That day that changed everything

摘要

Few have faced challenges as daunting as the one confronting Lyndon B.Johnson on November 22nd 1963. President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated in Johnson's home state of Texas. Americans were weeping in the streets, the world was on edge, and many of Kennedy's advisers scorned the vice-president. But if anyone was prepared for this day, it was Johnson, once a ruthlessly talented majority leader of the Senate. The weeks after the assassination may have been the "finest moment" in Johnson's life, argues Robert Caro in this fourth-but not final-volume of his defining series on one of America's most complex and compelling politicians. By blending the outpouring of goodwill from the tragedy with his own legislative mastery, Johnson had got Kennedy's stalled programme of legislation moving again in less than two months. That included the landmark civil-rights bill, which would forever bar discrimination in hotels and other public venues.