front cover of Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
A Biography for Beginning Historians
Louann Atkins Temple
University of Texas Press, 2025

A brief biography of Lyndon B. Johnson for young readers.

Louann Temple is a lifelong Texan with a personal passion for arts and education who believes that biography, with its emphasis on personalities, is ideal for introducing young people to history, with its focus on events. Temple is uniquely situated to write this biography for young readers, as she has been personally acquainted with many important people in presidential history, President Lyndon B. Johson included, and she has mentored countless middle and high school students, preparing them for college admission.

Lyndon B. Johnson highlights the key events in the life of the thirty-sixth president; explores the life lessons afforded by his legacy; and reflects on the broad historical issues during his time in the White House as president from 1963 to 1969. Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy as president is memorable as he led America during a time of great cultural change and the Vietnam War. Enhanced with a carefully curated selection of black and white photographs from three presidential libraries, this biography for beginning historians is poised to bring the best of biography and history to a new generation of readers.

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front cover of Remaking the Democratic Party
Remaking the Democratic Party
Lyndon B. Johnson as a Native-Son Presidential Candidate
Hanes Walton Jr., Pearl K. Ford Dowe, and Josephine A. V. Allen
University of Michigan Press, 2016
A continuation of Hanes Walton Jr.’s work on Southern Democratic presidents, Remaking the Democratic Party analyzes the congressional and presidential elections of Lyndon Baines Johnson. This study builds upon the general theory of the native-son phenomenon to demonstrate that a Southern native-son can win the presidency without the localism evident in the elections of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Although ridiculed by contemporaries for his apparent lack of control over formal party politics and the national committee, Johnson excelled at leading the Democratic Party’s policy agenda. While a senator and as president, Johnson advocated for—and secured—liberal social welfare and civil rights legislation, forcing the party to break with its Southern tradition of elitism, conservatism, and white supremacy. In a way, Johnson set the terms for the continuing partisan battle because, by countering the Democrats’ new ideology, the Republican Party also underwent a transformation.

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