LADY BIRD JOHNSON
Hiding in Plain Sight
by Julia Sweig
A welcome revisionist study of Lady Bird Johnson’s roles and accomplishments within her husband’s administration. In the past 50 years, there have been several notable biographies of LBJ, yet only recently has first lady Claudia Alta "Lady Bird” Johnson (1912-2007) received meaningful attention for her influential role. Sweig, a nonresident senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, casts a wider lens around Lady Bird’s public persona and personal life, especially the White House years. The author covers a lot of ground, from when the Johnsons were prematurely thrust into their roles following the assassination of JFK and individually struggled to gain their own distinction in the shadow of the star-powered Camelot era up through when LBJ left office after his first full term. Sweig deftly constructs a complex and admiring portrait of Lady Bird as a hardworking, intuitive, and highly intelligent political strategist who served as a vital bolstering force behind LBJ’s political ambitions. Despite his insecurities, mood swings, and health concerns, she actively sought to advance her own urgently felt causes. At the time, her environmental endeavors were superficially labeled as “beautification,” yet her aim was far more expansive. “Beneath the surface of the beautification efforts she promoted,” writes the author, “were deeper, structural dimensions to the urban crisis that connected to housing, industrial pollution, race, and economic inequality.” Drawing extensively from Lady Bird’s White House diary—after transcription, 123 hours of content (a portion of the transcript became a bestseller when published by Johnson in 1970)—Sweig provides an engrossing, well-researched narrative that offers useful historical context about the prevailing issues of the day. The Johnsons’ unified efforts successfully advanced an impressive number of social reform policies, yet their accomplishments were increasingly overshadowed by the weight of the Vietnam War, which dramatically escalated during LBJ’s tenure.
A superb portrait that elevates Lady Bird’s stature as one of the most accomplished first ladies of the 20th century.