Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President

Rating:
Summary: fascinating biography that paints a complete picture
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: fascinating biography that paints a complete picture
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Best Single Volume Biography of LBJ
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Great Biography
Review: This is the best book out there on LBJ. Dallek covers his entire life from start to finish. Lyndon Johnson was a towering and caring man. This book really tells his story.