#lbj books

[deadpresidents]

Pardon me but could you by any chance list all the books on LBJ and FDR that you have? I really want to learn a lot about them and you seem like a knowledgeable fella.

That would be quite the project, so I'm not going to make a list. But I took pics of the bookcase where most of my LBJ (and LBJ-adjacent) books are, so hopefully that will help. I can answer any questions you might have about specific books you see in the photos.

Unfortunately, my FDR books aren't as well-organized as my LBJ books. They're pretty much all over the place, mixed in with World War II or Churchill books (or just mixed in with everything). I'll try to either share some photos of the FDR books if I can find them easily, or make a mini-list of those later.

[deadpresidents]

best lbj book recommendation?? preferably not too heavy on policy and more so on his character.

While Roberto Caro's four-volume (so far) biography is undoubtedly the gold standard for learning about LBJ's life and career, it seems like you're looking for something that doesn't average 1,000 pages per book, which is understandable.

Fortunately, there is a perfect book for what it seems like you're most interested in. Doris Kearns Goodwin's Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) is one of the best biographies ever written about a President. It's an astonishingly revealing look at who LBJ was as a human being -- deeply personal and endlessly fascinating. Goodwin spent part of LBJ's post-Presidency helping him prepare his memoirs -- The Vantage Point: Perspectives on the Presidency, 1963-1969 -- and found herself frustrated because LBJ was so obsessed with coming across as "Presidential" that the book watered down his colorful personality, incredible storytelling ability, and otherworldly political insight. After LBJ's death in 1973, Goodwin wrote Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, which gives readers an unvarnished look at a political genius whose life was immensely complicated by the intensity of his ambition and his frequently crippling insecurity.

The subtitle of Goodwin's book is "The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written" and it is not an exaggeration. If what you want is a book about LBJ as a person, you don't have to go any further than Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO). I think it's one of the two or three best books EVER written about a President of the United States.

[deadpresidents]

Since lbj seems to be your favorite, do you own more than 10 books about lbj?

Oh, most definitely. I basically have a personal @lbjlibrary.

That middle bookshelf is all books about LBJ, LBJ's Administration, or specific LBJ programs (the Great Society, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act). There are a couple of books about Lady Bird Johnson mixed in there, too, and I have Robert Caro's The Power Broker on that bookshelf because it just makes sense to be with the LBJ books, even though it's not about him.

[The book laying flat on the second shelf from the top is just in the wrong spot; it's not an LBJ book. It's actually James Curtis's new book, Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life (BOOK | KINDLE), and I strongly suggest checking it out if you're interested in Keaton, comedy, and old-school Hollywood. It's excellent!]