Colleagues: Richard B. Russell and His Apprentice, Lyndon B. Johnson

Book by Goldsmith, John A.

Few men wielded more influence over the politics of their day than Richard Russell of Georgia and Lyndon Johnson of Texas. Russell, as the intellectual and political leader of the Southern bloc in the Senate, was Johnson's friend and mentor on Capitol Hill; but the friendship did not survive Johnson's presidency, when tensions between them increased and a patronage squabble precipitated an angry break. Colleagues describes their tangled and changing relationship through such events as the McCarthy censure, the 1957 and 1964 Civil Rights Acts, the Vietnam War, and the Kennedy assassination. With information gleaned from copious notes made by Russell himself, as well as oral history accounts and other original sources, Goldsmith provides a comprehensive and engaging account of a friendship that had significant ramifications for the nation's governance. Colleagues also serves to demonstrate how political and personal friendships are created, shaped, and sometimes destroyed by the pressures and stresses of today's national political forum. -- Midwest Book Review