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Kennedy/Johnson reading list

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Jones, Sep 5, 2008.

  1. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    Heard about that. If it's as entertaining as his book on Rothstein,
    it'll be aces.
     
  2. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I got that one, too! Soon as I finish Don Felder's book I'm going to dig in.
     
  3. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Jones - I think The Best and The Brightest will give you some of what you are looking for. A lot of it is about Viet Nam and decisions that were made but it also deals with Johnsons "Great Society " and his concern that Viet Nam would hurt his project.
     
  4. Jones

    Jones Active Member

    Thanks for the suggestions, folks. Keep 'em coming. I gotta get authoritative on this shit, and I'm starting from pretty much zero.
     
  5. Dickens Cider

    Dickens Cider New Member

    OUTING ALERT! Our Man Jones is actually Sarah Palin. :D
     
  6. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    TOBW - of the 3 you mentioned which had more detail about Viet Nam? American Tradgedy?
     
  7. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    As far as the relationship between LBJ and RFK (obviously the wake of the assassination is covered here) , Mutual Contempt is the book. An absolute must-read. You cannot do any kind of project on the JFK/LBJ relationship and transition without reading this book.

    As far as Johnson/Vietnam, you need to read Dereliction of Duty by HR McMaster. McMaster is currently a one-star general, but the entire book is very much an evisceration of the Joints Chiefs. Worth reading for your project as a way of understanding LBJ's desire to keep Nam politicized.

    Caro's stuff is gold in understanding who LBJ was and how he worked. Obviously, his most recent stuff leads right up to LBJ being VP, but you need to read it (especially Master of the Senate) to understand how he operated. Also a very good way of understanding how LBJ planted some seeds as majority leader that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 64.

    A good primer to LBJ would be Flawed Giant by Dallek. Its by no means definitive and condenses some of Dallek's prior writings on LBJ, but in terms of getting a good grasp on him, it's a nice starting point.
     
  8. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    A few select Johnson entries:

    Branyon, Robert L., and R. Alton Lee. “Lyndon B. Johnson and the Art of the Possible.” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 45 (December 1964): 213-25.

    Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson. 3 vols. to date. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982-. The Path to Power (1982); Means of Ascent (1990); Master of the Senate (2002).

    Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

    Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. 1976. Reprint, with new foreword by the author. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. Originally published as Kearns, Doris, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.

    Gould, Lewis J., Harry McPherson, and Jack Valenti. “Reconsidering LBJ.” Wilson Quarterly 24 (Spring 2000): 80-96.

    Gray, Charles H. “A Scale Analysis of the Voting Records of Senators Kennedy, Johnson and Goldwater, 1957-1960.” American Political Science Review 59 (September 1965): 615-21.

    Hall, Robert N. “A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Speeches of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, 1955-1961.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 1963.

    Helsing, Jeffrey W. Johnson’s War/Johnson’s Great Society: The Guns and Butter Trap. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishing, 2000.

    Kearns, Doris. “Lyndon Johnson’s Political Personality.” Political Science Quarterly 91 (Fall 1976): 385-409.

    Mann, Robert. The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the Struggle for Civil Rights. New York: Harcourt Brace Co., 1996.

    Pycior, Julie Leininger. LBJ and Mexican Americans: The Paradox of Power. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.

    Schulman, Bruce J. Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism: A Brief Biography with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

    Wicker, Tom. JFK and LBJ: The Influence of Personality Upon Politics. New York: William Morrow Co., 1968.

    Woods, Randall Bennett. LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. New York: Free Press, 2006.
     
  9. Jones

    Jones Active Member

    Extraordinary gentlemen, I am much obliged. Also, apparently I have a lot of reading to do.
     
  10. tadwriter

    tadwriter Member

    Arthur M., Jr. Schlesinger-A Thousand Days
    Theodore H. White-Making of the President 1960
    Theodore H. White-Making of the President 1964
    Kenneth P O'Donnell-Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye
     
  11. HC

    HC Well-Known Member

    Not a chance. Jones is much prettier.
     
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