Introduction

Summary

We live in LBJ’s America. More than any other individual, Lyndon Baines Johnson shaped the era of American history that has played out since the 1960s and established the political and social milieu within which we live. Above all, his legislative accomplishments represent a breathtaking leap forward that profoundly reshaped the nation. LBJ championed transformative bills that extended civil rights to African Americans, Latinos, and other historically marginalized groups, definitively ending the Jim Crow era and opening the way to a more just America true to its founding principles. More broadly, under the banner of the Great Society, he extended the social safety net by creating economic opportunity for impoverished citizens left behind even as the nation experienced a level of prosperity never before seen in human history.