LBJ and the 1960s: A Six-Week Class

The year 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Lyndon B. Johnson. In recognizing this anniversary, Mark Lawrence, Director of the LBJ Library, and Mark Updegrove, President and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, edited LBJ's America, a new book of original essays about LBJ written by noted American historians. Drawing upon their collective knowledge of the Johnson presidency, the two offered a special six-week course on the LBJ years for members of the Friends of the LBJ Library and guests. This was a unique opportunity to participate in an extensive review of the remarkable life and legacy of LBJ led by two nationally acclaimed presidential scholars. 

This class was hosted on Mondays, starting September 30, for six consecutive weeks, concluding on November 4. It was held from 9:30 to 10:40 a.m. in the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium at the LBJ Presidential Library.
 

Seminar summary by week:

1. September 30: From the Hill County to Capitol Hill: LBJ Before the Presidency. This session will explore LBJ's boyhood in rural Texas and his unlikely rise to the House and ultimately to the role of Senate Majority Leader. How did LBJ rise to such heights, and how did he use the power he accumulated?

2. October 7: American Liberalism and the Great Society: This session will examine the origins and substance of LBJ's signature domestic agenda, the Great Society. Why did Johnson and other liberals embark on such an ambitious program of reform, and what did they achieve?

3. October 14: The Second Reconstruction: LBJ and Civil Rights: The third session will examine why Civil Rights emerged as a major issue in the middle decades of the twentieth century and why LBJ threw his power behind the most ambitious reforms since Reconstruction. 

4. October 21: The Vietnam War: The fourth session will ask why President Johnson committed the United States to a major war in Southeast Asia despite knowing the challenges American forces would face. What geostrategic, political, and personal considerations drove him as he made the choices that would badly damage his administration?

5. October 28: Unrest and Fracture, 1966-1969. After racking up spectacular legislative achievements in 1964 and 1964, LBJ encountered serious headwinds in the final years of his presidency. One problem was the mounting war in Vietnam, but other challenges confronted LBJ as well. This session will consider the array of social and economic problems that beset LBJ and the broader cultural change that occurred in the United States in the second half of the 1960s.

6. November 4: LBJ's America: Reputation and Legacies. The final session will explore how LBJ's reputation has changed over the years since he left office. It will also address the legacies -- both positive and negative -- that Johnson left behind in a nation that can reasonably be called "LBJ's America."