Architect of American Ambition
“Now the light came in from the east, bringing a deep stillness, a stillness so profound and so pervasive that it seemed as if the earth itself were listening. . . And then there came a sharp compelling cry.”
These were the words of Rebekah Johnson on the night she gave birth to baby Lyndon Baines on August 27, 1908. She had gone into labor on an archetypical dark and stormy night, the rain having pounded all day in their city of Stonewall, Texas. The mystical-seeming birth set the tone for the rest of his childhood, in which Lyndon would be doted on by his parents as their favorite child and treated as a quasi-messiah.
This was especially the case with Rebekah, who relied on her son often in an unhealthy, codependent fashion. Lyndon’s first memory of her was of a night when his father, Sam Ealy, still hadn’t come home by nine or ten at night. Rebekah was afraid and stood crying outside by the well. Lyndon, just three or four years old, told his mother he would protect her.
Although his mother doted on Lyndon, she was also hard. If he did something she disliked, she would walk around pretending he was dead for days on end. Meanwhile, he also had to contend with his father, who constantly struggled with a drinking problem. When he’d imbibed too much, Sam would swear at his children, squander his money, and occasionally beat them.
On the positive side, his parents instilled in Lyndon a commitment to social justice. Sam, a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, was deeply committed to his local region and its people. Rebekah was a fervent believer in service and sacrifice thanks to her liberal Baptist faith. Together, they dreamed for their son to become a teacher, a preacher, or a politician. In fact, he ended up becoming two out of the three.
LBJ is the story of its namesake – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States – from birth to death. Looking with a sympathetic, though not uncritical, eye on one of the nation’s most maligned and misunderstood leaders, it analyzes the dynamics that shaped him in his youth, the causes he championed, and the presidential decisions that turned him into an icon. By the end, you’ll come away with a much deeper, more nuanced understanding of this controversial, yet titanic, twentieth-century leader.
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Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
