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Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade

byJeff Shesol

Jeff Shesol reconstructs the bitter rivalry between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy, two Democratic leaders bound by John F. Kennedy's presidency and divided by personality, ambition, ideology, and mutual distrust. Their conflict shaped the Kennedy administration, Johnson's presidency, civil rights, Vietnam, the Great Society, and the 1968 campaign. Aides and allies repeatedly navigated between the camps as political disagreement became deeply personal. The book shows how contempt can distort judgment and fracture coalitions, offering an intimate history of a decade whose transformative achievements and tragedies were influenced by two men unable to reconcile.

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Publication date

October 1998

Format

Print edition

Pages

624

ISBN

9780393318555