From Publishers Weekly
Readers familiar with the original, exciting research of LBJ biographers Robert Caro (working on volume three for Knopf), Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ronnie Dugger and Robert Dallek will find this volume derivative, if accessible. Historian Irwin Unger (The Greenback Era, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965) and Debi Unger (coauthor of America in the 20th Century) seem to be neither pro-Johnson nor anti-Johnson. Their main concern is to give an accurate chronology of LBJ's career, which they do. The authors capture LBJ's hell-raising Texas childhood and adolescence, his surprising ascent from backwater schoolteacher to ruthless politician, his domination of the U.S. Senate, his elevation to the White House after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his passionate advocacy of a Great Society, the Vietnam War, his downfall, his restless postpresidential life until his death in 1973, his complicated marriage to Lady Bird, his womanizing and much more. While the authors emphasize that, throughout his life, LBJ struggled to balance the often tawdry practicalities of politics with his more elevated commitment to social justice, they shy away from making a definitive judgment on LBJ's performance. Their own performance is adequate and well-written, but only a strongly articulated assessment of LBJ would have distinguished this book from other biographies. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Few authors have attempted a one-volume life of the idealistic but controversial Lyndon B. Johnson, and none has succeeded like Irwin Unger (The Best of Intentions, LJ 4/1/96) and Debi Unger. This engaging, well-researched biography draws on many of the recent fine works of the Johnson years, notably Robert Dallek's Flawed Giant (LJ 3/15/98) and Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-64 (S. & S., 1997), edited by Michael Beschloss. The Ungers synthesize these and other works to portray LBJ as a president driven to help people but victimized by his own pathologiesAa need for constant approval, an abusive temper, and a probable mood disorder. Johnson the moderate always felt under attack by Republicans and also by the powerful conservative and liberal factions of his own Democratic Party. His greatest victories brought on personal elation along with a depressing sense of urgency. The Ungers do not include a summation of Johnson's mixed legacy but conclude with a bittersweet account of his four postpresidential years. Highly recommended for academic and most public libraries.AKarl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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