Lbj: A Life: A Biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson - Rilegato

Unger, Irwin; Unger, Debi

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0471176028 ISBN 13: 9780471176022

Casa editrice: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1999

Riassunto

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.

Su questo libro

L'autore

IRWIN UNGER won the Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for The Greenback Era. His most recent book was The Best of Intentions: The Triumph and Failure of the Great Society under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. DEBI UNGER is a writer, editor, and researcher, and was most recently coauthor of Turning Point: 1968.

Dalla seconda/terza di copertina

A New One-Volume Biography of a Larger-Than-Life American Leader For the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Irwin Unger and author Debi Unger explore the enigmatic and complex figure of Lyndon B. Johnson as both a public and personal figure—examining his monumental achievements in the political arena, as well as his conflicted and turbulent relationships with his family, friends, and colleagues. From his early days in politics, Lyndon B. Johnson had always wanted to be president. But the journey to this lofty position was a rocky one professionally and emotionally. As a child of struggling parents whose fortunes abruptly rose and fell in the rough Texas landscape, LBJ’s progress towards adulthood, a profession in politics, and a personal identity was a difficult one. Tormented by doubts and depression throughout his life, Lyndon Johnson could be a tornado of activity and ideas one day and deeply angry and insecure the next. His soul was also a perpetual battleground between principle and expediency, between ideals and ambition. Yet his mind, once fixed on something, could not rest until it was achieved. When he met Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor, he proposed within a day of their first date, and courted her relentlessly until they married two months later. As a young schoolteacher at a segregated Mexican-American school, the future president caught his first glimpse of true poverty. While struggling to motivate teachers and establish a hot breakfast program, he laid the stones for his social agenda in the decades to come. But the world of politics was where he belonged, and when a position as secretary for Congressman Richard Kleberg gave him his first opportunity in Washington, he used it for all it was worth. Using his connections and the name he made for himself among the members of Congress, he was able to gain a congressional seat. After a distinguished career in the Senate, he was elected vice president to John F. Kennedy. Still he was plagued by doubts and insecurity among the "Harvards" of Camelot, so different in background from the people he knew. Then his dream was fulfilled—in the most shocking and tragic way imaginable, when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Suddenly Johnson was in power, with the legendary shadow of the young and vibrant former president hovering over him. As the first shock of the tragedy faded, the new president was able to work on his domestic agenda of Civil Rights, War on Poverty, and other initiatives that made up his Great Society program. But the war in Vietnam that had started when he was vice president escalated—and so did the controversy surrounding it. As dissension grew in Congress, in the press, and in a discontented and highly vocal public, Johnson began to see his presidency crumbling around him. Finally, he declared that his one full term would be his last. In the years following his presidency, Johnson struggled with the insecurity and depression that had plagued him throughout his life. Yet he managed to remain a fixture in the Democratic Party, and made efforts to further the progress of some of his beloved social programs. In this compassionate, insightful biography, Irwin and Debi Unger examine the private man as well as the political animal—to reveal his demons and his dreams, and give us a compelling glimpse of this larger-than-life figure.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0471176028
• ISBN 13: 9780471176022
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 586