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Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President by Robert Dallek Oxford University Press, 2004, 396p.
Review by Matt Forgotson
Robert Dallek's most recent work is an abridgement of his authoritative two-volume study of the life and times of LBJ: Lone Star Rising (1991) and Flawed Giant (1998). In a masterful exercise of cut and paste, Dallek has preserved the integrity of two-volume series, despite cutting more than 800 pages. The book documents the major activities of the Johnson Administration, from the rise of the Great Society to the fall of Saigon. The book pinpoints Johnson's legendary shrewdness to his twin-obsessions, namely his fear of failure and his love of the American Dream. These twin-obsessions motivated him to spread the gospel of democracy both at home and abroad, in both the Deep South and Southeast Asia, to the tune of both stunning domestic victories and horrifying foreign defeats. In Dallek's opinion, LBJ's twin-obsessions are responsible for a legacy in which tragedy and triumph are in perpetual competition.
The abridged edition explores each of the defining moments in LBJ's life, with a special appreciation for the seemingly innocuous, which worked to forge his political ideology. For example, LBJ's experience as a teacher at the Welhausen Elementary School, at which he taught English and History to the sons and daughters of poor Mexican-American farmers of Cotulla, Texas, was responsible for charging him with a desire to wage war against poverty. Dallek speaks of a disgruntled LBJ who accepted the teaching position at Welhausen because he was tapped-out, both emotionally and financially. LBJ was a directionless youth whose overly-developed sense of competition put him at loggerheads with both his parents and his classmates at Southwest Texas Teachers College. LBJ's experience in one of the "crummiest little towns in Texas" with people who were treated "just worse than you'd treat a dog" gave him both the purpose and direction, for which he had been yearning. LBJ's hands-on experience with the young children made a lasting impression...