LBJ: Architect of American Ambition

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 Lincol

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.

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 seem 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.

Few presidents generate as much debate today as Lyndon Baines Johnson. From relatively humble roots in Texas, he rose to the pinnacle of power in American politics. Brash and domineering to the point of obnoxiousness, he turned the position of Senate majority leader into the key office in that body through a mastery of wheeling and dealing that served him well as president and ensured the passage of a vast range of legislation that transformed the nation. Yet all of this is weighed against the controversial involvement in the Vietnam War, a topic that still triggers fervent discussion. All of these elements are present in Randall Woods's new biography of LBJ. He chronicles Johnson's life from his Hill Country roots to his last ailment-plagued years on his iconic ranch. He begins with Johnson's parents, Sam Early and Rebekah Baines, both of whom played a critical role in shaping young Lyndon as he inherited his father's politics and his mother's idealism. From his early years, Woods goes on to chart Lyndon's rise in American politics, from his emergence as an ardent New Dealer in the 1930s through his famously narrow victory in the 1948 Democratic Senate primary to his role as Senate majority leader in the 1950s. Throughout it all he details Johnson's relationships with other political "fathers", most notably Sam Rayburn and Richard Russell - men from whom Johnson learned about the workings of Congress and who he courted and cultivated for their enormously influential support. As impressive as Johnson's achievements were, however, he would be satisfied with nothing less than the highest office in the land. Here the author introduces us to the clash between Johnson and Robert Kennedy, a clash that would define much of the politics of the 1960s with its bitterness and political maneuvering. While the younger Kennedy would argue that his older brother named Johnson as his running mate as a publicity move, Woods makes it clear that Jack Kennedy offered the vice presidency to LBJ because he didn't think he could win the White House without the Texan on the ticket. Yet JFK's recognition of Johnson's political indispensability did not extend to a broader respect for the man, as Johnson found himself the subject of much contempt and derision from the Kennedys's "Irish mafia". Johnson was so miserable as vice-president, Woods argues, that he was preparing to tell Kennedy of his intention to not seek renomination as his running mate when an assassin's bullets suddenly propelled him into the presidency. Thrust by circumstance into the office he long sought, Johnson was determined to make the most of the opportunity. Woods is generous in his interpretation of the programs that constituted the Great Society, seeing it as a reflection of Johnson's genuine concern for the disadvantaged and a product of a coherent political philosophy. This was especially true for civil rights, where Johnson knew his efforts would prove politically damaging in the

First, let me say that this book is well written and never dull. It is also a fairly objective view of LBJ, very welcome after Caro's multi-volumes of character assassination. The frustrating part of the book, however, is a barrage of incorrect facts, leading to the question of whether anyone actually edited this book. Lister Hill is repeatedly identified as a senator form Florida (he represented Alabama), Huey Long is described, in a very famous episode, as helping Hattie Carraway get elected to the Governorship of Arkansas (she was running for and was elected to the Senate) and Douglas MacArthur is described as a "young brigadier general" at the time he routed the "bonus" army from Washington. He was actually the 52 year old chief of staff of the U.S. Army at this time, holding four star rank.