LBJ Exposed

In LBJ Exposed, historian Miguel Thornton dismantles the myths that have distorted America’s view of Lyndon B. Johnson for decades. Far from a copy of FDR’s New Deal, the Great Society was a bold Texan reinvention — a national blueprint forged in dust, sweat, and political fire. Through newly declassified tapes, Senate transcripts, and long-buried archives, this book reveals how Johnson’s programs cut poverty nearly in half, expanded education, and created Medicare and Medicaid amid war and chaos. Yet political opponents, media narratives, and cultural backlash turned success into stigma. LBJ Exposed is a vivid, fast-paced investigation into how power, race, and reform collided in the 1960s — and why those same battles still define America today. Balanced, cinematic, and relentlessly factual, it forces readers to look beyond legend and see the man who tried to build a truly Great Society.