LBJ: A Biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson

by Irwin Unger and Debi Unger

From a Pulitzer prize-winning writer, the only single-volume biography of the towering yet enigmatic leader--from his humble origins to his rise to America's highest office Flawed as a human being, Lyndon Johnson was a towering public figure of his era, a man whose social programs changed America in profound ways. In this compelling new biography, Irwin and Debi Unger explore the political and personal influences that made Johnson such an unpredictable, charismatic, and difficult man, depicting his life as a constant tension between political expediency and doing the right thing for Americans. From the hard-scrabble life of the Texas hill country to the colorful brand of Lone Star elections to power politics in Washington, this enormously readable biography traces the life, influences, and motivations of this compelling figure who occupied the White House during one of the most tumultuous periods in our nation's history. Irwin Unger (New York, NY) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for The Greenback Era. His most recent book was The Best Intentions: The Triumph and Failure of the Great Society Under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
Debi Unger (New York, NY) is a writer, editor, and researcher, and was most recently co-author of America in the 20th Century.

• ISBN10: 0471176028
• ISBN13: 9780471176022
• Publish Date: 17 September 1999
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 8 October 2008
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 592
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

Not reviewing this book as such, more writing a note for my own record.

I am not rating this book as my reason for abandoning it is not the quality of the book but rather that I have lost interest in the subject.

The book is well written as far as I can tell. No idea where the authors are going with this, but the start of the book focuses on the hardships of LBJ's early life that influenced some of his political motivations.

However, there is, even within the first 50 pages, much honing in on Johnson's passion for social justice, which is an assertion, or rather an assumption on Johnson's character, that will, no doubt, create cause for contention later on in his biography.