In its first pages, this volume reads like an obtuse counterweight to biographies published during the 1980s which Dallek felt didn’t fully appreciate Johnson’s legacy. * “ Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times 1908-1960” (Volume 1) was published in 1991 and covers LBJ’s life up through his election as vice president. I began my 5,000+ page journey through LBJ’s life with Robert Dallek’s series, followed by his series abridgment. And for many observers it is that single foreign policy disaster that defines his otherwise remarkable thirty-three year political career. But his presidential experience with Vietnam also proved to be a case study…in tragic misfortune. His rise from congressional aide to President of the United States is a case study in making your own luck (and, when necessary, stealing some). With a heritage almost as modest as Abraham Lincoln’s and an adolescence shaped by World War I, the Great Depression and the unforgiving Texas Hill Country, Johnson was always a man on the move – a man perpetually running from something as well as for something.
Together, the nine biographies I read (including a four-volume series by Robert Caro, a two-volume series by Robert Dallek and Dallek’s series abridgment) reveal a fascinatingly complex man who was indefatigable, ambitious, ruthless, generous, conniving, sympathetic and incredibly manipulative.
After spending the past four months with Lyndon Johnson it’s fair to say that I found him to be the most interesting (and confounding) president since at least FDR…and perhaps ever.
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