In His Steps: Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy Mystique

by Paul R. Henggeler

Overview

An intimate personal and political history of Lyndon Johnson's frustration with the Kennedy mystique, based on exhaustive new research. Solidly researched, well written, carefully analyzed...a major contribution to recent American political history.-Thomas C. Reeves, Journal of American History.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566637169
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	03/20/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.16(w) x 9.48(h) x 0.99(d)

About the Author

Paul R. Henggeler taught American history at the University of Texas, Pan American. His first book, In His Steps: Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy Mystique, won high praise from historians and critics.

Editorial Reviews

Impressively thorough...a sadly useful reminder of the Democratic Party's own War of the Roses in the 1960s.

The Washington Times - Hodding Carter III

Impressively thorough...a sadly useful reminder of the Democratic Party's own War of the Roses in the 1960s.
— Washington Times

Carter

Written by an assistant professor of history at Bowling Green State University in Kentucky, this is an exceptionally revealing portrait of Lyndon Johnson in the context of his relationships with John and Robert Kennedy. Henggeler describes how Johnson, in his role as Senate majority leader, worked comfortably with the junior senator from Massachusetts, then served loyally as JFK's vice-president even though he was shunned politically and socially--and openly despised by attorney general Robert Kennedy. After JFK's death in 1963, Johnson was haunted by widespread charges that he was a usurper and somehow responsible for the assassination, and was at the same time threatened by the growing power and popularity of Robert Kennedy, the ``heir apparent.'' According to Henggeler, Johnson ``felt curiously cheated'' by RFK's assassination in 1968 and once again had to deal with rumors that he was implicated. In sharp contrast to Robert Caro's reductive portrait of Johnson as power-mad ogre, Henggeler sympathetically explores the causes of Johnson's insecurities and search for a self-image as he tried unsuccessfully to distance himself from the Kennedy mystique. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly