A Hero at Home, A Hawk Abroad: 3 of the Best LBJ Biographies

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Today marks the 106th birthday of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. Johnson served his nation as a senator, congressman, and vice-president before assuming the office of president, and is one of only four presidents to have done so. A brilliant but complicated man faced with the challenges of war abroad and growing civil strife at home, Johnson left a legacy of progressive social change overshadowed by his failure to end a bloody, unpopular war in Vietnam.

Johnson began his career in public service as a school teacher, working for about a year before relocating to Washington, DC to serve as a legislative secretary under Democratic Congressman Richard Kleberg. Politics suited Johnson, and within a few years, he was elected to Congress. After serving six terms in the House, Johnson won a highly contested 1948 election to Senate, where he served for about thirteen years.

Johnson’s ambition knew no bounds, and he began making plans to run for President while serving in the Senate. After losing a bid for the 1960 Democratic Party nomination for president to John F. Kennedy, Johnson joined his former rival as his Vice Presidential running mate. Following Kennedy’s election, Johnson resigned from the Senate in 1961 to begin his work at the White House. Johnson assumed the presidency in 1963 following the assassination of Kennedy and spent the rest of the term overseeing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1964, Johnson ran for reelection with running mate Hubert Humphrey and defeated rival Barry Goldwater in a historical landslide election. Under the mandate of creating the "Great Society," Johnson continued to lend his support to legislation aimed at alleviating poverty, fighting urban decay, and protecting civil rights. Johnson was also a big supporter of America’s exploration of space, and played a pivotal role in the creation of NASA. Despite his accomplishments in other areas, Johnson’s efforts to end the Vietnam War were fruitless. Johnson was a believer in the "Domino Theory," and was committed to an American victory in Vietnam. Unfortunately, committing more troops did nothing to end Communist aggression, and the continuing bloodshed cast a pall over the Johnson administration.

Privately concerned with his health and faced with growing backlash against the war, Johnson announced in 1968 that he would not seek reelection. In 1969, Johnson returned to his home in Texas, where he remained until his death in 1973.

If you’re interested in learning more about Johnson, here are a few of the best biographies on the man and his legacy.

Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency by Mark K. Updegrove

Historian and Director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum Mark K. Updegrove’s Indomitable Will is a mosaic portrait of Johnson assembled from interviews and intimate conversations with those who knew him best: his political allies and rivals, colleagues, close friends, and family. Robert McNamara, Barry Goldwater, Jacqueline Kennedy, and many others share their thoughts on Johnson and his life in and out of the White House.

Updegrove also allows Johnson to define his own legacy through carefully chosen excerpts from the historical record. Johnson was an incredibly complex person, and his many sides are best understood from multiple perspectives. Updegrove’s masterful curation and extensive knowledge of his subject makes Indomitable Will as highly informative as it is entertaining.

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Shortly after arriving in Washington, DC on a White House Fellowship, Harvard graduate student Doris Kearns Goodwin made what many would have regarded as an ill-advised career move: She wrote an article that was critical of current president Lyndon B. Johnson. Rather than sending her packing, Johnson selected Goodwin to assist him in organizing his memoirs. As Johnson’s assistant and confidante, Goodwin got to know the personal side of this powerful and sometimes contradictory man. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream is the book that launched Goodwin’s award-winning career in presidential biographies, and has been hailed by many as one of the most revealing works ever written about our nation’s 36th president.

Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon B. Johnson by Robert A. Caro

In 1958, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was largely considered one of the nation’s most astute politicians and a very strong candidate for the 1960 Democratic nomination. Despite this, the nomination went not to Johnson, but instead to the young upstart senator from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy. The unexpected upset was followed by another surprise when Johnson agreed to join Kennedy as his vice president: JFK’s brother Robert hated Johnson and was prepared to go to any length to force him off of the ticket. In this fourth volume of Robert A. Caro’s soon to be five-volume biography The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Caro explores the forces that brought Kennedy and Johnson together and nearly tore them apart.