Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon B. Johnson in the Whitehouse

President Lyndon B. Johnson is perhaps synonymous with the failed American war effort in Vietnam in the 60s and everything else along with it. But he also brought in various social reforms with a vision to build a great society.  His move to table the bill to grant voting rights to blacks across the country saw many objection from withing his party, but he managed to get the bill through.

Some of the most important social reforms like the Medicare and in areas of education and civil rights were launched under his presidency. In Prisoners of Hope, Randall B. Woods looks at the president’s struggle to push through reforms in a polarized society. The presidency, by authors accounts, also appears to be an example of how best intentions and best laid plans can easily go awry. In spite of several difficulties and unrest against the Vietnam war, President Johnson was able to do a lot of good than for what he is remembered.

Author: Randall B. Woods
Pages: 480
Publisher: Basic Books (April 5, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0465050964, 978-0465050963

Randall B. Woods is John A. Cooper Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas.Former dean of Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and a past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Randall B. Woods has served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in both Germany and Argentina and as the Mellon Visiting Scholar at Cambridge in the spring of 2012.