Michael R. Beschloss – författare

TAKING CHARGE brings you into the room with a political legend, still hated and revered a quarter of a century after his death. The only President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, Lyndon Johnson ordered the tapes to be locked in a vault until at least the year 2023. But now they have been unsealed, providing a close up look at a President taking power such as we have never had before - from John F. Kennedy's murder in November 1963 to Johnson's campaign for a landslide victory. Michael Beschloss has transcribed and annotated the secretly recorded tapes, providing historical commentary that allows readers to understand fully the people, crisis, and controversies that appear on them. TAKING CHARGE offers spellbinding insight into how Johnson used power by flattering, provoking and twisting the arms of some of the dominant personalities of our times, including Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We come to understand Johnson's complex, changing relationships with Lady Bird and the rest of his family, Jacqueline Kennedy, ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower and members of his Cabinet and White House Staff.

Transcribing, editing, and explaining the most powerful moments from hundreds of hours of newly released LBJ tapes, Michael Beschloss has added another lasting treasure to the American historical record. Reaching for Glory exposes the inner workings of the Johnson presidency from the summer of 1964 through the summer of 1965. From behind the scenes, you will hear Johnson pulling the strings of his presidential campaign against Barry Goldwater and pursuing his feud with the new senator Robert Kennedy. He agonizes over Martin Luther King, Jr., and the bloody march on Selma, Alabama, and twists arms on Capitol Hill to pass voting rights, Medicare, and more basic laws than any American president before or since. Above all, you will hear him sending young Americans off to Vietnam while privately insisting that the war can never be won. Winding Johnson's voice and exclusive excerpts from Lady Bird Johnson's private diaries into a gripping narrative, Michael Beschloss provides context and historical insights, showing how profoundly LBJ changed the presidency and the country. Reaching for Glory allows us to live at Lyndon Johnson's side, day by day, through the dramatic, triumphant, and catastrophic year of a turbulent presidency that continues to affect us all.