Wow! eBook
Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After – Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President
Author(s): Steven M. Gillon (Author)
- Publisher: Basic Books
- Publication Date: 1 Oct. 2009
- Language: English
- Print length: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 046501870X
- ISBN-13: 9780465018703
Book Description
This is a narrative of the 24 hours after Kennedy was shot, in which LBJ became president, destroyed his relationship with Robert Kennedy, and set the stage for the great schism in liberal politics. US presidents are expected to be prepared for the unexpected, but on November 22, 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was forced to grapple with one of the most painful, unexpected, and tragic events in American history. The public assassination of the president at 12:30 PM and the non-stop television coverage that followed traumatized the nation. Johnson was in a particularly bad position: he was away from Washington, unable to communicate with his advisors; worse, he was outside the White House’s security perimeter, facing a potential threat to his life. No one knew whether the assassination of JFK was part of a larger plot to decapitate the US government. Was Johnson next? In “November 22nd, 1963”, historian Steven Gillon traces Johnson’s movements and machinations for the following 24 hours, as he confronts Kennedy’s grieving family, consolidates his support among Kennedy’s staff, and assumes the presidency. It is a fundamental reevaluation of the aftermath of Kennedy’s assassination-and it revisits a historical view that has not been kind to Johnson. Accused of being boorish and insensitive to Kennedy’s grieving widow and brother, Johnson was so offended by the negative coverage of the event that he ordered his staff to prepare a rebuttal. The information Johnson compiled, including statements by eyewitnesses, has never been published, and provides a particularly vivid look at a momentous day in 20th century history. While capturing the excitement of the moment and the texture of life on that day, Gillon analyzes how the decisions made in these first critical hours altered the course of American history. The tensions and conflicts that arose from the start are the seed of the problems that would eventually destroy the Johnson presidency, divide the nation, and produce a civil war in the Democratic Party. A gripping narrative of a pivotal moment in American history, “November 22nd, 1963” sheds new light on one of the most written-about events of the 20th century by focusing not on the assassination of the president, but rather the desperate first hours of president-in-waiting.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“(t)he power of (Steven Gillon’s) book is in its gripping narrative… Gillon mercifully withholds judgment on the various conspiracy theories… (and he) is too careful a scholar to wade into the murky depths of counter-factual history.”
–The London Review of Books
About the Author
Steven Gillon earned his PhD at Brown, taught for several years at Yale and then at Oxford, and is currently a Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. He is currently Resident Historian for The History Channel. The author of numerous books and articles on modern American history and politics, his most recent book was The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry that Defined a Generation. He lives in New York and Oklahoma.
