10 Questions

摘要

Because my books are really about political power in America in the 20th century, and no one understood it better than Johnson. We're taught in high school and college-in textbooks-that in a democracy, power comes from the ballot box. It's the forces that create power that are not evident at the ballot box-that's what I'm trying to explain in my books. Power corrupts, but you say power also reveals. What do you mean? When he was in college, Johnson took a year off to earn money teaching Mexican kids. In Congress he voted against civil rights legislation many times. But when he became President, he told an aide, "I'll tell you a secret. I swore to myself that if I ever had the power to help these kids, I would do it. Now I have the power, and I intend to use it."