All the Way with LBJ
The 1964 Presidential Election

All the Way with LBJ examines the LBJ tapes, analysing the 1964 presidential campaign and the political culture of the mid-1960s.

Robert David Johnson (Author)

9780521737524, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 February 2009

324 pages, 17 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

'All the Way with LBJ is political history at its best. Race, religion, reform, and the looming conflict in Vietnam comprise the setting for the 1964 election, but the star is Robert Johnson's LBJ vividly portrayed here in all his brilliance and paranoia.' Randall Woods, University of Arkansas

All the Way with LBJ mines an extraordinarily rich but underutilized source – the full range of LBJ tapes – to analyze the 1964 presidential campaign and the political culture of the mid-1960s. The president achieved a smashing victory over a divided Republican Party, which initially considered Henry Cabot Lodge II, then US ambassador to South Vietnam, before nominating Barry Goldwater, who used many of the themes that later worked for Republicans – a Southern strategy, portraying the Democrats as soft on defence, raising issues such as crime and personal ethics. Johnson countered with what he called a 'frontlash' strategy, appealing to moderate and liberal GOP suburbanites, but he failed to create a new, permanent Democratic majority for the post–civil rights era. The work's themes – the impact of race on the political process, the question of politicians' personal and political ethics, and the tensions between politics and public policy – continue to resonate.

1. Establishing an image
2. The rise and fall of Henry Cabot Lodge
3. The politics of backlash
4. The Atlantic City convention
5. The politics of frontlash
6. Beyond 1936.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], General & world history [HBG]