judgment, and his petulance during the period of the US escalation in Vietnam and the failure of the US economy.

She explains that Johnson said he wanted the best for the people of Vietnam: he envisioned the reconstruction of Vietnam while American bombs were destroying it. And Johnson’s vision for Vietnam was the same as his vision for America, though Vietnamese ideals could never be equated with American values. Johnson hoped for the rise of the individual in Vietnam, while the Vietnamese placed a superior value on community. Forty-five years after she wrote this book, Goodwin’s arguments against US involvement in Vietnam and Johnson’s terrible role in prolonging the war are probably more convincing today than they were then.

This is an enlightening book, more valuable to me because I had already read so much about Johnson.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little girl when I first registered and recognized the name of this man. . .it was a curse word out of the mouths of my parents - who much preferred Barry Goldwater, and they were late-night crouching around the presidential elections results on our blinking TV. . .

By morning Lyndon Johnson was president - I can remember watching speeches on TV, ones my father especially growled at, but by the time I was in 5th grade, he was out and faded away into America until he passed into history.

Then this book shows up in my TBR. . .and we begin. Who knew he was a child once, with a family that hounded him, shaped him, dented him with flaws he'd carry throughout his life. He started his political life young, all the way back to FDR's administration. I had no idea.

He, and DKG's great writing, kept me interested to the very end. He sounds like he was a handful of trouble, pouting, power, and determination. His stay and support was Lady Bird, and I think she's who I would like to next read about before thinking further on LBJ.