Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight

By: Julia Sweig

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 18 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

A magisterial portrait of Lady Bird Johnson, and a major reevaluation of the profound yet underappreciated impact the First Lady's political instincts had on LBJ’s presidency.

“An inviting, challenging, well-told tale of the thoroughly modern partner and strategist Lady Bird Johnson, whose skill and complexity emerge fully in this rich tale of history and humanity.” (John Dickerson, author of The Hardest Job in the World)

“This riveting portrait gives us an important revision of a long-neglected First Lady.” (Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, vol. 1-3)

In the spring of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson had a decision to make. Just months after moving into the White House under the worst of circumstances - following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - he had to decide whether to run to win the presidency in his own right. He turned to his most reliable, trusted political strategist: his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. The strategy memo she produced for him, emblematic of her own political acumen and largely overlooked by biographers, is just one revealing example of how their marriage was truly a decades-long political partnership.

Perhaps the most underestimated First Lady of the 20th century, Lady Bird Johnson was also one of the most accomplished and often her husband's secret weapon. Managing the White House in years of national upheaval, through the civil rights movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War, Lady Bird projected a sense of calm and, following the glamorous and modern Jackie Kennedy, an old-fashioned image of a First Lady. In truth, she was anything but. As the first First Lady to run the East Wing like a professional office, she took on her own policy initiatives, including the most ambitious national environmental effort since Teddy Roosevelt. Occupying the White House during the beginning of the women's liberation movement, she hosted professional women from all walks of life in the White House, including urban planning and environmental pioneers like Jane Jacobs and Barbara Ward, encouraging women everywhere to pursue their own careers, even if her own style of leadership and official role was to lead by supporting others.

Where no presidential biographer has understood the full impact of Lady Bird Johnson’s work in the White House, Julia Sweig is the first to draw substantially on Lady Bird’s own voice in her White House diaries to place Claudia Alta "Lady Bird” Johnson center stage and to reveal a woman ahead of her time - and an accomplished politician in her own right.

This program includes an actual recording of Lady Bird’s audio diary, dated October 12, 1965.

©2020 Julia Sweig (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A revelation...a book in the Caro mold, using Lady Bird, along with tapes and transcripts of her entire White House diary, to tell the history of America during the Johnson years.” (The New York Times)

“Sweig makes a persuasive case for Lady Bird’s influence not just within her marriage but on her husband’s career. In doing so, she forces us to adjust the lens through which we’ve viewed one of our most consequential presidencies.” (The Washington Post)

“A superb portrait that elevates Lady Bird’s stature as one of the most accomplished first ladies of the twentieth century.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

Lady Bird Could Have Helped Not Start the War

Lady Bird had the ear of Lyndon, and she should have used it to stop the beginning of the war at best, or at least end the escalation early on. But she didn't.

She was don't deaf to the world outside the White House.

Yet she and her husband were the initiators and Stewarts of many social programs. Such a change that all this work was blotted out by the war.

Enjoyed the Book Would like to know more

Enjoyed the book but would be preferred the reader to leave out the “Southern” voice. I found it a bit more Hollywood southern than Alabama/Texas based.

Just read, please......

I have enjoyed the information and the writing, but I find the narration distracting. I sure wish the narrator would just read and not attempt various accents and voices. I started cringing every time she read Lady Bird's words.

New view of Lady Bird

So much I did not know. The sixties were a different time. So rich in events.

Much of The Rest of the Story

Loving the walking trail at Lady Bird Lake so much, I’ve been learning more and more of her. I’ve wondered why other books on her covered so much of the pre-presidency years, and so little of what we really need to know. This book delves into the rest of that story, and I was not disappointed. Highly Recommend! The narration is well done and lively, too.

Great story

I just came across this and thought I would give it a try. Well worth the listen. I had no real interest in Lady Bird, but after I finished the book I understood what a real "Lady" is. Bravo!

Interesting Story, Sometimes Hard to Follow

Truly one of the better biographies of Lady Bird. The first few chapters took a bit to get their footing, but the remainder was fairly easy to follow. I think I was a little more jarred in listening to the narrator go between telling the story and telling the story with a Lady Bird-like dialect. Loved hearing her diary entries, just wasn’t sold on them being spoken by the same person in that momentary shift. All in all, I do recommend as a interesting glimpse of history.

Interesting, personal view of history

Lady Bird was aware of her view and made sure to capture the moments. Nice read.

Good book but not my favorite

This was well researched and detailed. It included her audio diaries which was really neat to hear at the end. I found myself stopping at times because it was so interpretive - I wanted the story to keep moving and the author would instead focus on analyzing something rather than move along with the narrative. But I learned a lot about lady bird and also the presidency itself.

Great limited perspective

This is the perspective of a supportive wife. A full political participant. It is definitely worthwhile to see what happened during these turbulent years with the war in Vietnam. Other treatises on LBJ explain his sometimes obnoxious behavior. Although, not obnoxious from a politician running for election