Lyndon B. Johnson : Portrait of a President [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Robert Dallek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195159217 | Publication Date: March 3, 2005

Robert Dallek's brilliant two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has received an avalanche of praise. Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available. Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the 'human dynamo', from the Texas hill country to the White House. In these pages, Johson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven. Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this singular biography reveals both the greatness and the tangled complexities of one of the most extravagant characters ever to step onto the presidential stage.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Until Robert Caro completes his multivolume opus, Dallek's two-volume LBJ biography is the best one available. Dallek's work reflects impressive detachment toward a figure about whom few were neutral, least of all LBJ himself. He inherited an elevated sense of self, according to Dallek, who describes the Johnson family's relatively high place on the local social ladder despite their poverty. But LBJ's ego was strangely fragile and self-pitying, and in the conclusion, Dallek questions, after narrating the fateful decisions to escalate the Vietnam conflict, Johnson's "capacity to make rational life and death decisions." He lived and conducted politics as a personal enterprise, as Dallek's account of LBJ's wheeling-and-dealing rise from congressional aide to president illustrates. On the un-seamy side, Dallek credits LBJ's personal experience with poverty as a motive in his championing the social and civil rights enactments of the 1960s. In Dallek's hands, Johnson is complex, deceitful, and idealistic, and the author shows why the man's legacy, both positive and negative, will always command interest and debate. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Robert Dallek is a gifted biographer, and he is also an astute observer of politics and foreign policy. In Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President, he writes of a president trying to sustain a war in a far-off place, a war that is growing progressively unwinnable and unpopular, a war the flimsy legal authority for which rests on a congressional resolution that the public has come to understand was exaggerated at best, trumped up at worst.... This biography is timely. However you view the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, you can't read this book and not feel they are with us."--Boston Globe

"This abridgement of Dallek's masterly two-volume biography, Lone Star Rising and Flawed Giant, is a welcome addition to the literature...excellent for all readers who want a refresher or introduction to Lyndon Johnson."--Library Journal

"In Dallek's hands, Johnson is complex, deceitful, and idealistic, and the author shows why the man's legacy, both positive and negative, will always command interest and debate."--Booklist

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• ISBN-10: 0195159217
• ASIN: B000F4LMMQ
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,790,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Dallek is the author of Nixon and Kissinger, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, among other books. His writing has appeared in the The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians, for which he served as president in 2004-2005. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Single Volume Biography of LBJ, October 1, 2004

By 

C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (Hardcover)

Robert Dallek has abriged his two volume set (nearly 1,500 pages) down to 400+ pages. Mr. Dallek is a solid writer and researcher. His biography will give you a sense of LBJ as a person and a politican, his accomplishments and his life & times. This will remain as the best single-volume biography available to the reader. So if reading just one book on LBJ is your goal, then this is your book.

Having said that, I wish to encourage the reader to explore either Mr. Dallek's original set or the never-ending magnum opus of Robert Caro (three volunes and over 2,700 pages so far). For better or for worse, LBJ was second only to FDR for his domination and impact upon the American political scene in a 40 year career that stretched from the 1930's to the 1960's. LBJ had an outsized personality and ambitions that was his strength and, ultimately, his weakness. Although Mr. Dallek does a excellent job in condensing his prior work, no single volume can ever do justice to the life of LBJ.

Personally, I prefer Robert Caro's massive, and sometimes, exhaustive work (his current three books only cover LBJ up to 1960, the same time period for Mr. Dallek's original first volume). Mr. Caro is a wonderful storyteller (somewhat akin to William Manchester) and you are swept away in his epic tale of LBJ. In deciding what to read, it really comes down to how much time and how much interest the reader has in the life of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating biography that paints a complete picture, December 13, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (Hardcover)

Professor Robert Dallek provides an incredible biography of one of the most complex presidents of the twentieth century, LBJ. Readers obtain insight into a compassionate yet deceitful individual who believed in his populist social reforms; Professor Dallek believes LBJ was motivated by an impoverish childhood. Of most interest is how LBJ anguished over the Nam War that just seemed to get worse everyday and he finding no way out of the quicksand. Also interesting is the self comparison to JFK and RFK.

Well written and easy to read, LYNDON B. JOHNSON: PORTRAIT OF A PRESIDENT is a fantastic bio of an individual who wielded power like an emperor yet had a fragile ego. His legacy includes Medicare, environmental protection, and noteworthy improvements in civil rights but is often overshadowed by Viet Nam. Many of LBJ's accomplishments still impact Americans today thirty-five years after he left office. Professor Dallek provides the complete picture of the man in a fascinating biography that paints an interesting picture (pros and cons), not the anecdotal generalizing spin that is seen too often today. This is a great bio worth reading by everyone especially historical and political science fans.

Harriet Klausner

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Repeating: Best one volume bio of LBJ, April 11, 2007

By 

R. C Sheehy "deadsox" (Foxboro,MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (Paperback)

Given the complexity of both the man and the times he lived in I would have thought that a one volume biography of Lyndon Johnson was impossible. While certain sacrifices are made, for example the LBJ's relationships with his contemporaries are often glossed over, the book does its job and portrays the basics of who LBJ was. Dallek also does a good job at describing the master politician that LBJ was and how that helped him craft one of the most assertive and successful legislative agenda's in American history. Lastly, he explains how LBJ's obession with Vietnam ultimately lead to his downfall. A very interesting book and a strong must read for people interested in 20th century history.