Lady Bird Johnson’s complex and captivating role—as a political partner to her husband, as a vital yet underappreciated presence in the White House, and as a critical advisor and strategist—is recast in Julia Sweig’s magisterial biography, Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight. The story is told in Lady Bird’s own words through the largely unknown and overlooked audio diaries that she kept during her five-plus years in the White House: 123 hours of tape totaling 1,750,000 words. Lady Bird’s tapes show her to be a formidable storyteller and historian, and a conscious creator of legacy.
About the Speaker
Julia Sweig is the author of the highly acclaimed New York Times instant bestseller, Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, longlisted for the 2022 PEN America Literary Award in biography. Sweig is the creator, host, and executive producer of the podcast In Plain Sight, a co-production of Best Case Studios and ABC News Studios. She also is the executive producer of The Lady Bird Diaries, a feature-length documentary film directed by award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter, which is based on her book and podcast. She is currently writing a biography of Dr. Mathilde Krim, a boundary breaking scientist and unsung warrior, and hero, of the AIDS crisis.
Sweig’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, the Nation, and in Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo where she was a columnist for three years. She is also award- winning author of books on Cuba, Latin America, and American foreign policy. She served as senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations for fifteen years and concurrently led the Aspen Institute’s congressional seminar on Latin America for ten years. She holds a doctorate and master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University.
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