The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984 Page: 59
468 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Caro and Reedy on Lyndon Johnson
writing of the reporter give the volume drive and power. There are
some well-done set pieces, particularly Johnson as a teacher in Cotulla,
the rural electrification of the Hill Country, and Johnson's first con-
gTessional campaign in 1937. But on matters of research, Caro's com-
mand of the primary sources of Texas and American history is thin.
Moreover, his handling of the substance of Johnson's political environ-
ment and his emergence as a leader is suspect and often slippery.
Despite his grandiloquent claims, Caro's exploration of the avail-
able documents on Johnson's early life was spotty. On the positive side,
he makes adroit use of the Southern Mercury for Hill Country opinion
in the Populist era, and his energetic digging carried him and his wife
into county archives and local newspapers. Some other brief forays
into the John Nance Garner scrapbooks at the Barker Texas History
Center informed his work." He apparently made no systematic attempt
to look at the personal papers of Johnson's associates, rivals, and ene-
mies as they are preserved outside of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Li-
brary itself. While the LBJ Library is an unmatched resource for infor-
mation on Johnson, the materials on his youth and early maturity are
not as rich as they are for the later years. Research in libraries across
Texas and in the nation at large is indispensable, and this Caro did
not do.
For example, he consulted the published diary of Harold Ickes, but
did not look at the complete manuscript version at the Library of Con-
gress for his treatment of the 1940 contest between John Nance Garner
and Franklin D. Roosevelt for control of the Texas delegation to the
Democratic National Convention. Thus he is unaware of Ickes's ob-
servation on March 30, 1940, that Johnson and Alvin Wirtz "were
inclined to have cold feet on the proposition of making a fight for
Roosevelt's delegates" against Garner. But both men had become
"pretty hot under the collar about Texas" by April 5 in response to
attacks from the anti-Roosevelt forces. The fluidity of the situation,
the tactics of the Garner side, and the shifting attitudes of Johnson
and Wirtz provide a more complex story than Caro's melodramatic
account of Johnson betraying his mentor Sam Rayburn. What else
York, 1968); Ronnie Dugger, The Politician: The Lzfe and Times of Lyndon Johnson:
The Drive for Power, from the Frontier to Master of the Senate (New York, 1982). The
best review of the biographical writing on Johnson is Robert A. Divine, "The Johnson
Literature," in Robert A. Divine (ed.), Exploring the Johnson Years (Austin, 1981), 3-21.
Philip Reed Rulon, The Compassionate Samaritan: The Life of Lyndon Baines Johnson
(Chicago, 1981) is the most recent scholarly study.
6Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, 34-35, 793, 808, 830.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984, periodical, 1983/1984; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117150/m1/79/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.