LBJ: Architect of American Ambition [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

~ Randall Woods (Author)
Key Phrases: Lady Bird, United States, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Why, after major works by Robert A. Caro and Robert Dallek, do we need another biography of Lyndon B. Johnson? The answer is that Johnson was so complex that every new biographer willing to do the tough spadework of original research discovers fresh layers of Johnsonian reality to explain, new psychological and political corridors to explore. Such is the case with this excellent new work by University of Arkansas historian Woods (Fulbright, a Biography). Woods finds Johnson's key motivation to be largely altruistic, emerging from righteous outrage over the poverty and racism he'd witnessed while growing up in Texas. Woods serves up a Johnson who is less cynical, less self-serving and more heroic and tragic than the man portrayed elsewhere. Woods's Johnson is a man who saw his greatest personal ambitions realized with the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, and the Great Society programs. Not inappropriately, Woods concludes his eloquent and riveting account by quoting Ralph Ellison, who noted that Johnson, spurned at the end of his life by both liberals and conservatives, would "have to settle for being recognized as the greatest American President for the poor and for the Negroes, but that, as I see it, is a very great honor indeed." 16 pages of b&w photos. (Aug.)
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From The Washington Post

Almost 40 years after he left the White House, public perceptions of Lyndon B. Johnson remain shrouded in myth and caricature. Several generations of spinmeisters have hammered in the idea that this deeply flawed but extraordinarily gifted president represented only disaster: Vietnam, urban riots, failed anti-poverty programs, the unfettered growth of big government. LBJ himself contributed generously to his cartoon image as a bombastic Texas wheeler-dealer.

But in his masterful new biography, Randall B. Woods convincingly makes the case for Johnson's greatness -- as the last American president whose leadership achieved truly revolutionary breakthroughs in progressive domestic legislation, bringing changes that have improved the lives of most Americans. In this compelling, massive narrative, Woods portrays Johnson fairly and fully in all his complexity, with adequate attention to flaws in his character and his tragic miscalculations in Vietnam. Considering today's vitriolic polarization, it is instructive to learn how Johnson skillfully won broad public and bipartisan support to break the gridlock associated with the controversial, historic 1964 and 1965 civil rights acts and more than a score of other major initiatives.

Yes, LBJ was a legendary master of political arm-twisting and favor-trading. But Woods -- a distinguished professor of history at the University of Arkansas and the author of a widely praised biography of J. William Fulbright -- shows that Johnson's success in winning public and congressional support more often depended on his guiding liberal vision, his wise choice of mentors, his encyclopedic knowledge of people and issues, his dedication to consensus and his ability to persuade others to rise above their parochial interests to support the finest ideals of American democracy. In illuminating detail, Woods describes the enormous political skills with which Johnson, in quiet partnership with civil rights leaders, persuaded Congress to secure the basic freedoms of African Americans. Woods reminds us that dozens of government benefits and protections that Americans take for granted today were won in the 1960s principally because of LBJ's vision, legislative mastery and determination. Without Johnson, Woods insists, the nation would not then have adopted such basic federal programs as medical care for the elderly and poor, college loans and grants for needy students, the nation's first basic environmental and consumer-protection laws, and an immigration policy that has enriched America with talent from all over the world.

Woods follows in the footsteps of LBJ's most reliable earlier biographers -- Ronnie Dugger, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Robert Dallek -- but makes his own unique contribution to the Johnson literature with a fresh, probing interpretation of the influences and ideals that shaped Johnson and his presidency. Woods's subtitle, "Architect of American Ambition," captures LBJ's expansive concept of what a progressive and activist government could and should accomplish for its people. LBJ emphasizes values and motives quite different from those stressed to excess by Robert Caro, whose volumes portray Johnson as driven principally by an insatiable urge for personal aggrandizement and power.

Woods also explains more fully the influence of Johnson's Western frontier heritage, taking a different approach from other writers who have stressed the primacy of simple patriotism and rugged individualism in Western culture. Instead, Woods portrays the young Johnson as most deeply influenced by the prairie populist politics of his grandfather, Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr., and his father, Samuel Ealy Jr. (both members of the Texas legislature), and by the liberal Christian social activism of his mother, Rebekah. "The Johnson family's patriotism was the patriotism of Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, not Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge," writes Woods. "Their liberalism was the 'positive' liberalism of the Progressive Era presidents, who saw the federal government as an active agent dedicated to conserving natural resources, regulating big business to insure a modicum of social justice."

The book's strengths include a balanced narrative, graceful prose and Woods's nuanced understanding of Southern politics and culture. Its imperfections include a series of careless minor errors, such as placing former Senators John Stennis (D-Miss.) and Frank Lausche (D-Ohio) in the wrong states and making Stewart Udall a member of the Senate, rather than the House.

Woods appears to empathize deeply with Johnson, feeling the tragedy of a disdained president. To sum up the ironic ending to Johnson's career, Woods quotes the columnist Charles Roberts: "The most militant civil-rights advocate ever to occupy the White House, reviled by Negro militants; a Southerner scorned by Southerners as a turn-coat; a liberal despised by liberals despite the fact he achieved most of what they sought for thirty years; a friend of education, rejected by intellectuals; a compromiser who could not compromise a war ten thousand miles away." But not all is tragedy. Woods concludes his memorable biography by turning to Ralph Ellison, the distinguished black intellectual. As Johnson was spurned by "conservatives and cosmopolitan liberals," Ellison predicted, LBJ would "have to settle for being recognized as the greatest American President for the poor and for the Negroes, but that, as I see it, is a very great honor indeed."

Reviewed by Nick Kotz
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1024 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1St Edition edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684834588
• ISBN-13: 978-0684834580
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #663,784 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Giant book for a Giant of a Man, March 13, 2007

By	J.G. (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

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.

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written but an amazing number or factual errors, September 25, 2006

By	William H. Korman (New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

134 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't mess with Texas, August 31, 2006

By	Calochortus "aroid" (San Luis Obispo, CA) - See all my reviews

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The author has unearthed a large amount of information, as you would expect from a professional historian and academic. And he wishes to share a lot of it with the reader. His style is flat, clear and in the tradition of some of the better Wikipedia entries. If you are fond of reading histories by David McCullough, think of this as the anti-McCullough. Long paragraphs full of detailed information, and a very long book. Minimal amount of interpretation, synthesis and story-telling. Tough-sledding if, like me, you had the impression from Caro's books that LBJ was an unsavory man whose lack of courage and honor kept him from ending the war when he knew he should. There is a tidal wave of information here, data overload. Not sure what the point is, though. A more thoughtful, interpretative, argumentative approach would have been far better. Do we really need to know everything he did on so many days?