| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party. By Sean J. Savage. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. x, 429 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-79146169-6.)
The appearance of another study of the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson raises the question whether anything new can be said about those administrations. Sean J. Savage's thoroughly researched work, however, offers a new perspective—an assessment of the two men as party leaders.	1
Savage attempts to fill a gap in the scholarship by analyzing the relationship of JFK and LBJ to the political cultures of their respective home states and their subsequent performances as leaders of the national Democratic party. The author finds a remarkable similarity between the two in this respect. Neither wanted to be associated with a particular ideological viewpoint or a state party faction. During the 1950s they were ambitious senators whose political behavior reflected "that decade's emphasis on the apparent 'end of ideology' and bipartisan, centrist pragmatism" (p. 329).	2
Departing from the traditional interpretation, Savage argues that the effort to build "a suprapartisan, centrist policy consensus" (p. 331) began with President Kennedy, rather than his successor. JFK and his advisers did not want to jeopardize party unity by proposing legislation beyond the New Deal–Fair Deal tradition, such as a civil rights bill. The improved Soviet-American relationship after the Cuban missile crisis also offered an opportunity to develop a consensus foreign policy.	. . .

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