Short Synopsis
From Lyndon Johnson's closest domestic adviser during the White House years comes a book that takes listeners into the Oval Office as the decisions that irrevocably changed the United States were being made.

Full Synopsis
President Lyndon Johnson was bigger than life—and no one who worked for him or was subjected to the "Johnson treatment" ever forgot it. As Johnson's "Deputy President of Domestic Affairs," Joseph A. Califano's unique relationship with the president greatly enriches our understanding of our thirty-sixth president. Califano shows listeners LBJ's commitment to economic and social revolution, and his willingness to do whatever it took to achieve his goals. He uncorks LBJ's legislative genius and reveals the political guile it took to pass laws in civil rights, poverty, immigration reform, health, education, environmental protection, consumer protection, the arts, and communications.

A no-holds-barred account of Johnson's presidency, The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson is an intimate portrait of a president whose towering ambition for his country and himself reshaped America—and ultimately led to his decision to withdraw from the political arena in which he fought so hard.

"Califano, who went on to become secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, has written an intimate, balanced and basically sympathetic portrait of the 36th president." ---Publishers Weekly

"Califano's memoirs successfully recount the workings of an expansive, caring, yet quixotic government and the actions of a president who tried and cared." ---Library Journal

"Narrator Norman Dietz uses clear diction and a measured pace to deliver a perfectly adequate rendering of the text." ---AudioFile