'LBJ' biography is a solid, well-balanced look at 36th president

One reason would be the release of more presidential papers, which the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library has done in recent years. Author Randall Woods based his solid research on a range of newly declassified documents, newly released White House recordings, works by previous historians, and his own interviews with LBJ's secretary and several of his aides.

Woods, who hails from Texas, teaches history at the University of Arkansas, and is the author of the award-winning ``Fulbright: A Biography." Early on, he reveals the main motivation for adding another biography to the LBJ canon: ``Texas and Lyndon Johnson are inseparable. Both have been caricatured beyond recognition." Woods has created a full and well-balanced biography of an icon that manages to feel fresh.

This book also feels timely because another Texan now resides in the White House. Like President Bush, Johnson had a contentious relationship with the press, a controversial war, two daughters who sometimes generated unexpected headlines, and a wife whose cause as first lady grew from a deep personal interest.

In contrast, Johnson signed legislation to protect US land, creating the National Wilderness Preservation System, and he often aggravated his advisers by determinedly appointing qualified people of any political stripe to key jobs.

Born in 1908 to parents who believed in community service, Johnson was a very bright boy who craved the limelight and loved to debate. Today he'd probably be in a gifted and talented program; then he sped through each grade and graduated high school at the age of 15 . He taught at impoverished schools during and after college, later saying `` You never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see the scars on the hopeful face of a young child."

With an engaging style, Woods traces Johnson's early career in Congress during the New Deal, the mutual admiration between him and President Roosevelt, his marriage to Lady Bird (who is presented as long-suffering but a brilliant businesswoman), and his ever-increasing power as a senator. He was indeed the man who could get things done, most famously bringing electricity to the Texas hill country.