Lady Bird Johnson

October 19, 2020
Sweig (Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know), a senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, portrays First Lady Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson (1912–2007) as “a prodigiously disciplined participant, actor, witness to, and student of history” in this revealing biography. Drawing on the diary recordings Johnson began making shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, Sweig contends that Lady Bird effectively served as her husband’s vice president while he filled out the remainder of JFK’s term. She was also a key factor in LBJ’s decision to run for president in 1964, eliciting his doctors’ approval and drafting a memo of pros and cons “that would set the course for the arc of the Johnson presidency.” Sweig details Lady Bird’s opinions on the Vietnam War, Great Society programs, and civil rights legislation, as well as her own policy agenda, which included urban planning reforms, natural conservation programs, and home rule for Washington, D.C. Johnson also hosted “doers” luncheons, highlighting the achievements of professional women, and supported the arts while working to preserve LBJ’s physical health and cultivate his political legacy. Sweig brings her subject to life with exhaustive research and fluid writing. This polished account takes the full measure of the “disarmingly modern” partnership between Lady Bird and LBJ.

December 1, 2020

Claudia Alta Johnson (1912-2007), also known as Lady Bird, was the wife of the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson. Sweig (LBJ School of Public Affairs, Univ. of Texas at Austin) describes Lady Bird not as the deferential wife of a boisterous politician, but as the key adviser to the leader of the Senate, vice president, and, ultimately, president of the United States. Lyndon Johnson presided over tumultuous years in the mid-1960s with the aftershock of the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. Sweig successfully illustrates how Lady Bird strongly influenced her husband on topics ranging from the environment to civil rights, all the while remaking the position of First Lady, shaping how we view it today. This portrait of Lady Bird focuses primarily on her time as First Lady, making ample use of her own recorded diaries along with other primary sources to show how she was both essential to Lyndon Johnson's triumphs and deeply supportive in his failures. Insight is also given to relationships with other First Ladies, such as Jackie Kennedy and Pat Nixon. VERDICT A perceptive consideration of an often-understudied First Lady and her lasting legacy. For public and academic libraries everywhere.--Keith Klang, Port Washington P.L., NY

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2021
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson is perhaps the most underestimated First Lady in U.S. history. Lady Bird entered the White House in the shadow of JFK's horrific assassination and saw America through the tumult of an increasing presence in Vietnam and the civil rights movement. Lady Bird's own political savvy heavily influenced her husband, Lyndon, which can be seen in his decision to run for president in 1964. Without Lady Bird's Huntland memo encouraging her husband, Johnson's campaign may never have launched. Lady Bird used her time in the White House to shape the role of First Lady into what we know today. Efficiently running her position as an office, she set out to advance women from all walks of life and advocate for the environment. From 1963 to 1969, Lady Bird recorded 850 diary entries documenting her time in the White House. Sweig (Friendly Fire, 2006) utilizes these prodigious entries to produce a genuine biography that fully covers Lady Bird's lasting impact on the Johnson administration and the nation. A refreshingly readable and elucidating portrait of a remarkable woman.

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Starred review from February 1, 2021
A welcome revisionist study of Lady Bird Johnson's roles and accomplishments within her husband's administration. In the past 50 years, there have been several notable biographies of LBJ, yet only recently has first lady Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (1912-2007) received meaningful attention for her influential role. Sweig, a nonresident senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, casts a wider lens around Lady Bird's public persona and personal life, especially the White House years. The author covers a lot of ground, from when the Johnsons were prematurely thrust into their roles following the assassination of JFK and individually struggled to gain their own distinction in the shadow of the star-powered Camelot era up through when LBJ left office after his first full term. Sweig deftly constructs a complex and admiring portrait of Lady Bird as a hardworking, intuitive, and highly intelligent political strategist who served as a vital bolstering force behind LBJ's political ambitions. Despite his insecurities, mood swings, and health concerns, she actively sought to advance her own urgently felt causes. At the time, her environmental endeavors were superficially labeled as "beautification," yet her aim was far more expansive. "Beneath the surface of the beautification efforts she promoted," writes the author, "were deeper, structural dimensions to the urban crisis that connected to hous-ing, industrial pollution, race, and economic inequality." Drawing extensively from Lady Bird's White House diary--after transcription, 123 hours of content (a portion of the transcript became a bestseller when published by Johnson in 1970)--Sweig provides an engrossing, well-researched narrative that offers useful historical context about the prevailing issues of the day. The Johnsons' unified efforts successfully advanced an impressive number of social reform policies, yet their accomplishments were increasingly overshadowed by the weight of the Vietnam War, which dramatically escalated during LBJ's tenure. A superb portrait that elevates Lady Bird's stature as one of the most accomplished first ladies of the 20th century.

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