Donna’s review of The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1) > Likes and Comments

Very interesting as I have been meaning to dig into Caro's behemoth for sometime having bought the most recent book in this series but not the others. I have a friend who has offered me vol. 1 and I must take him up on it. Much of what you speak of is also covered in Randall B. Woods 2006 biography LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. This bio took advantage of the release of thousands of hours of white house tapes along with the recent declassification of tens of thousands of documents. For all his warts I think LBJ will go down as possibly the last great President. He learned the so called art of political skulduggery and used it to achieve many things no other President could or would since. He will go down as another FDR. His first hundred days after the JFK assassination is a monument to American liberalism, a liberalism that has all but vanished. I am learning also from Time Wiener's excellent new work on the history of the FBI that He relied on Hoover a great deal to get things done foreign policy wise, some of them of the "ugly American" variety. If only Obama had the skill and craft to deal with the worst congress in the history of the excited states...sigh...but alas American is on the decline and Presidents are little more than CEOs of America Inc.

Here is that LBJ book by Woods I mentioned: http://amzn.to/N77GI7

And here is a history of the FBI I mentioned by *Tim* Weiner http://amzn.to/N77N6D