Goodwin was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student at Harvard when she was selected to join the White House Fellows, one of America's most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. In the White House she worked directly with the Commander in Chief and swiftly earned his trust, building a relationship that allowed Johnson to share candid insights about his presidency and legacy. While the war in Vietnam has continued to cut Johnson's legacy in two, it is clearer now than it was fifty years ago that his accomplishments in domestic affairs have stood the test of time: the three historic civil rights bills that he steered through Congress-ending segregation in the South, providing the precious right to vote to African Americans, and fair housing-changed the face of our country, as did the host of bipartisan landmark bills that composed the Great Society-including Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, PBS, NPR, federal aid to education, and immigration reform. From a position of friendship, trust, and respect, Goodwin presents an intimate, compelling portrait of Lyndon Johnson, revealing the thirty-sixth President in all his vibrant, conflicted humanity. Book jacket.