Lyndon Johnson

Obviously the focus of this book, Lyndon Johnson was one of the most powerful men in American political history, as well as one of the most tragic. Born into relative poverty in Blanco County, Texas, Johnson was the product of two parents who were diametrically opposed in their values and methods of child-rearing. The decision to go into politics probably emanated from his grandfather and father, both of whom held local and state elected offices. From his days at San Marcos College through his height of power as president, Johnson was able to develop and use his superior skills of persuasion, manipulation, coercion, and negotiation to achieve not just his own personal and political goals, but to literally push his programs through Congress and into the laps of the American public. His ambition and his simplistic view of society and human nature, however, resulted in failed domestic...