Title: Exemplary history writing.
Review: This work, the final volume of Dallek's splendid Johnson biography, takes advantage of hundreds of newly-released White House tapes to illuminate the rise and fall of one of the most complex men ever to occupy the Presidency, the larger-than-life LBJ, with all his majestic intentions and all-too-human failings.Combining judicious choice of materials with mature interpretation in a wonderfully readable narrative, Dallek's work is particularly compelling in tracing the American involvement in Vietnam, which LBJ rightly feared but, tragically, could not escape, given the assumptions and world view of his generation, and his determination: "...not...to be the first American President to lose a war". (p.460).(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)
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