Anglopressy

I wrote an earlier version of this and didn’t like. It was more summary or synopsis than the kind of review I wanted to give this book. So, understand that I intentionally went for more of a commentary than synopsis.

Early this spring I got a wild hair across my ass, as my Granddaddy would say, about Lyndon Johnson. I had listened to a series of lectures on iTunes about US history and I was fascinated by the portion on Lyndon Baines Johnson and his Great Society. There was something amazing to me in the fact that we, as a nation, in our history had forgotten to recognize what is very likely the most progressive legislative endeavor in the nation’s history. Johnson effectively out Roosevelted Roosevelt and yet he doesn’t get credit for most of what he did. I’m sad to say that this book, while illuminating in other regards, did not clarify this for me. In fact, it only created more questions. But that’s a good thing.

The Path to Power ( hereafter PTP) covers Lyndon Johnson’s family, early life and his career in the US House of Representatives up to the year 1940. The book begins not with “Lyndon Johnson was born to…” Instead we read:

Two of the men lying on the blanket that day in 1940 were rich. The third was          poor-so poor that he had only recently purchased the first suit that he had ever  owned that fit correctly-and desperately anxious not to be: thirty-two-year-old  Congressman Lyndon Johnson had been pleading with one of the other two men,  George Brown , to find him a business in which he could make a little money.

Lyndon Johnson was a self-serving, power hungry man. He craved attention from a very early age. But, it must be said that he was also incredibly disciplined. The focus that it must have taken a young man in his twenties to run the office of a lazy, freshmen congressional representative so well that he himself began to develop a reputation outside of his boss’ district is a testament to the focus and vision that he had for his future. That said, LBJ was, during the period that this book covers (his early life up to his leave of absence from the US House of Representatives to join the Navy) the harbinger of a progressive agenda. In fact, though he ran as a hardcore supporter of President Roosevelt, he had more in common with the more conservative element of the world of Texas politics. So far as I can tell, either Johnson spearheaded the Great Society because it was politically expedient to do so, or somewhere along the line, he was drastically changed, and truly believed that progressive policies could solve real problems. My best guess at this point is that the man who inserted cut throat politics into a backwater third-rate teachers college in the Texas hill country and the mock government set up for congressional secretaries, never really changed his M.O.

I don’t want to give the impression that Johnson was some completely vile man with no redeeming qualities. Not in the least. When he was a congressional secretary he worked tirelessly to ensure that every letter was answered, whether or not help could be given. While he was a teacher/principal at the “Mexican school” in a poor border town he made sure that his students had every opportunity to participate in a normal school life. Even if it meant organizing car pools to take the children to sporting events. He did much the same as a teacher in Houston. And in his duties as state director of National Youth Administration, he demonstrated a level of creativity, imagination and devotion to his job that was unmatched. In short, Johnson was prone to work feverishly to accomplish his goals.

I can’t deny that it taints for me the good things to read about such a self-interesting power-hungry person, but he did good things for needy people. And that has to count for something.

Grace and Peace,

Jared