Culturebox: The Power Broker's Other Voice

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books The Power Broker's Other Voice The story behind LBJ's pursuit of the civil rights bill. By Jason Sokol Updated Monday, June 13, 2011, at 6:48 AM ET President Lyndon Johnson, domineering and manipulative, lives on in American memory as the classic power broker. He bullied opponents, sweet-talked skeptics, and chewed out subordinates. He oozed confidence as he passed one piece of landmark social legislation after another, even as his cockiness helped to mire the country in Vietnam. Yet this is not the Johnson who emerges from volumes seven and eight of The Presidential Recordings, a transcription of his phone conversations from June 1 to July 4 of 1964. The power broker was in top form at the beginning of this five-week span, guiding the Civil Rights Act through a divided United States Senate. By the end, the master politician was plotting his re-election campaign. But in between, we hear Johnson's voice hitting unfamiliar registers--this collection also includes a DVD with audio footage--as it crackles across the decades. To continue reading, click here. Jason Sokol teaches African-American history at Harvard University. He is the author of There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate My Catastrophic Basketball Game Against Dirk Nowitzki Palin Supporters Hack Twitter Account of Company Behind Palin Email Trove What LBJ Said Privately About the Civil Rights Act	Advertisement
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