Lyndon Baines Johnson's Presidency

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in Johnson City which his family had helped settle.Johnson City was a religious town, it was hard-shell and had old testament religion.(Caro 91) Growing up, he felt the sting of rural poverty, working his way through Southwest Texas State Teachers College, and learning compassion for the poverty and discrimination of others when he taught students of Mexican descent in Cotulla, Texas.This firsthand look at the effects of poverty and discrimination made a deep impression on Johnson and sparked in him a lifelong desire to find solutions to these problems.

After teaching in Houston, Johnson entered politics; in 1930, he campaigned for Welly Hopkins in his run for Congress. Hopkins recommended

He served in the House from April 10, 1937, to January 3, 1949. Franklin D. Roosevelt found Johnson to be a welcome ally. Johnson was immediately appointed to the Naval Affairs Committee. He worked for rural electrification and other improvements for his district. Johnson steered the projects towards contractors that he personally knew, such as the Brown Brothers, Herman and George, who would finance much of Johnson's future career. “In the opening speech of Lyndon Johnson’s 1941 campaign, the line that had drawn the most enthusiastic applause was one he delivered after warning of the possibility of war, and of the need for America to be prepared: “If the day ever comes when my vote must be cast to send your boy to the trenches-that day Lyndon Johnson will leave his Senate seat to go with him.” (Caro

In the beginning, historians focused on the Vietnam War and how that conflict derailed liberalism, tarnished the nation's reputation, and wasted lives. Each stage of his political climb was marked by the manifestation of pragmatism in politics in a democracy. (Caro 8) More recently, Johnson has been excoriated in more personal terms: as a player of political hardball, as the product of machine-style corruption, as an opportunist, as a cruel husband and boss. Johnson was a man possessed by inner demons. From early in his childhood he manifested character traits that shaped his behavior throughout his life. As a boy and a man he suffered from a sense of emptiness: he couldn't stand to be alone; he needed constant companionship, attention, affection, and approval. He had a compulsion to be the best, to outdo everybody, to eclipse all his predecessors in the White House.”He was the dominant political figure of the 1960s. He challenged us to wipe out poverty, to end racial segregation, and to win a morally confusing war in a remote place. But Lyndon Baines Johnson has largely receded from american memory.”(Dallek, 1) johnson was the only president in american history to have lost a war. This is the reason why he is such a poor president in the ranks.LBJ knew that laws were not enough. Therefore was born the concept of affirmative action, Johnson’s