Lyndon Baines Johnson

Jeanne Triner

In this biography, which begins with Johnson's birth in the hill country of Texas and follows him to the White House and back to Texas for his final days, Eskow presents LBJ as "a consummate politician, a man who lived to make the political system work in his favor." Although acknowledging that Johnson, a Southerner responsible to a southern electorate, surprised the country with his broad support of far-reaching civil rights legislation, the author also suggests that in some cases the right decisions may have been made for the wrong reasons. By and large, the account is sympathetic, but Eskow does a good job of raising ethical questions, separating rumor from fact, and pointing out contradictions in the source material. The writing, though clear, is flat in some places and repetitive in others. The sequencing is sometimes choppy, and the coverage of the Vietnam War lacks depth. Overall, however, the episodes and anecdotes are well chosen to be interesting to the target audience, the material is approachable, and the author's insights--especially his comments on the difference between a dealmaker and an executive--are thought provoking. As a bonus, there is some good material on Kennedy's Camelot. Bibliography; source notes; black-and-white photo insert.