LBJ’s America is a fresh way of covering a host of information about an important historical figure. This was accomplished via two reasons: first, the book has four authors, each covering different aspects of Johnson’s political rise and presidency, and second, the book is told in a nonlinear fashion—dividing the chapters by analyzing different policies and affairs under the Johnson Administration. The former reasoning granted each author the ability to flex their individual expertise in different historical realms by explaining the nuts and bolts behind LBJ performing his presidential functions. The latter point, the main reason I enjoyed this book more than I expected, was how the authors told LBJ’s story. It is so common—in fact it is basically the manual for writing biographies—to pen the biographical tale in a sequence beginning at A and ending with Z. Here, each chapter jumped across the span of LBJ’s life and presidency, capturing the essence of that specific affair, e.g., LBJ and the Supreme Court, and then began anew in the next chapter. The nonlinear arrangement allowed each author to tie Johnson’s desires as commander in chief to foundational moments in his life from a 30,000-foot view, covering years of work in the span of ten pages.

Another reason I enjoyed this book stems from the authors’ concurring beliefs that LBJ does not deserve to be one of the least liked presidents of the 20^th century. They each felt that the overwhelming disdain America harbors over LBJ—and his decisions regarding the Vietnam War—cast such a vast shadow that it throws all the wonderful legislation and regulation issues his administration amended into pure darkness. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Act of 1965, were both juggernaut bills that the senatorial citadel did not want to see passed. But low and behold, LBJ, the senate whisperer, ensured their safe passage into the annals of American civil rights history. Not only did Johnson’s presidency occur during one of America’s most turbulent decades, but he was also required to pick up the reigns after JFK’s assassination and work with an attorney general who abhorred him: Robert Kennedy. Because of LBJ’s America, I possess a renewed respect for him as a leader along with the democratic society he attempted to facilitate the creation of. It saddens me to know that Vietnam interrupted and then terminated LBJ’s agenda, leading him to ultimately decide on not running for president again in 1968—a hallmark decision that possibly would have altered more history than just the Watergate scandal—Nixon was given the opportunity to appoint four Supreme Court justices in his first term. The subsequent Burger Court, which manifested after Justice Earl Warren retired in 1969, proceeded to spend the next two decades running amuck by tearing down civil liberties and crafting America into a larger police state. But I digress. In sum, I hold LBJ in higher respect because of LBJ’s America, and I believe that anybody holding a grudge against his presidency should read this relatively short publication to gain a greater glimpse into all that his administration accomplished.