First Lady X Two
How many of you remember Lady Bird Johnson? My initial response upon becoming aware of her was to giggle because of her name. Her real name was Claudia, but it seems that her nanny told someone she was ‘as pretty as a lady bird’ and the name stuck. Her father called her Lady and LBJ called her Bird. Oh well……
Biographer Betty Boyd Caroli said in 2015 of Lady Bird that
She really invented the job of the modern first lady. She was the first one to have a big staff, the first one to have a comprehensive program in her own name, the first one to write a book about the White House years, when she leaves. She had an important role in setting up an enduring role for her husband with the LBJ Library. She’s the first one to campaign extensively on her own for her husband.
Now, Julia Sweig, an American writer and scholar, has set out to portray Lady Bird as a full partner in LBJ’s political career. Few people aware of national affairs during his Presidency will forget the night President Johnson appeared on TV to announce he would not run again. Anyone who watched Ken Burns’ series on the Viet Nam War will remember those recorded conversations during which Johnson talked with his close allies and advisors about how to end the war. Those were tumultuous times.
Already a “New York Times” beseller Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, will convince the reader that Mrs. Johnson was far more than a socialite and a beautification advocate. Rather than rely on research previous biographers have done on the President, Sweig used Lady Bird’s own White House diaries to gather much of her information.
In addition to Sweig’s new book, the author is a recognized expert and scholar of US-Latin American relations, especially Cuba. She wrote a column on American politics for three years in Folha, Brazil’s largest daily newspaper. Sweig is a frequent quest on network news shows to comment on US policy and events in Latin America.
So who is the second First Lady featured in this blog entry? It’s Nancy Reagan. Nancy wasn’t her real name either. At birth she was named Anne Frances, but for some reason she was always called Nancy. Nancy said, ‘Just Say No’ to drug abuse. She also was said to have consulted an astrologer. More scandulous than that may have been her lavish spending on new White House china, among other things.
The Triumph of Nancy Reagan is written by Karen Tumulty, a political columnist for The Washington Post. Despite decades of experience covering politics, she said she didn’t know a lot about the former first lady until the publisher Simon & Schuster approached her about writing the book. Before she spent four years researching Nancy Reagan, Tumulty had in mind that Reagan was a ‘shallow fashionista and the calculating power behind the throne.’
Tumulty’s new book, however, comprehensively explores the multifaceted character of Nancy Reagan, and it reveals new details surrounding her husband’s presidency. From the AIDS epidemic to tensions with the Soviets and the war on drugs, Tumulty’s research reveals Nancy Reagan to be one of the most influential First Ladies of the 20th Century.
