Fall 2009 » In Review » LBJ: Architect of American Ambition

LBJ: Architect of American Ambition

Randall B. Woods
March, 2009

By Randall B. Woods
Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster

In the first biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson to come out since the release of his presidential tapes, Randall B. Woods, the John A. Cooper Distinguished Professor of History, argues that the same idealism that drove the Civil Rights Movement and the Great Society also drove the war in Vietnam. Woods portrays LBJ as a complex man whose passionate commitment to advancing civil rights and alleviating poverty seemed in contradiction to his leadership in the Vietnam War. Woods conducted in-depth interviews with many who had worked closely with Johnson, including his long-time secretary and dozens of his aides, and studied newly released White House recordings and declassified documents.

Woods called the tapes "a biographer's dream" and an "unbelievable" resource that revealed "all the shades of Johnson's personality and the complexities of the legislative process." Midway through the biography, a chapter titled "Camelot Meets Mr. Cornpone" marks Johnson's reluctant passage from Texas congressman to vice president and to the leadership role that allowed him to fulfill his ideals.

To hear Woods read the book's prologue, go to http://www.researchfrontiers.uark.edu.