Lyndon B. Johnson

The towering figure who sought to transform America into a "Great Society" but whose ambitions and presidency collapsed in the tragedy of the Vietnam War. Few figures in American history are as compelling and complex as Lyndon Baines Johnson, master of the U.S. Senate in the 1950s and successor to President John F. Kennedy after his assassination. Part of the Kennedy-Johnson administration from 1961 to 1968, political observer Charles Peters offers an inside look at the legislative wizardry that led to historic triumphs like the Voting Rights Act and the personal insecurities that led to the tragedy of Vietnam.