lbj blog

sorenson and such

i forgot that blogger always puts the newest entries first.. i want the oldest entries first, so that it tells a story. ut that's ok. easy to fix later.
so as i was saying, this is a blog about lbj, roughest notes that i can polish later.
i need to have coffee or go back to bed. so recently i bought second crate of books on kennedy, and i should list what i've bene reading:
sorenson "kennedy". it's the one i'm on now. sorenson was kennedy's number one speechwriter and staff person. it's a suck-up book, but informative, an insider's view.
the education of edward kennedy. it's open on my bed at home, started when i thought the sorenson would be dull - it's not. what makes it interesting is that it's written in 1972, back when teddy kennedy was still interesting.
the tao of pooh. this was a nice break between more serious books, something i read friday after i finished
the legend of halliburton.
this book helped plug a hole i'd been missing. halliburton, currently in the news a lot because of its role in iraq and with cheney, =is= brown and root, the money behind lbj.
so the story of lbj continues as the story of bush.
the dark side of camelot - seymour hersh
i don't know if hersh is a reliable source. he was a player himself, writing for the new york times in 1974, and has an agenda. but he confirms some of the rumours and has new info.
sex. drugs. murder. movie stars. swimming pools. intrigue, romance. spies. money. gangsters. capers. if only i could somehow get damon runyon to tell this story.
it's a hell of a story.
my model here is howard zinn.
also kudos to gerard colby zilg, who's "dupont dynasty" is a model for the kind of history i want to write.
it's not about raking muck. it's about telling the truth. speaking truth to power.
cutting past the pr and the flack and the lies and cute little myths.
camelot had a dark side. the great society wasn't so great.
ok, yeah, i'm a "wingnut", a madman myself, bright, paranoid, a bit obsessive.
john kennedy wrote profiles in courage (with a little help from his friends) while laid up with a bad back. he had the time and energy to research and write, on a theme. i'm laid up with depression - i've been unable to work for years.
this past year has been difficult - people trying to kill me, for example.
so this project takes my mind off my more immediate troubles.
so i have time to write it. writers are a dime a dozen. for evey one we've heard of who breaks through, many go unpublished, or sell 200 copies of a first novel or a political treatise.
i'm no caro. i'm not trying to be. but there's a hell of a story here, and it might take a madman to write it. so i'll keep at it for a bit.
the kennedy women.
this one, about rose especially, had the most detail on the person lives of these people, what made them tick. it was about 900 pages, and not dull at all.
the search for kennedy. i'm glad i started with this one. it focuses on his earlier years, is meticulously researched, written with a sceptical but not hostile tone,
and cuts through the PR to some stark reality. it shows the man behind the myth. ok all for now. those are my sources. for now. more books to come.

posted by gt @ 5:58 AM