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.
Background Information
Lyndon B. Johnson, a powerful Democratic Senator from Texas, was JFK's vice-president in the 1960 election and succeeded him in November 1963. Lyndon Johnson launched the federal government into a wide variety of social programs that he termed the Great Society. The United States slid slowly into the position previously held by France in Indochina and became engulfed in a long war in Vietnam. The White House is the official residence in Washington DC of the President of the United States.
