Event Title
In Kennedy's Shadow: The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
Presentation Type
Oral and/or Visual Presentation
Presenter Major(s)
Communications - Journalism, Russian Studies
Mentor Information
Mary deYoung
Department
Sociology
Location
Kirkhof Center 2216
Start Date
11-4-2012 4:00 PM
Keywords
Historical Perspectives
Abstract
Lyndon Johnson remains one of our most enigmatic and controversial U.S. presidents. After President Kennedy's shocking assassination, he was unexpectedly catapulted into the unenviable task of guiding a grief-stricken nation. Many of the issues-symbolic, political and personal-that plagued Johnson's entire presidency already emerged during the first day of Johnson's presidency, from his struggle to pay proper deference to his slain predecessor while simultaneously making his own mark on the presidency to his ongoing "hate affair" with Robert Kennedy to the private insecurities and public perceptions that plagued Johnson himself. While President Kennedy's death enabled Johnson to become president, in many ways it also doomed his presidency to fail. By pulling larger historical threads from the aftermath of the assassination, one emerges with an intriguing portrait of a nation on the brink of chaos and the complex, oft-misunderstood man at the center of it all.
In Kennedy's Shadow: The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
Kirkhof Center 2216
Lyndon Johnson remains one of our most enigmatic and controversial U.S. presidents. After President Kennedy's shocking assassination, he was unexpectedly catapulted into the unenviable task of guiding a grief-stricken nation. Many of the issues-symbolic, political and personal-that plagued Johnson's entire presidency already emerged during the first day of Johnson's presidency, from his struggle to pay proper deference to his slain predecessor while simultaneously making his own mark on the presidency to his ongoing "hate affair" with Robert Kennedy to the private insecurities and public perceptions that plagued Johnson himself. While President Kennedy's death enabled Johnson to become president, in many ways it also doomed his presidency to fail. By pulling larger historical threads from the aftermath of the assassination, one emerges with an intriguing portrait of a nation on the brink of chaos and the complex, oft-misunderstood man at the center of it all.