eShop USA > Books > Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965
Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965
from: Simon & Schuster Audio
Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.923092
EAN: 9780743508414
Edition: Abridged
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
ISBN: 0743508416
Label: Simon & Schuster Audio
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
Number Of Items: 6
Publication Date: November 01, 2001
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review: Reaching for Glory lets us eavesdrop on LBJ's private, often tortured thoughts during the most crucial year of his presidency -- when his dreams of being hailed as the equal of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt were destroyed by the war in Vietnam.
As Reaching for Glory opens, LBJ is campaigning for the greatest presidential landslide in history. To win, he hands embarrassing secrets about Barry Goldwater to friendly reporters. When Johnson's closest aide is arrested in a sex scandal, he tries to keep it from exploding before the election.
This audiobook reveals the secret history of how Lyndon Johnson took us step by step, often by stealth, into Vietnam. While publicly boasting that there will be victory in Vietnam, he privately worries that the war can never be won and that it will crush his presidency. He foresees the backlash against the war, civil rights, and the Great Society that will bring Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to power.
Reaching for Glory lets us hear LBJ's private telephone conversations with Jacqueline Kennedy just after her husband's assassination. It allows us to live at Lyndon Johnson's side, day by day, through the dramatic, triumphant, catastrophic, and pivotal year of a turbulent presidency that continues to affect all of our lives.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Absorbing and Excellently Edited; But don't Construe Tapes as an Admission by Johnson that the War was Lost Before it Began
This is a terrific collection that must be listened to rather than read and that, in tracking developments in Vietnam, is more significant than the materials in the first volume. Beschloss is an excellent editor, who provides the necessary context and background for each tape.
Listening to the tapes reveals LBJ's larger-than-life energy and charm. He controls the conversation and can charm or bully the caller as he sees fit. His conversation with Adam Clayton Powell is a hilarious ... Read More
Rating: - Another outstanding work by Michael Beschloss!!
"Reaching For Glory" is another outstanding book from the great presidential historian Michael Beschloss. You will feel like a fly on the wall as LBJ speaks to many politicos, Jackie, Bobby, etc. Get this!
Vince Palamara
Secret service expert, History Channel, author of 2 books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.
Rating:  - LBJ's Secrets Revealed
Michael Beschloss's "Reaching for Glory" is a follow- up book to "Taking Charge". Both of these books contain secretly taped White House conversations from the Johnson presidency. This book covers from early Fall, 1964 through late summer, 1965.
LBJ shows, through his own words, how frustrating and stressful life can be in Washington, especially when engaged in an unpopular war. Read as LBJ expresses his disgust with those who oppose the war while at the same time admitting in private that the ... Read More
Rating:  - Finally! the story is told!
I don't mean LBJ's real thoughts about the Vietnam war, although obviously that is a great revelation. I mean that I know why it took Michael Beschloss so long to finish this follow-up to "Taking Charge"....these tapes are tough to listen to. They are not the entertaining excerpts of the previous volume. The '64-'65 excerpts show more of LBJ's warts, and cover painful ground, primarily concerning the war in Vietnam. Also, there is so much material that, unlike with the first volume, I ... Read More
Rating: - a must for LBJ enthusiasts!
I listened to the cassette versions of "Taking Charge" and "Reaching for Glory" when they first appeared. I listened to "Reaching for Glory" again after two LBJ bios and LBJ does indeed come alive. LBJ was, in the words of Robert Dalleck, a flawed giant. So many contradictions, so much hypocrisy - but yet - not... he was just LBJ.
The tape system which proved to be Nixon's downfall was also used by LBJ and JFK. Luckily for us 40 years later, we have wonderful insight into LBJ and the operation ... Read More
Related Categories:
|
