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The Years of Lyndon Johnson #4
The Passage of Power
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best History & Biography (2012)Hardcover The Bodley Head Ltd (June 14, 2012) English 1847922171 978-1847922175 Product 1.8 x 6.3 x 9.4 inches
736 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
Robert A. Caro
32 books2,485 followersRobert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a planned five volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize (awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist"), three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a planned five volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize (awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist"), three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.
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April 26, 2016
Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson might be the great historical project of our time. These days, publishers seem to prefer everything to be contained in one volume. Thus, even topics as grand as the Second World War get crammed into a single book. But Robert Caro cannot be contained between two covers. His legendary expansiveness requires the clearing of entire forests. His scope and breadth and novelistic detail hearken back to Gibbon, Sandburg or Foote.
The Passage of Power is the fourth book in The Years of Lyndon Johnson. The first three entries have provided some of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had. The third book in the series – Master of the Senate – is one of the great works of history ever written. (Or so I would humbly submit).
The incredible quality of the preceding volumes, along with the excruciating ten-year wait between book three and book four, have created almost impossible expectations for The Passage of Power. Accordingly, I was ready to be disappointed.
And I was.
To be clear, my disappointment is relative. The Passage of Power is as good as any history book published this year. Taken alone, in a vacuum, it is highly commendable. Moreover, when placed into the project as a whole, it fits seamlessly. However, when you compare Passage to the other individual volumes, I found it lacking.
I had numerous small quibbles, but overall, Passage’s main failing is a surprising one: a lack of space. This is an odd critique for a series that is now past two thousand pages; still, I think it’s apt. Caro needed 1,000 pages to take on LBJ’s years in the Senate. Volume two, Means of Ascent, was only around 400 pages, but it was laser-focused on a single topic: Johnson’s run for U.S. Senate, and his stolen electoral victory over segregationist/crypto-fascist/Texas legend Coke Stevenson.
In The Passage of Power, Caro covers Johnson’s decision not to run for the presidency in 1960; his ascension to the vice-presidency; his role in John F. Kennedy’s election; his time as vice-president (and all the Cuban excitement that entailed); Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas; Johnson becoming president; and finally, LBJ’s grand push to pass a Civil Rights Bill with real teeth. Given the full Caro treatment, Passage needed to be at least as long as Master of the Senate. Instead, all this is shoehorned into a measly 600 pages of text.
This is not enough room for this story to breathe. Caro has famously decided not only to write about LBJ, but about his times. That’s why this endeavor is titled The Years of Lyndon Johnson. As such, Caro has done a remarkable job in earlier volumes at creating the context of Johnson’s world. In volume one, The Path to Power, Caro delivered a masterful chapter on Sam Rayburn that is the best biography ever done on the man. In volume two, Means of Ascent (often noted as the lesser volume in the series), he embarks on a careful prosecutor’s brief that shows how Johnson’s men stole the election from Stevenson. In volume three, Master of the Senate, he includes an entire chapter on Senator Richard Brevard Russell’s inquiry into General Douglas MacArthur’s firing during the Korean War. This had little to do with Johnson, yet was included because it was of Johnson’s day. (And it added greatly to the rich depth of that book).
There is no such generosity in The Passage of Power. Here, the previously-omniscient point-of-view retracts, until we only see what Johnson sees. I don’t know who is to blame. Is it Caro, getting old, running out of steam? Or is it his editor, who (in)famously forced him to remove the Jane Jacobs chapter from The Power Broker, Caro’s mammoth biography of Robert Moses?
In any event, this is a drastically reduced addition to Caro’s saga. With that said, certain segments still rise to the high level to which Caro-fans have become accustomed. To better explain, I’ll briefly go through each of The Passage to Power’s main sections.
Johnson’s Decision Not to Run/Kennedy’s Decision to Pick Johnson as a Running Mate
The opening chapters, covering LBJ’s tortured decision not to seek the presidency in 1960, as well as his choice to be Kennedy’s running mate, is vintage Caro. The historian Michael Beschloss has called Caro an “interpretative” biographer, and though I’m not entirely sure Beschloss meant this as a compliment, the term is apt.
Most biographers take a dry, academic approach to their subjects. They tell you exactly what happened and when. Caro is more concerned with why. Moreover, he is one of the few (and brave) biographers willing to seek the human dimension in historical settings. His portrait of Johnson struggling over whether to seek the Democratic nomination builds upon the work he did in his earlier volumes, carefully assembling LBJ’s character from his extremely humble roots to his entrance into the corridors of power. When Caro delivers his verdict, you believe him, because you believe he has found the essence of Johnson’s being.
Unfortunately, part of this section’s “vintage” comes from the fact that Caro relies heavily on his previous work. By this, I mean he literally quotes himself in long block passages from earlier books. I don’t mind an author referencing himself, but in this case, I found the manner of recycling employed by Caro to be extremely awkward. Furthermore, his greatest hits selection only served to remind me that The Passage to Power is a bit of a shadow of Caro’s former entries.
Things get a bit better when it comes to the Los Angeles Convention. Caro is renowned as a researcher, the guy who turns every last page. Even though the JFK/RFK/LBJ clusterf**k has been well-documented, I appreciated Caro’s exacting approach, in which he sets out every recollection and comes to a considered opinion as to what most closely approximates the truth.
Johnson the Vice President
I had mixed feelings on the treatment of LBJ as Kennedy’s vice-president. On the one hand, I appreciate Caro finally showing a bit of sympathy for his subject. Unique among biographers, Caro has managed to maintain a fairly persistent disdain for Lyndon Johnson, even to the extent that he amplified the virtues of the distasteful Coke Stevenson to Johnson’s detriment (causing a minor academic kerfuffle upon the publication of Means of Ascent).
Caro nicely dramatizes Johnson’s remarkable fall from the unrivaled “master of the Senate” to marginalized Vice-President, mocked and derided by the “best and the brightest” of the New Frontier. (The smug, condescending likes of Ken O’Donnell, Larry O’Brien, and Dave Powers derided him as “Rufus Cornpone.” Of course, had they taken a pause from reminiscing about Boston Common, Harvard Yard, and yachting sweaters, and asked the most famous alum of Southwest Texas State Teachers College a few questions, they might actually have passed some legislation).
My problem, though, is that the events of the Kennedy Presidency – ostensibly occurring during the “years of Lyndon Johnson” – are given a cursory treatment. In Means of Ascent, Caro devotes nearly an entire book to proving that Lyndon Johnson stole an election. In Passage, he levies the same charge – voter fraud – against Johnson and his Texas compatriots. Here, though, he only gives the subject about three pages. In The Path to Power and Means of Ascent, Caro expends an extraordinary amount of energy describing Johnson’s superhuman campaign efforts. Here, in detailing LBJ’s important contribution to Kennedy’s 1960 election, there is only one short chapter.
Big, momentous events, such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, are handled expeditiously. Yes – I understand that these are well-trod historical pathways. But this is Caro! I don’t want expeditious. I want detailed. I want long-winded. I want page-long paragraphs with a half dozen semicolons. I want these burnished historical moments brought to me by an author I have come to see as inimitable. That LBJ didn't play a huge role in these events is not the point; the point is that Caro (or his editor) has decided to withdraw from the epic stage that has already been set, as though this is a Hollywood movie gone way over-budget.
In other words, in many places, The Passage to Power plays as a shadow or echo of former books.
Four Bloody Days in November
Caro takes 5 chapters – and less than 100 pages – to cover what William Manchester famously belabored in his 674-page The Death of a President. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas byCastro the Mob the CIA the FBI the Secret Service the Soviet Union the U.S. Military Lyndon Johnson some combination of all of these Lee Harvey Oswald is told strictly from LBJ’s perspective from his limousine.
Despite the brevity of the coverage, Caro does a good job of making his ultimate point: that Lyndon Johnson was placed into an absolutely untenable position vis-à-vis the Kennedys. Even though he Constitutionally became acting president the moment Oswald’s first bullet punched through JFK’s neck, and ascended the Presidency in the instant the top of Kennedy’s head blew off from the force of a beveling bullet fired from the Texas School Book Depository, Johnson had to walk a tightrope: if he took power too swiftly, the New Frontier would recoil in distaste; if he took power too slowly, America would look weak and shiftless in the midst of the Cold War.
During this section, it is instructive to have read The Death of a President. Manchester was a Kennedy worshipper, and though he toned down criticism of LBJ (since his book was published in the midst of Bobby’s push for the Executive Office), he could barely find a kind word for Johnson (the closest he comes is “complicated”). The Death of a President presents a rough-edged, uncouth LBJ, blundering about with his hangdog face and big ears, committing such faux pas as deigning to fly back to Washington in Air Force One. Caro provides a nice corrective, helpfully reminding Kennedy worshippers that the United States Presidency is not hereditary (though it sometimes feels that way) and that Johnson was not obligated to clear every move with Robert F. Kennedy.
The huge trouble I had with this section is Caro’s handling of the conspiracy theories swirling around Kennedy’s death. And by “handling,” I mean how Caro ignores the subject altogether. To be sure, he does fill almost a single page in his conclusion that LBJ had nothing to do with the assassination because Caro didn’t find any evidence of it in his research. That’s fine. This isn’t the time or place to be dealing with theclinically paranoid charlatans conspiracy enthusiasts who just can’t cotton to the simplest, most reasonable explanation. However, if Caro doesn’t believe that LBJ played any role, it was completely irresponsible of him to intercut the scenes of Kennedy and Johnson in Dallas with the simultaneously-occurring Washington hearings on the Bobby Baker scandal. Frankly, Caro spliced this sequence together like Oliver Stone, and it left a really foul taste in my mouth.
To Exercise Power, One Must Show True Greatness
The best part of The Passage to Power, the pages that closest resemble the glorious heights of earlier volumes, is Caro’s description of the way Johnson grasped the power he’d pursued so long. In doing so, we come to a very important truth: that the true measure of a man is not how he gains power, but in how he uses it. Robert Caro has often been incredibly hard on his subject, but there is no denying that when LBJ got the power in his hands, he used it in ways that are profoundly moving, even to this day.
Using this rare historical moment, Johnson – starting with his post-assassination address to Congress – took Kennedy’s stalled Civil Rights legislation and, using tactics he perfected as one of the great Senate leaders in history, broke down the dam:
Caro chooses (or if forced) to go into less depth in his description of Johnson’s backroom dealings than he did in Master of the Senate. Still, this is an inspiring, detailed story of how power can be used for an absolute good.
When it comes to Caro, I am hardly unbiased.
Shortly before my wedding, my good friend Jake wrote to Caro, asking him to send me a congratulatory letter. Caro obliged on his heavy-stock letterhead. I’m staring at the letter – in glass – as I write. In short, I think he’s the best biographer ever in the history of the known universe. If I could hang his poster over my bed, I would.
Thus, if my feelings on The Passage to Power seem lukewarm, it is all relative. This book is only a comedown from previous entries, which had set the bar exceedingly high. Still, I hope for a return to form in the next, concluding volume. It needs to be a thousand pages long and cover in detail all the major events of the Johnson presidency.
And it needs to end with the man who’d spent his whole life scheming, working, and cheating his way to power finally voluntarily giving up the most powerful office on earth.
The Passage of Power is the fourth book in The Years of Lyndon Johnson. The first three entries have provided some of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had. The third book in the series – Master of the Senate – is one of the great works of history ever written. (Or so I would humbly submit).
The incredible quality of the preceding volumes, along with the excruciating ten-year wait between book three and book four, have created almost impossible expectations for The Passage of Power. Accordingly, I was ready to be disappointed.
And I was.
To be clear, my disappointment is relative. The Passage of Power is as good as any history book published this year. Taken alone, in a vacuum, it is highly commendable. Moreover, when placed into the project as a whole, it fits seamlessly. However, when you compare Passage to the other individual volumes, I found it lacking.
I had numerous small quibbles, but overall, Passage’s main failing is a surprising one: a lack of space. This is an odd critique for a series that is now past two thousand pages; still, I think it’s apt. Caro needed 1,000 pages to take on LBJ’s years in the Senate. Volume two, Means of Ascent, was only around 400 pages, but it was laser-focused on a single topic: Johnson’s run for U.S. Senate, and his stolen electoral victory over segregationist/crypto-fascist/Texas legend Coke Stevenson.
In The Passage of Power, Caro covers Johnson’s decision not to run for the presidency in 1960; his ascension to the vice-presidency; his role in John F. Kennedy’s election; his time as vice-president (and all the Cuban excitement that entailed); Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas; Johnson becoming president; and finally, LBJ’s grand push to pass a Civil Rights Bill with real teeth. Given the full Caro treatment, Passage needed to be at least as long as Master of the Senate. Instead, all this is shoehorned into a measly 600 pages of text.
This is not enough room for this story to breathe. Caro has famously decided not only to write about LBJ, but about his times. That’s why this endeavor is titled The Years of Lyndon Johnson. As such, Caro has done a remarkable job in earlier volumes at creating the context of Johnson’s world. In volume one, The Path to Power, Caro delivered a masterful chapter on Sam Rayburn that is the best biography ever done on the man. In volume two, Means of Ascent (often noted as the lesser volume in the series), he embarks on a careful prosecutor’s brief that shows how Johnson’s men stole the election from Stevenson. In volume three, Master of the Senate, he includes an entire chapter on Senator Richard Brevard Russell’s inquiry into General Douglas MacArthur’s firing during the Korean War. This had little to do with Johnson, yet was included because it was of Johnson’s day. (And it added greatly to the rich depth of that book).
There is no such generosity in The Passage of Power. Here, the previously-omniscient point-of-view retracts, until we only see what Johnson sees. I don’t know who is to blame. Is it Caro, getting old, running out of steam? Or is it his editor, who (in)famously forced him to remove the Jane Jacobs chapter from The Power Broker, Caro’s mammoth biography of Robert Moses?
In any event, this is a drastically reduced addition to Caro’s saga. With that said, certain segments still rise to the high level to which Caro-fans have become accustomed. To better explain, I’ll briefly go through each of The Passage to Power’s main sections.
Johnson’s Decision Not to Run/Kennedy’s Decision to Pick Johnson as a Running Mate
The opening chapters, covering LBJ’s tortured decision not to seek the presidency in 1960, as well as his choice to be Kennedy’s running mate, is vintage Caro. The historian Michael Beschloss has called Caro an “interpretative” biographer, and though I’m not entirely sure Beschloss meant this as a compliment, the term is apt.
Most biographers take a dry, academic approach to their subjects. They tell you exactly what happened and when. Caro is more concerned with why. Moreover, he is one of the few (and brave) biographers willing to seek the human dimension in historical settings. His portrait of Johnson struggling over whether to seek the Democratic nomination builds upon the work he did in his earlier volumes, carefully assembling LBJ’s character from his extremely humble roots to his entrance into the corridors of power. When Caro delivers his verdict, you believe him, because you believe he has found the essence of Johnson’s being.
Unfortunately, part of this section’s “vintage” comes from the fact that Caro relies heavily on his previous work. By this, I mean he literally quotes himself in long block passages from earlier books. I don’t mind an author referencing himself, but in this case, I found the manner of recycling employed by Caro to be extremely awkward. Furthermore, his greatest hits selection only served to remind me that The Passage to Power is a bit of a shadow of Caro’s former entries.
Things get a bit better when it comes to the Los Angeles Convention. Caro is renowned as a researcher, the guy who turns every last page. Even though the JFK/RFK/LBJ clusterf**k has been well-documented, I appreciated Caro’s exacting approach, in which he sets out every recollection and comes to a considered opinion as to what most closely approximates the truth.
Johnson the Vice President
I had mixed feelings on the treatment of LBJ as Kennedy’s vice-president. On the one hand, I appreciate Caro finally showing a bit of sympathy for his subject. Unique among biographers, Caro has managed to maintain a fairly persistent disdain for Lyndon Johnson, even to the extent that he amplified the virtues of the distasteful Coke Stevenson to Johnson’s detriment (causing a minor academic kerfuffle upon the publication of Means of Ascent).
Caro nicely dramatizes Johnson’s remarkable fall from the unrivaled “master of the Senate” to marginalized Vice-President, mocked and derided by the “best and the brightest” of the New Frontier. (The smug, condescending likes of Ken O’Donnell, Larry O’Brien, and Dave Powers derided him as “Rufus Cornpone.” Of course, had they taken a pause from reminiscing about Boston Common, Harvard Yard, and yachting sweaters, and asked the most famous alum of Southwest Texas State Teachers College a few questions, they might actually have passed some legislation).
My problem, though, is that the events of the Kennedy Presidency – ostensibly occurring during the “years of Lyndon Johnson” – are given a cursory treatment. In Means of Ascent, Caro devotes nearly an entire book to proving that Lyndon Johnson stole an election. In Passage, he levies the same charge – voter fraud – against Johnson and his Texas compatriots. Here, though, he only gives the subject about three pages. In The Path to Power and Means of Ascent, Caro expends an extraordinary amount of energy describing Johnson’s superhuman campaign efforts. Here, in detailing LBJ’s important contribution to Kennedy’s 1960 election, there is only one short chapter.
Big, momentous events, such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, are handled expeditiously. Yes – I understand that these are well-trod historical pathways. But this is Caro! I don’t want expeditious. I want detailed. I want long-winded. I want page-long paragraphs with a half dozen semicolons. I want these burnished historical moments brought to me by an author I have come to see as inimitable. That LBJ didn't play a huge role in these events is not the point; the point is that Caro (or his editor) has decided to withdraw from the epic stage that has already been set, as though this is a Hollywood movie gone way over-budget.
In other words, in many places, The Passage to Power plays as a shadow or echo of former books.
Four Bloody Days in November
Caro takes 5 chapters – and less than 100 pages – to cover what William Manchester famously belabored in his 674-page The Death of a President. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas by
Despite the brevity of the coverage, Caro does a good job of making his ultimate point: that Lyndon Johnson was placed into an absolutely untenable position vis-à-vis the Kennedys. Even though he Constitutionally became acting president the moment Oswald’s first bullet punched through JFK’s neck, and ascended the Presidency in the instant the top of Kennedy’s head blew off from the force of a beveling bullet fired from the Texas School Book Depository, Johnson had to walk a tightrope: if he took power too swiftly, the New Frontier would recoil in distaste; if he took power too slowly, America would look weak and shiftless in the midst of the Cold War.
During this section, it is instructive to have read The Death of a President. Manchester was a Kennedy worshipper, and though he toned down criticism of LBJ (since his book was published in the midst of Bobby’s push for the Executive Office), he could barely find a kind word for Johnson (the closest he comes is “complicated”). The Death of a President presents a rough-edged, uncouth LBJ, blundering about with his hangdog face and big ears, committing such faux pas as deigning to fly back to Washington in Air Force One. Caro provides a nice corrective, helpfully reminding Kennedy worshippers that the United States Presidency is not hereditary (though it sometimes feels that way) and that Johnson was not obligated to clear every move with Robert F. Kennedy.
The huge trouble I had with this section is Caro’s handling of the conspiracy theories swirling around Kennedy’s death. And by “handling,” I mean how Caro ignores the subject altogether. To be sure, he does fill almost a single page in his conclusion that LBJ had nothing to do with the assassination because Caro didn’t find any evidence of it in his research. That’s fine. This isn’t the time or place to be dealing with the
To Exercise Power, One Must Show True Greatness
The best part of The Passage to Power, the pages that closest resemble the glorious heights of earlier volumes, is Caro’s description of the way Johnson grasped the power he’d pursued so long. In doing so, we come to a very important truth: that the true measure of a man is not how he gains power, but in how he uses it. Robert Caro has often been incredibly hard on his subject, but there is no denying that when LBJ got the power in his hands, he used it in ways that are profoundly moving, even to this day.
Using this rare historical moment, Johnson – starting with his post-assassination address to Congress – took Kennedy’s stalled Civil Rights legislation and, using tactics he perfected as one of the great Senate leaders in history, broke down the dam:
"We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law.”
Caro chooses (or if forced) to go into less depth in his description of Johnson’s backroom dealings than he did in Master of the Senate. Still, this is an inspiring, detailed story of how power can be used for an absolute good.
When it comes to Caro, I am hardly unbiased.
Shortly before my wedding, my good friend Jake wrote to Caro, asking him to send me a congratulatory letter. Caro obliged on his heavy-stock letterhead. I’m staring at the letter – in glass – as I write. In short, I think he’s the best biographer ever in the history of the known universe. If I could hang his poster over my bed, I would.
Thus, if my feelings on The Passage to Power seem lukewarm, it is all relative. This book is only a comedown from previous entries, which had set the bar exceedingly high. Still, I hope for a return to form in the next, concluding volume. It needs to be a thousand pages long and cover in detail all the major events of the Johnson presidency.
And it needs to end with the man who’d spent his whole life scheming, working, and cheating his way to power finally voluntarily giving up the most powerful office on earth.
January 3, 2016
Since the summer 2005, when I read the previous three volumes of Caro's majestic Years of Lyndon Johnson series, I have periodically checked the internet for updates on the final volume's release. When I saw that it was available for pre-order on Amazon I loudly whooped. I kinda hope that bookstores do a midnight release so I can dress up like Sam Rayburn and stay up reading all night. I may be crazy, but doesn't that cover look pretty sexy? Yes, my name is A.J., and I'm am fully aware that I'm a dork.
April 26, 2023
It’s hard to believe I’ve invested so much time reading about LBJ, and I still haven’t even gotten to the 1964 election and everything after that. That will be Caro’s 5th and final book in the series, and who knows when that will come out. This book covers the period from the 1960 election to about July 1964 – enough time after JFK’s assassination to cover the transitionary period, ending with the triumph of passing the Civil Rights bill.
Caro makes a strong case that LBJ’s performance during this transitionary period was remarkable. It is not generally appreciated how shaky and uncertain of a time it was. But it was a moment that LBJ was ready for. Caro’s writing throughout the series sets readers up for this moment. When LBJ showed deft persuasive skills in convincing all of JFK’s team to stay, and the political skills to get JFK’s tax bill and Civil Rights bill passed, the readers understand where these skills came from, and it was a moment that made the reading investment worthwhile. Getting the bills passed required a set of skills that LBJ was uniquely suited for: persuading people, motivating his team, and understanding exactly how the gears of legislation works. Understanding who the key players are and what they really want (not just what they say they want). And seeing the big picture – knowing what things are important and worth fighting for, and what things you can compromise on. JFK, for all his skills and charm, would likely not have been able to pass either of these bills in such a short time (and maybe not at all) – he just didn’t have these same set of skills. Caro does warn us that the next book will not paint LBJ in as flattering a light.
What makes history books compelling for me is to ponder what alternate history timelines would look like if a random event turned out differently. What would have become of LBJ had there been no assassination? Caro talks about how LBJ was actually on thin ice – there are conflicting stories about how thin the ice was, but the Kennedys were considering dropping him from the ticket for the ’64 election. This would have been escalated by investigations into some of LBJ’s shady financial dealings. His aide, Bobby Baker, resigned in October 1963 and would later serve 18 months in prison. There was high interest from some reporters and congressmen to continue pursuing these investigations, to see what LBJ’s involvement and knowledge was. It’s not hard to see a scenario where not only would LBJ get dropped from the ticket, but he gets pressured to resign before the election. But instead, JFK’s death instantly stopped any momentum into these investigations.
The way Caro described JFK’s death and the aftermath was very haunting. An image that really sticks with me is of the rear door of Air Force One opening after it lands in Washington, the casket being lowered to the ground and into the hearse, followed by Jackie and Bobby entering the hearse and leaving. Watching this after reading Caro’s immersive writing, you get a sense for what that felt like, both for the people on that plane and for Americans watching it on TV. I can’t see that again without thinking about all the events Caro depicts that led up to this - the turmoil and confusion after the shooting, the instant decisions that had to be made, Bobby’s shock and grief on hearing the news, the political maneuvering, and Bobby storming onto the plane, shoving people aside so he can get to Jackie and comfort her.
I’m really looking forward to the final book. The name of the series is “The Years of Lyndon Johnson”, and that’s a good way to think of it - as it is not just about LBJ. The first book, for instance, is worth reading just for the vivid descriptions of what life was like living in poverty in the Texas hill country in the early 20th century.
I also love the books as a study on power. What makes people powerful? How can someone get that kind of power? If someone started from the bottom and was willing to do anything to obtain power, what would they do? The books have so many great insights on how power works in America.
Caro makes a strong case that LBJ’s performance during this transitionary period was remarkable. It is not generally appreciated how shaky and uncertain of a time it was. But it was a moment that LBJ was ready for. Caro’s writing throughout the series sets readers up for this moment. When LBJ showed deft persuasive skills in convincing all of JFK’s team to stay, and the political skills to get JFK’s tax bill and Civil Rights bill passed, the readers understand where these skills came from, and it was a moment that made the reading investment worthwhile. Getting the bills passed required a set of skills that LBJ was uniquely suited for: persuading people, motivating his team, and understanding exactly how the gears of legislation works. Understanding who the key players are and what they really want (not just what they say they want). And seeing the big picture – knowing what things are important and worth fighting for, and what things you can compromise on. JFK, for all his skills and charm, would likely not have been able to pass either of these bills in such a short time (and maybe not at all) – he just didn’t have these same set of skills. Caro does warn us that the next book will not paint LBJ in as flattering a light.
What makes history books compelling for me is to ponder what alternate history timelines would look like if a random event turned out differently. What would have become of LBJ had there been no assassination? Caro talks about how LBJ was actually on thin ice – there are conflicting stories about how thin the ice was, but the Kennedys were considering dropping him from the ticket for the ’64 election. This would have been escalated by investigations into some of LBJ’s shady financial dealings. His aide, Bobby Baker, resigned in October 1963 and would later serve 18 months in prison. There was high interest from some reporters and congressmen to continue pursuing these investigations, to see what LBJ’s involvement and knowledge was. It’s not hard to see a scenario where not only would LBJ get dropped from the ticket, but he gets pressured to resign before the election. But instead, JFK’s death instantly stopped any momentum into these investigations.
The way Caro described JFK’s death and the aftermath was very haunting. An image that really sticks with me is of the rear door of Air Force One opening after it lands in Washington, the casket being lowered to the ground and into the hearse, followed by Jackie and Bobby entering the hearse and leaving. Watching this after reading Caro’s immersive writing, you get a sense for what that felt like, both for the people on that plane and for Americans watching it on TV. I can’t see that again without thinking about all the events Caro depicts that led up to this - the turmoil and confusion after the shooting, the instant decisions that had to be made, Bobby’s shock and grief on hearing the news, the political maneuvering, and Bobby storming onto the plane, shoving people aside so he can get to Jackie and comfort her.
I’m really looking forward to the final book. The name of the series is “The Years of Lyndon Johnson”, and that’s a good way to think of it - as it is not just about LBJ. The first book, for instance, is worth reading just for the vivid descriptions of what life was like living in poverty in the Texas hill country in the early 20th century.
I also love the books as a study on power. What makes people powerful? How can someone get that kind of power? If someone started from the bottom and was willing to do anything to obtain power, what would they do? The books have so many great insights on how power works in America.
May 13, 2020
They said well, you love biography but you never read Robert Caro? So the very last time I was in Waterstones (when will you reopen, my oasis?) I saw they had all of Caro’s vast 4 volumes (& the world waiting for the fifth) of Lyndon Johnson, and he is my second favourite US president, such a fascinating character, so I got the first volume and jumped in and read 70 pages – it was brilliant.
And it seems that Mr Caro is the greatest of the biographers-who-hated-their-subjects. Well, he described LBJ as having
A hunger for power in its most naked form, for power not to improve the lives of others, but to manipulate and dominate them, to bend them to his will… a hunger so fierce and consuming that no consideration of morality or ethics, no cost to himself – or to anyone else – could stand before it
During his early political career LBJ had
a seemingly bottomless capacity for deceit, deception and betrayal
And this kind of stood out for me – there was an early election in his career
Johnson still behind by a few votes… Jim Wells Country suddenly announced that its return had somehow not been counted, and the two hundred new votes for Johnson from this precinct – votes cast by people who had all written their names in the same ink, in the same handwriting, and who had voted in alphabetical order – gave Johnson the lead in an election he won by 87 votes.
Now being a very impatient kind of reader I wanted to skip to the good bits. In the case of LBJ that was the massive drama of 1963 and what followed. So I ditched the first volume and got a copy of volume 4. This goes from 1959 to January 1964.
HOW TO READ ROBERT CARO
First, it doesn’t matter which volume you pick up. I never met an author who was so happy to repeat himself – but in this case it’s a good thing. Caro does not expect you to have earnestly ploughed through (and remembered) his every word in chronological order. So he quotes himself from earlier volumes frequently to remind you about older stuff. He circles in the air, he backtracks, he waits for everyone to get on the bus before driving onwards. It’s a great technique.
Second, for all his beautiful clarity and patience with his readers, Caro is deadly serious and when he describes how LBJ got a bill through the Senate in the teeth of conservative opposition, he is going to take 30 pages of granular hair-tearing detail to do it. This is 29 pages more than your average reader can take. So a LOT of the pages of this biography will be …er…. will be…. can I say this?... hmmm… skippable! Yes! I think Caro fans will already be taking a contract out on me, but I can provide evidence.
It's possible that some readers of the flimsier variety like me will wish to jump over sentences like this one :
His solution would require two far-from-routine rulings from the committee chairman, rulings that would in fact fly in the face of the committee’s vote that morning : first, that the Dirksen amendment could be brought back that afternoon and voted on again; and second, that it be brought back by a motion that lumped in with it all remaining amendments before the committee, even those that had not yet been debated, so that a single vote by the committee – a vote to defeat the Dirksen amendment – would be a vote to defeat all the remaining amendments as well, thereby concluding the committee’s work on the tax cut bill and removing the last obstacle to its release to the Senate floor.
One sentence. There are lots more like that. For American politics students, this is like hardcore porn. You see everything, I mean, everything. For the other 99.99% of us, hmm, these pages can be a slog and you know what, you get the sense of what was going on even if you don’t follow the precise rules of compound motions to the floor in the Senate in 1963. Whole pages can be skipped. Don’t look at me like that, they can.
WHY LBJ?
He’s Shakespearean. In his great story you can see scenes from Coriolanus, Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear and Julius Caesar. Not so much the comedies.
This guy came from the back of beyond, with poor education, and he used every crooked device to get himself into the Senate, and he used every crooked device to make himself Senate Majority Leader, and then found he was really good at it, then came 1960.
He wanted to be president, he had been working his 16 hour days, he was in charge of legislation, he was “the second most powerful politician in the country”, and he had a big problem.
Could a guy from the South become president?
Here’s where you run into American prejudice, which is not obvious from a British point of view. Everyone knows about racial prejudice, but we’re talking about white-on-white hatred here. A century after the Civil War it appears, in the 1950s and 60s, Americans from the Northern states still feared and distrusted the South, and vice versa. So no Southerner had been president for one hundred years. LBJ wanted to be the next guy from the south in the White House. But there was another problem.
Kennedy.
LBJ figured Kennedy was a do-nothing lazy-ass playboy whose daddy had bought him a senate seat and who was mostly absent from Senate sessions and who never introduced any legislation, and so who cared about him.
But as soon as JFK woke up and decided to run for President, everything changed. It was like someone switched on the light all over America. LBJ was in denial, all through 1960. Then when the Democratic convention happened, he did some head counting, and he realised Kennedy had the whole thing sewn up. That smile had charmed the birds right out of the American air.
LBJ could have stayed Senate Majority Leader, second most powerful man in the country. Instead he decided to run with Kennedy and be his Veep if Kennedy won. As every child of five knows, the Vice President is a joke, does nothing, says nothing of any consequence. Why did he do it? From 1960 to 1963 LBJ became Uncle Cornpone, the contemptuous name given to him by the glittering brains of the Kennedy cabinet. He was the stooge from Texas, the useful guy who got Kennedy some essential votes from the southern states, and could now be safely stowed away until 1964. LBJ went from hero to zero so fast he got a nosebleed.
Why did he do it?
He had made a calculation, which is frankly chilling. One part of his mind saw that he could be the candidate in 1968 when JFK had had his 8 years – fair enough. But another part of his mind saw that seven previous presidents had died in office.
So LBJ taking this stupid nothing Veep position was a gamble.
Enter stage left : Lee Harvey Oswald.
A REMARKABLE TRANSFORMATION
It is fantastic to see how a guy who seemed all his life to be a block to social progress, a typical Southern politician really, threw off the ugly carapace and emerged as the reforming president who passed the Civil Rights bill and declared war on poverty.
One old Kennedy cabinet member wrote in 1978 :
For all his towering ego, his devastating instinct for the weakness of others, his unlimited capacity for self-pity, he was at the same time a man of brilliant intelligence, authentic social passion and deep seriousness.
This is such a great story. Now I have to go back to volume one, and also hope Robert Caro stays alive long enough to finish volume five. He’s 84.
And it seems that Mr Caro is the greatest of the biographers-who-hated-their-subjects. Well, he described LBJ as having
A hunger for power in its most naked form, for power not to improve the lives of others, but to manipulate and dominate them, to bend them to his will… a hunger so fierce and consuming that no consideration of morality or ethics, no cost to himself – or to anyone else – could stand before it
During his early political career LBJ had
a seemingly bottomless capacity for deceit, deception and betrayal
And this kind of stood out for me – there was an early election in his career
Johnson still behind by a few votes… Jim Wells Country suddenly announced that its return had somehow not been counted, and the two hundred new votes for Johnson from this precinct – votes cast by people who had all written their names in the same ink, in the same handwriting, and who had voted in alphabetical order – gave Johnson the lead in an election he won by 87 votes.
Now being a very impatient kind of reader I wanted to skip to the good bits. In the case of LBJ that was the massive drama of 1963 and what followed. So I ditched the first volume and got a copy of volume 4. This goes from 1959 to January 1964.
HOW TO READ ROBERT CARO
First, it doesn’t matter which volume you pick up. I never met an author who was so happy to repeat himself – but in this case it’s a good thing. Caro does not expect you to have earnestly ploughed through (and remembered) his every word in chronological order. So he quotes himself from earlier volumes frequently to remind you about older stuff. He circles in the air, he backtracks, he waits for everyone to get on the bus before driving onwards. It’s a great technique.
Second, for all his beautiful clarity and patience with his readers, Caro is deadly serious and when he describes how LBJ got a bill through the Senate in the teeth of conservative opposition, he is going to take 30 pages of granular hair-tearing detail to do it. This is 29 pages more than your average reader can take. So a LOT of the pages of this biography will be …er…. will be…. can I say this?... hmmm… skippable! Yes! I think Caro fans will already be taking a contract out on me, but I can provide evidence.
It's possible that some readers of the flimsier variety like me will wish to jump over sentences like this one :
His solution would require two far-from-routine rulings from the committee chairman, rulings that would in fact fly in the face of the committee’s vote that morning : first, that the Dirksen amendment could be brought back that afternoon and voted on again; and second, that it be brought back by a motion that lumped in with it all remaining amendments before the committee, even those that had not yet been debated, so that a single vote by the committee – a vote to defeat the Dirksen amendment – would be a vote to defeat all the remaining amendments as well, thereby concluding the committee’s work on the tax cut bill and removing the last obstacle to its release to the Senate floor.
One sentence. There are lots more like that. For American politics students, this is like hardcore porn. You see everything, I mean, everything. For the other 99.99% of us, hmm, these pages can be a slog and you know what, you get the sense of what was going on even if you don’t follow the precise rules of compound motions to the floor in the Senate in 1963. Whole pages can be skipped. Don’t look at me like that, they can.
WHY LBJ?
He’s Shakespearean. In his great story you can see scenes from Coriolanus, Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear and Julius Caesar. Not so much the comedies.
This guy came from the back of beyond, with poor education, and he used every crooked device to get himself into the Senate, and he used every crooked device to make himself Senate Majority Leader, and then found he was really good at it, then came 1960.
He wanted to be president, he had been working his 16 hour days, he was in charge of legislation, he was “the second most powerful politician in the country”, and he had a big problem.
Could a guy from the South become president?
Here’s where you run into American prejudice, which is not obvious from a British point of view. Everyone knows about racial prejudice, but we’re talking about white-on-white hatred here. A century after the Civil War it appears, in the 1950s and 60s, Americans from the Northern states still feared and distrusted the South, and vice versa. So no Southerner had been president for one hundred years. LBJ wanted to be the next guy from the south in the White House. But there was another problem.
Kennedy.
LBJ figured Kennedy was a do-nothing lazy-ass playboy whose daddy had bought him a senate seat and who was mostly absent from Senate sessions and who never introduced any legislation, and so who cared about him.
But as soon as JFK woke up and decided to run for President, everything changed. It was like someone switched on the light all over America. LBJ was in denial, all through 1960. Then when the Democratic convention happened, he did some head counting, and he realised Kennedy had the whole thing sewn up. That smile had charmed the birds right out of the American air.
LBJ could have stayed Senate Majority Leader, second most powerful man in the country. Instead he decided to run with Kennedy and be his Veep if Kennedy won. As every child of five knows, the Vice President is a joke, does nothing, says nothing of any consequence. Why did he do it? From 1960 to 1963 LBJ became Uncle Cornpone, the contemptuous name given to him by the glittering brains of the Kennedy cabinet. He was the stooge from Texas, the useful guy who got Kennedy some essential votes from the southern states, and could now be safely stowed away until 1964. LBJ went from hero to zero so fast he got a nosebleed.
Why did he do it?
He had made a calculation, which is frankly chilling. One part of his mind saw that he could be the candidate in 1968 when JFK had had his 8 years – fair enough. But another part of his mind saw that seven previous presidents had died in office.
So LBJ taking this stupid nothing Veep position was a gamble.
Enter stage left : Lee Harvey Oswald.
A REMARKABLE TRANSFORMATION
It is fantastic to see how a guy who seemed all his life to be a block to social progress, a typical Southern politician really, threw off the ugly carapace and emerged as the reforming president who passed the Civil Rights bill and declared war on poverty.
One old Kennedy cabinet member wrote in 1978 :
For all his towering ego, his devastating instinct for the weakness of others, his unlimited capacity for self-pity, he was at the same time a man of brilliant intelligence, authentic social passion and deep seriousness.
This is such a great story. Now I have to go back to volume one, and also hope Robert Caro stays alive long enough to finish volume five. He’s 84.
December 8, 2017
“President Kennedy’s eloquence was designed to make men think; President Johnson’s hammer blows are designed to make men act.”
― Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power
One of the most amazing aspects of this series is how consistently good the books are. Each one of the four books has been different and amazing. Some people might prefer Beethoven's 4th, others his 5th, others his 9th, still others his 3rd (my personal favorite). The fact remains, they are all brilliant. So too with these books. Each one was absolutely delicious. The writing was superb, the research detailed, he expanded the historical record but was never radical. He gave LBJ a nuance that the man deserved.
At its core, the fourth book explores the 1960s election, and LBJ's political miscalculation that allowed JFK to keep the primaries out of the backroom and win on the first ballot. He explores LBJ's calculation about serving on the JFK ticket, and how his energy and single-mindedness helped the JFK/LBJ ticket win Texas and several other states in the South. The hardest part of this book was the period while LBJ served as VP to JFK. The major subject of this book is LBJ, but it isn't just a biography of LBJ, but a look at political power. So, the period from 1960-1963 shows LBJ without power. While that might seem an unfacinating leg of this long journey, it also provides a counter-balance to the period directly after JKF was assassinated, and the 47 days after LBJ assumes the mantle of the presidency. It becomes a contrasting field to judge the man before with senatorial power with the man after with presidential power.
A benefit from this book is the sections devoted to the Kennedy brothers, especially Bobby Kennedy. Any book on LBJ is only partial if it ignores the complex relationship beteen LBJ and these two brothers. Caro explores these three with nuance and a keen eye for not just the story, but the cracks in the myths. Nobody in his stories is flat, nobody is caricatured. He shades and blends details ignored by others or swallowed by the lights of flattery and the shadows of time.
The best way to describe this book and to describe this series is to say this is one of the weakest books of the series, and STILL a 5-star book. Caro is JUST THAT GOOD.
Every night I ask God to protect my children, look after the poor, the sick, the suffering, and PLEASE, PLEASE, DEAR GOD... keep Robert Caro healthy and and mentally alert so he can finish Book 5.
― Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power
One of the most amazing aspects of this series is how consistently good the books are. Each one of the four books has been different and amazing. Some people might prefer Beethoven's 4th, others his 5th, others his 9th, still others his 3rd (my personal favorite). The fact remains, they are all brilliant. So too with these books. Each one was absolutely delicious. The writing was superb, the research detailed, he expanded the historical record but was never radical. He gave LBJ a nuance that the man deserved.
At its core, the fourth book explores the 1960s election, and LBJ's political miscalculation that allowed JFK to keep the primaries out of the backroom and win on the first ballot. He explores LBJ's calculation about serving on the JFK ticket, and how his energy and single-mindedness helped the JFK/LBJ ticket win Texas and several other states in the South. The hardest part of this book was the period while LBJ served as VP to JFK. The major subject of this book is LBJ, but it isn't just a biography of LBJ, but a look at political power. So, the period from 1960-1963 shows LBJ without power. While that might seem an unfacinating leg of this long journey, it also provides a counter-balance to the period directly after JKF was assassinated, and the 47 days after LBJ assumes the mantle of the presidency. It becomes a contrasting field to judge the man before with senatorial power with the man after with presidential power.
A benefit from this book is the sections devoted to the Kennedy brothers, especially Bobby Kennedy. Any book on LBJ is only partial if it ignores the complex relationship beteen LBJ and these two brothers. Caro explores these three with nuance and a keen eye for not just the story, but the cracks in the myths. Nobody in his stories is flat, nobody is caricatured. He shades and blends details ignored by others or swallowed by the lights of flattery and the shadows of time.
The best way to describe this book and to describe this series is to say this is one of the weakest books of the series, and STILL a 5-star book. Caro is JUST THAT GOOD.
Every night I ask God to protect my children, look after the poor, the sick, the suffering, and PLEASE, PLEASE, DEAR GOD... keep Robert Caro healthy and and mentally alert so he can finish Book 5.
November 6, 2014
In volume four we find out Johnson’s great skill at Senate politics does not translate to national politics. Whether due to arrogant presumptiveness, simple miscalculation or some of both, LBJ blows his chances for the 1960 presidential nomination. Caro suggests fear of failure kept LBJ from announcing earlier, running in primaries and sewing up some votes that might have stopped JFK. Not sure I see that since once JFK became the clear favorite after winning the West Virginia primary LBJ immediately jumped in with full force. Where was the fear of failure now that failure was even more likely? I think LBJ simply was overconfident, as Caro points out, in the power of his Senator allies to help him and in his own ability to forecast how delegates would vote. He learned that his expertise as a Senate vote counter did not apply to national conventions.
Similarly LBJ miscalculated his ability to exercise power as VP. As a member of the Executive, no longer wanted in the Senate, hated by Bobby Kennedy, JFK’s right hand, and dismissed by JFK’s elite staff, LBJ found himself in constant humiliation. He went from the powerhouse to the doghouse, a situation that brought out the worst in his persona and made him look bumbling. Caro makes a good case that JFK planned to drop LBJ from the 1964 ticket despite subsequent denials from Schlesinger and RFK. LBJ also faced scandal as Bobby Baker was investigated and LBJ’s quid pro quo financial deals were being unearthed. LBJ’s future looked bleak.
But LBJ had correctly calculated one thing. Seven vice presidents had become president upon a president’s death and he would be just a heartbeat away. When that heartbeat stopped, the old LBJ instantly reappeared. Transformed by power, LBJ took charge. Recognizing the legitimacy that would transfer to him from the Kennedy legacy, he focused on keeping the entire Kennedy cabinet and the Kennedy agenda. It took him just days to get commitments to stay from all of Kennedy’s cabinet and other key people. Robert Kennedy, although staying on, had always hated Johnson and now even more so. LBJ wanted to be sure RFK could not unseat him in the 1964 primaries coming soon. Johnson only had a year until the next election, but as always Johnson knew how to wield power under pressure.
JFK had assembled a high powered team of intellectuals with progressive ideas to advance the economy and Civil Rights. But JFK and his team were inept at managing their proposed legislation in Congress. In their arrogance they had ignored the advice of the legislative genius at their side. But now unleashed, LBJ could and would get those bills passed. JFK’s death had facilitated an effective melding of talents. Great ideas were now put into the hands of the most capable person to actually make them law, something JFK for all of the erudite genius he amassed, couldn’t do.
When Johnson took office in November of 1963, a budget still had not been passed for the current fiscal year which began in July and passage was not in sight. Only short term continuing resolutions kept the government afloat. JFK’s two most important bills, a broad tax cut and a Civil Rights bill were hopelessly pigeonholed by Congressional opponents. Johnson saw his chance to bask in the glow of the Kennedy legacy by getting both bills passed, something only he with his consummate manipulation of Congress could do. And he did it in Johnson style by threatening, cajoling, sucking up, quid pro quos, every tactic in the book. So effective was he that by April LBJ’s Gallup Poll approval rating was 77% versus 9% disapproving – truly astounding figures. He had transformed the Presidency from one that talked the talk to one that walked the walk.
Having just read consecutively all four volumes of “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” I ponder what makes this biography so immensely rewarding. There is the unbelievably detailed research, the engaging prose better than most novelists’ produce and the insightful revelations of the stark nature of politics. But the best quality is the way Caro takes you inside his subject. Starting several generations before LBJ’s birth, Caro painstakingly details LBJ's heritage, LBJ as a young child, LBJ as an adolescent, his relationships with his parents, LBJ’s relationships with his early friends and enemies, his schooling, youthful adventures, college days and first shaping adult experiences and on and on. By the time LBJ assumes the Presidency, an LBJ that surprised his contemporaries does not surprise us. We know him inside and out. Everything he does is completely in character. Just as a parent can look at their children as adults and see behavior that is innate, that was present from the earliest age, so we see LBJ. I haven’t read any other book that more completely captures the essence of a person. Needless to say, I anxiously await the next volume.
Similarly LBJ miscalculated his ability to exercise power as VP. As a member of the Executive, no longer wanted in the Senate, hated by Bobby Kennedy, JFK’s right hand, and dismissed by JFK’s elite staff, LBJ found himself in constant humiliation. He went from the powerhouse to the doghouse, a situation that brought out the worst in his persona and made him look bumbling. Caro makes a good case that JFK planned to drop LBJ from the 1964 ticket despite subsequent denials from Schlesinger and RFK. LBJ also faced scandal as Bobby Baker was investigated and LBJ’s quid pro quo financial deals were being unearthed. LBJ’s future looked bleak.
But LBJ had correctly calculated one thing. Seven vice presidents had become president upon a president’s death and he would be just a heartbeat away. When that heartbeat stopped, the old LBJ instantly reappeared. Transformed by power, LBJ took charge. Recognizing the legitimacy that would transfer to him from the Kennedy legacy, he focused on keeping the entire Kennedy cabinet and the Kennedy agenda. It took him just days to get commitments to stay from all of Kennedy’s cabinet and other key people. Robert Kennedy, although staying on, had always hated Johnson and now even more so. LBJ wanted to be sure RFK could not unseat him in the 1964 primaries coming soon. Johnson only had a year until the next election, but as always Johnson knew how to wield power under pressure.
JFK had assembled a high powered team of intellectuals with progressive ideas to advance the economy and Civil Rights. But JFK and his team were inept at managing their proposed legislation in Congress. In their arrogance they had ignored the advice of the legislative genius at their side. But now unleashed, LBJ could and would get those bills passed. JFK’s death had facilitated an effective melding of talents. Great ideas were now put into the hands of the most capable person to actually make them law, something JFK for all of the erudite genius he amassed, couldn’t do.
When Johnson took office in November of 1963, a budget still had not been passed for the current fiscal year which began in July and passage was not in sight. Only short term continuing resolutions kept the government afloat. JFK’s two most important bills, a broad tax cut and a Civil Rights bill were hopelessly pigeonholed by Congressional opponents. Johnson saw his chance to bask in the glow of the Kennedy legacy by getting both bills passed, something only he with his consummate manipulation of Congress could do. And he did it in Johnson style by threatening, cajoling, sucking up, quid pro quos, every tactic in the book. So effective was he that by April LBJ’s Gallup Poll approval rating was 77% versus 9% disapproving – truly astounding figures. He had transformed the Presidency from one that talked the talk to one that walked the walk.
Having just read consecutively all four volumes of “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” I ponder what makes this biography so immensely rewarding. There is the unbelievably detailed research, the engaging prose better than most novelists’ produce and the insightful revelations of the stark nature of politics. But the best quality is the way Caro takes you inside his subject. Starting several generations before LBJ’s birth, Caro painstakingly details LBJ's heritage, LBJ as a young child, LBJ as an adolescent, his relationships with his parents, LBJ’s relationships with his early friends and enemies, his schooling, youthful adventures, college days and first shaping adult experiences and on and on. By the time LBJ assumes the Presidency, an LBJ that surprised his contemporaries does not surprise us. We know him inside and out. Everything he does is completely in character. Just as a parent can look at their children as adults and see behavior that is innate, that was present from the earliest age, so we see LBJ. I haven’t read any other book that more completely captures the essence of a person. Needless to say, I anxiously await the next volume.
May 11, 2024
This was a great fourth volume to the LBJ biography series. This volume continued from the last two years of his Senate career, 1958, to his assumption of the Presidency and into 1964. Caro examined his accomplishments and troubled take on the many changes that America (and the rest of the world) saw during the 1960s.
The presidency of Lyndon Johnson would be a presidency marked by victories: his great personal victory in the 1964 election, and his great victories for legislation that are legislative embodiment of the liberal spirit in all it nobility. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Medicare and Medicaid; Head Start; Model Cities. pg 604Overall this was a great continuation of the LBJ saga written with attention to detail and research. I read online the final fifth volume is still in the works and will address his last term in office, Vietnam, and the later years of his life. I am curious to see how these compare to the two-volume LBJ biography by Robert Dallek, titled Lone Star Rising: Vol. 1: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960 and Flawed Giant: Lyndon B. Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973, respectively. In the meantime, these works are remarkable and for the serious reader of LBJ and American politics of the last century. Highly recommended! Thanks!
May 21, 2012
No one alive at the time will ever forget where they were and how they heard that John F. Kennedy had been shot. I was in a grade school classroom when Sister Clemenza burst into the room, her eyes bulging with the news. Nothing could take me away from the television in the days that followed, every detail etching itself: from Cronkite choking back the sorrow at the official announcement; to Oswald, his mouth forming an "O"; to a young son's salute.
It wasn't just ten-year olds who were star-struck by All Things Kennedy. And almost everyone asked, "LBJ?" There was plenty of reason to be nervous, cynical even. Cuba and Berlin had significantly warmed The Cold War. And no one knew if Oswald acted alone (although he seemed to have, you know, connections). And whatever or whoever LBJ was, he was no Jack Kennedy.
For what if the transfer did not go smoothly? Robert Caro asks in an illuminating paragraph, masterfully putting that moment in time in context. What if policies were changed--foreign policies: what if detente was ended, new orders given; what if, along a border between East and West Berlin, perhaps, tensions rose; what if tanks began to rumble forward, troops began to march; what if, in the harbors of naval bases, anchor chains began to rattle aboard so that fleets could sail? Or domestic policies: what if interest rates set by a government agency of which people had previously been only vaguely aware suddenly began to be raised, and raised too high--what if, as a result of that change, businesses that had planned to borrow money to expand suddenly found the cost of money too high, and had to contract instead, laying off employees? What if the rates were lowered--and lowered too far--and, as a result, inflation rose, and rose too far; what if currencies crumbled, life savings were eaten away, elderly couple suddenly facing impoverished old age? What if tax policies, or depreciation allowances, were changed, so that corporations abruptly found that expansions planned under old policies would now be unfeasible, so they could no longer afford to add employees? What if previously announced government appropriations were suddenly rescinded or the schedule of their payments stretched out so that schools, hospitals, clinics, day-care centers, suddenly had bad news for students and patients; what if decisions were made not to build dams or roads on which people had been counting on employment? What if naval yards, aircraft factories were closed, their thousands of employees thrown out of work? What if adjustments were made in government health-care policies, so that families that had been struck by illness but had believed that at least their medical expenses were covered found all at once that in fact they weren't?
What if the new President -- not elected President in his own right; marginalized and humiliated by his predecessor's advisers; lampooned in the press; the subject of a potentially criminal investigation; beholden to racist Senators likely to hold his legislative initiatives hostage; and haunted by the death-rattle of his family's failures--What if he failed?
This, the fourth installment of Robert's Caro's magisterial The Years of Lyndon Johnson, captures that moment in time. And having asked the question -- What if? -- demonstrates quite clearly that Johnson did not fail, that he succeeded beyond any realistic hope, that, in fact, he was uniquely qualified not to fail. At least not yet. As Caro tells us, and tells us a lot, quite frankly, that will have to wait till the next book.
The characters, and the times, are Shakespearean. Equal parts Comedy, History and Tragedy. This is especially so with the drama between Johnson and Bobby Kennedy. When they are both on the stage, the book is un-put-downable.
What makes Caro so different -- better -- is the depth of his research, the elegance of his writing. He does not hide his political leanings, but he has no agenda. But it's that Shakespearean quality he has going, more than anything: a time for monologue, a time for dialogue; fathers and sons; brothers; mortal enemies. And, if you missed the hints in the titles of all his books, he writes of Power: where to find it, how to get it, how to use it.
Caro captures the poetry: writing movingly of the 'muffled drums' in the funeral cortege. The politics: Senator Richard Russell forecasting, "We could have beaten Kennedy on civil rights, but we can't Lyndon." And the psychology: This book is an interlude in the series, much as Means of Ascent was. Five years in three acts: the 1960 election; the wasted years of the vice-presidency; and the seven weeks after the assassination, when Johnson scored unprecedented legislative success. Johnson could only have achieved what he did by sublimating the darkest instincts in his nature.
There are flaws here. The thematic choruses are repetitively struck. And the research, for all its breadth, leans more to interviews and biographies than scholarly analyses. But these are minor points in view of the accomplishment.
But....it took ten years for Caro to write this and he is now 76. The whole of Johnson's presidency looms. Kenneth Davis (FDR) and William Manchester (Churchill) are painful reminders of the brevity of even a long human life. Hurry, Robert. But not too much.
It wasn't just ten-year olds who were star-struck by All Things Kennedy. And almost everyone asked, "LBJ?" There was plenty of reason to be nervous, cynical even. Cuba and Berlin had significantly warmed The Cold War. And no one knew if Oswald acted alone (although he seemed to have, you know, connections). And whatever or whoever LBJ was, he was no Jack Kennedy.
For what if the transfer did not go smoothly? Robert Caro asks in an illuminating paragraph, masterfully putting that moment in time in context. What if policies were changed--foreign policies: what if detente was ended, new orders given; what if, along a border between East and West Berlin, perhaps, tensions rose; what if tanks began to rumble forward, troops began to march; what if, in the harbors of naval bases, anchor chains began to rattle aboard so that fleets could sail? Or domestic policies: what if interest rates set by a government agency of which people had previously been only vaguely aware suddenly began to be raised, and raised too high--what if, as a result of that change, businesses that had planned to borrow money to expand suddenly found the cost of money too high, and had to contract instead, laying off employees? What if the rates were lowered--and lowered too far--and, as a result, inflation rose, and rose too far; what if currencies crumbled, life savings were eaten away, elderly couple suddenly facing impoverished old age? What if tax policies, or depreciation allowances, were changed, so that corporations abruptly found that expansions planned under old policies would now be unfeasible, so they could no longer afford to add employees? What if previously announced government appropriations were suddenly rescinded or the schedule of their payments stretched out so that schools, hospitals, clinics, day-care centers, suddenly had bad news for students and patients; what if decisions were made not to build dams or roads on which people had been counting on employment? What if naval yards, aircraft factories were closed, their thousands of employees thrown out of work? What if adjustments were made in government health-care policies, so that families that had been struck by illness but had believed that at least their medical expenses were covered found all at once that in fact they weren't?
What if the new President -- not elected President in his own right; marginalized and humiliated by his predecessor's advisers; lampooned in the press; the subject of a potentially criminal investigation; beholden to racist Senators likely to hold his legislative initiatives hostage; and haunted by the death-rattle of his family's failures--What if he failed?
This, the fourth installment of Robert's Caro's magisterial The Years of Lyndon Johnson, captures that moment in time. And having asked the question -- What if? -- demonstrates quite clearly that Johnson did not fail, that he succeeded beyond any realistic hope, that, in fact, he was uniquely qualified not to fail. At least not yet. As Caro tells us, and tells us a lot, quite frankly, that will have to wait till the next book.
The characters, and the times, are Shakespearean. Equal parts Comedy, History and Tragedy. This is especially so with the drama between Johnson and Bobby Kennedy. When they are both on the stage, the book is un-put-downable.
What makes Caro so different -- better -- is the depth of his research, the elegance of his writing. He does not hide his political leanings, but he has no agenda. But it's that Shakespearean quality he has going, more than anything: a time for monologue, a time for dialogue; fathers and sons; brothers; mortal enemies. And, if you missed the hints in the titles of all his books, he writes of Power: where to find it, how to get it, how to use it.
Caro captures the poetry: writing movingly of the 'muffled drums' in the funeral cortege. The politics: Senator Richard Russell forecasting, "We could have beaten Kennedy on civil rights, but we can't Lyndon." And the psychology: This book is an interlude in the series, much as Means of Ascent was. Five years in three acts: the 1960 election; the wasted years of the vice-presidency; and the seven weeks after the assassination, when Johnson scored unprecedented legislative success. Johnson could only have achieved what he did by sublimating the darkest instincts in his nature.
There are flaws here. The thematic choruses are repetitively struck. And the research, for all its breadth, leans more to interviews and biographies than scholarly analyses. But these are minor points in view of the accomplishment.
But....it took ten years for Caro to write this and he is now 76. The whole of Johnson's presidency looms. Kenneth Davis (FDR) and William Manchester (Churchill) are painful reminders of the brevity of even a long human life. Hurry, Robert. But not too much.
July 16, 2013
So I started this ages ago, but I must not have been that into it at the time because I put it down in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis and didn't pick it up again for an entire year. The problem I'd been having was the one I'd had with other books in the series, which is that while I adore Robert Caro's work and am enthralled by all his descriptions of the intricate and shocking machinations of government, I find Lyndon Baines Johnson, as a person, extraordinarily dull. So for the first big chunk of this book I'd often wake with a start to find I'd dozed off with drool all over my sweater and had only been roused again to consciousness by the appearance of one or another glamorous Kennedy.
This was pretty much the same problem LBJ had throughout his agonizingly demeaning vice presidency, so it makes sense that it'd be replicated here. Fortunately -- well, fortunate for the bored reader, anyway -- the narrative picks up a bit on November 22, 1963 when (spoiler alert!) Johnson's boss makes a dramatic exit and our plucky understudy is thrust onto stage in the starring role for which he's been yearning all his days.
This part of the story is just like that magic makeover moment in all those eighties movies we loved as girls, where the weird nerdy wallflower takes off her glasses and straightens her hair and is outfitted by some fairy-godmother-like figure in a jaunty montage set to the decade's most fabulously craptastic catchy pop song. Johnson's ascension to the presidency is his time to shine, and shine shine shine shine he certainly does!
Caro claims he found no evidence that Johnson was behind JFK's assassination, but if LBJ didn't directly cause JFK's death it's certainly not from lack of hoping (I noticed Caro did not say he'd ruled out a role in RFK's death; guess I'll have to wait for the next one to hear more about that). The pre-assassination dynamics between the Kennedys and Johnson might seem Shakespearian to a well-read and educated person, but my reference point for them really was movies about cruel teenage girls. Basically the Kennedys are the Heathers or are straight out of Mean Girls, and poor LBJ's the awkward dork they tease mercilessly up until the day that the tables turn and he gets to steal their boyfriend/humiliate them in the cafeteria/watch them choke to death on a glass of Drano. I am too young and too stupid to know anything about Bobby Kennedy beyond how terrific my mother thought he was, and the descriptions of his vicious feud with LBJ trumps any gossip magazine or soap opera catfight by a million. Boy, those guys did NOT like each other! Also, I never had any idea before I read this how much being the vice president sucks. I mean, I think I myself might actually enjoy it, since I am very lazy and fear responsibility, unless something terrible happened to the president and then I and everyone else would truly be screwed.
As usual, I digress. Also as usual, Caro is at his best in describing what should be skull-numbingly boring political processes. I, like many other Americans, have a pathetically limited understanding of how politics and the government work, and Caro not only helps make up for all the civics classes I somehow never took but also does a fantastic job of narrating it like it's gripping bloodsport. This stuff is just so great! As I said before, I find LBJ very dull as a person, but when he's doing what he's great at -- brilliant and ruthless political maneuvering -- I just can't get enough. Caro's detailed explanations of how LBJ rammed his budget and civil rights legislation through by masterfully making Congress his bitch is so thrilling that I could read about it for hundreds and hundreds of pages... and oh hey, whadaya know, I just did!
If you haven't read all the hundreds of pages worth of LBJ books that Caro wrote before this one, don't worry; he will recap everything important that you missed, often multiple times and usually while quoting himself, which is certainly his prerogative because he's ROBERT FUCKING CARO. Man I love how GOOD these books are in exactly the same way that I love reading about how good LBJ was at getting bills through Congress. It makes me feel so much better about human beings, that everything and everyone is not just completely mediocre. Give me profoundly, horribly, chillingly flawed any day over just sorta okay, at least when it comes to books... maybe not presidents, but definitely biographies' subjects and authors. Not that Caro is flawed. He is perfect, if you like this kind of thing, as I do. For I value few things as much as a writer whose qualities include the rare ability to pierce through the dark clouds of my ignorance and regale me with the history about which I have understood so little, beginning all those many years ago in that liberal California university town where I grew up, a fierce desire for knowledge burning in my young breast as I determined to learn all the facts of history my absent father neglected to provide.
I'm very excited for the next volume so that I can find out what happens next to our hero. So far it seems like despite his demonstrated capacity for terrible mistakes, unbelievable hubris, appalling immorality and deceit and perhaps even evil, LBJ might make a pretty decent president! I have high hopes based on his determination to develop social programs and advance civil rights, though I am a bit worried about his capacity for making important foreign policy decisions. Nothing major yet, just stuff like political instability in some southeast Asian country that doesn't sound like such a big deal but I'm not sure how he'll handle that sort of thing. I'm sure it'll be fine. But until the next volume comes out, I will live in suspense!
This was pretty much the same problem LBJ had throughout his agonizingly demeaning vice presidency, so it makes sense that it'd be replicated here. Fortunately -- well, fortunate for the bored reader, anyway -- the narrative picks up a bit on November 22, 1963 when (spoiler alert!) Johnson's boss makes a dramatic exit and our plucky understudy is thrust onto stage in the starring role for which he's been yearning all his days.
This part of the story is just like that magic makeover moment in all those eighties movies we loved as girls, where the weird nerdy wallflower takes off her glasses and straightens her hair and is outfitted by some fairy-godmother-like figure in a jaunty montage set to the decade's most fabulously craptastic catchy pop song. Johnson's ascension to the presidency is his time to shine, and shine shine shine shine he certainly does!
Caro claims he found no evidence that Johnson was behind JFK's assassination, but if LBJ didn't directly cause JFK's death it's certainly not from lack of hoping (I noticed Caro did not say he'd ruled out a role in RFK's death; guess I'll have to wait for the next one to hear more about that). The pre-assassination dynamics between the Kennedys and Johnson might seem Shakespearian to a well-read and educated person, but my reference point for them really was movies about cruel teenage girls. Basically the Kennedys are the Heathers or are straight out of Mean Girls, and poor LBJ's the awkward dork they tease mercilessly up until the day that the tables turn and he gets to steal their boyfriend/humiliate them in the cafeteria/watch them choke to death on a glass of Drano. I am too young and too stupid to know anything about Bobby Kennedy beyond how terrific my mother thought he was, and the descriptions of his vicious feud with LBJ trumps any gossip magazine or soap opera catfight by a million. Boy, those guys did NOT like each other! Also, I never had any idea before I read this how much being the vice president sucks. I mean, I think I myself might actually enjoy it, since I am very lazy and fear responsibility, unless something terrible happened to the president and then I and everyone else would truly be screwed.
As usual, I digress. Also as usual, Caro is at his best in describing what should be skull-numbingly boring political processes. I, like many other Americans, have a pathetically limited understanding of how politics and the government work, and Caro not only helps make up for all the civics classes I somehow never took but also does a fantastic job of narrating it like it's gripping bloodsport. This stuff is just so great! As I said before, I find LBJ very dull as a person, but when he's doing what he's great at -- brilliant and ruthless political maneuvering -- I just can't get enough. Caro's detailed explanations of how LBJ rammed his budget and civil rights legislation through by masterfully making Congress his bitch is so thrilling that I could read about it for hundreds and hundreds of pages... and oh hey, whadaya know, I just did!
If you haven't read all the hundreds of pages worth of LBJ books that Caro wrote before this one, don't worry; he will recap everything important that you missed, often multiple times and usually while quoting himself, which is certainly his prerogative because he's ROBERT FUCKING CARO. Man I love how GOOD these books are in exactly the same way that I love reading about how good LBJ was at getting bills through Congress. It makes me feel so much better about human beings, that everything and everyone is not just completely mediocre. Give me profoundly, horribly, chillingly flawed any day over just sorta okay, at least when it comes to books... maybe not presidents, but definitely biographies' subjects and authors. Not that Caro is flawed. He is perfect, if you like this kind of thing, as I do. For I value few things as much as a writer whose qualities include the rare ability to pierce through the dark clouds of my ignorance and regale me with the history about which I have understood so little, beginning all those many years ago in that liberal California university town where I grew up, a fierce desire for knowledge burning in my young breast as I determined to learn all the facts of history my absent father neglected to provide.
I'm very excited for the next volume so that I can find out what happens next to our hero. So far it seems like despite his demonstrated capacity for terrible mistakes, unbelievable hubris, appalling immorality and deceit and perhaps even evil, LBJ might make a pretty decent president! I have high hopes based on his determination to develop social programs and advance civil rights, though I am a bit worried about his capacity for making important foreign policy decisions. Nothing major yet, just stuff like political instability in some southeast Asian country that doesn't sound like such a big deal but I'm not sure how he'll handle that sort of thing. I'm sure it'll be fine. But until the next volume comes out, I will live in suspense!
July 13, 2023
In hopes of trying to stir up the vibes for Robert A. Caro to complete this multi-volume biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, I chose to begin a re-read of those tomes already published. Let’s see if it works!
Caro continues to outdo himself in the most recent volume of the LBJ biography. He has set the scene for a powerful conclusion, the elected presidency of 1964-68. I was so enthralled by all that came from this volume, as it not only covers some very powerful times (1960 lead-up to the Democratic convention and subsequent VP selection, life as the VP, assassination of JFK, and finishing the JFK presidency as POTUS), but also does so in a very powerful and behind-the-scenes way. There is so much information packed in the book that I was trying to catch each word, so that I did not miss a thing. Those who read Caro’s Dallas, November 22, 1963 will see some repetition, though there is a great deal the reader can pull from the narrative by having enjoyed both pieces.
While not the longest of Caro’s books, it deals with the largest historical period, crammed into four years. As I mentioned above, Caro examines some key happenings in LBJ’s political life and really offers a wealth of knowledge on things I did not even knew happened. The book is less about the JFK-LBJ struggle than it is RFK-LBJ. Sowing the seeds of hatred amongst the two of them, Caro shows just how passionately both despised the other. This thread continued in the White House years as the Kennedys all but ignored LBJ, leaving him to do the mundane things and almost urging him to quit. When power shifts on November 22, 1963, all hell breaks loose, but LBJ seems able to keep his power in check as RFK is left to wonder about his future.
Use of documents and interviews permits Caro to take us behind the scenes and in-depth into those hours following the assassination, where power’s pendulum swung to the other side. Those who have read the previous three volumes will see that power is an intimate bedfellow for LBJ, yet during these hours of crisis, we see a calm man taking the reins of power, not someone who yearns to crush those under him. Even in the 11 months leading up to the 1964 election, LBJ stays on course and pushes through some of JFK’s long desired initiatives.
One thing that is not new to this volume, but worth mentioning, is Caro’s refusal to ‘box the story' within the parameters of the dates laid out in the introduction. By that I mean that he does not strictly deal with certain dates., following the chronological happenings of LBJ’s life. He will expound on a story in an early volume and then, should the issue’s significance return in a later volume, give a great, short summary. He will also refer to the full narrative, with page number, for the reader to re-read, should they want it in a more thorough presentation. This not only refreshes the reader, who, if they are like me, has read thousands of pages on the history, and may have forgotten about certain parts of the larger story.
And now… the wait. Having caught up on all four volumes, I have to wait for the final installment, whose rumoured release has been a piece of speculation for over a decade. It will surely be the great end to a powerful five-volume work, as Vietnam rages its ugly head and pushes LBJ away from his life-long ambition earlier than he would have liked.
Kudos, Mr. Caro for this wonderful teaser. I am eagerly waiting to see what else you have for your fans, whenever that book sees the light of day!
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
Caro continues to outdo himself in the most recent volume of the LBJ biography. He has set the scene for a powerful conclusion, the elected presidency of 1964-68. I was so enthralled by all that came from this volume, as it not only covers some very powerful times (1960 lead-up to the Democratic convention and subsequent VP selection, life as the VP, assassination of JFK, and finishing the JFK presidency as POTUS), but also does so in a very powerful and behind-the-scenes way. There is so much information packed in the book that I was trying to catch each word, so that I did not miss a thing. Those who read Caro’s Dallas, November 22, 1963 will see some repetition, though there is a great deal the reader can pull from the narrative by having enjoyed both pieces.
While not the longest of Caro’s books, it deals with the largest historical period, crammed into four years. As I mentioned above, Caro examines some key happenings in LBJ’s political life and really offers a wealth of knowledge on things I did not even knew happened. The book is less about the JFK-LBJ struggle than it is RFK-LBJ. Sowing the seeds of hatred amongst the two of them, Caro shows just how passionately both despised the other. This thread continued in the White House years as the Kennedys all but ignored LBJ, leaving him to do the mundane things and almost urging him to quit. When power shifts on November 22, 1963, all hell breaks loose, but LBJ seems able to keep his power in check as RFK is left to wonder about his future.
Use of documents and interviews permits Caro to take us behind the scenes and in-depth into those hours following the assassination, where power’s pendulum swung to the other side. Those who have read the previous three volumes will see that power is an intimate bedfellow for LBJ, yet during these hours of crisis, we see a calm man taking the reins of power, not someone who yearns to crush those under him. Even in the 11 months leading up to the 1964 election, LBJ stays on course and pushes through some of JFK’s long desired initiatives.
One thing that is not new to this volume, but worth mentioning, is Caro’s refusal to ‘box the story' within the parameters of the dates laid out in the introduction. By that I mean that he does not strictly deal with certain dates., following the chronological happenings of LBJ’s life. He will expound on a story in an early volume and then, should the issue’s significance return in a later volume, give a great, short summary. He will also refer to the full narrative, with page number, for the reader to re-read, should they want it in a more thorough presentation. This not only refreshes the reader, who, if they are like me, has read thousands of pages on the history, and may have forgotten about certain parts of the larger story.
And now… the wait. Having caught up on all four volumes, I have to wait for the final installment, whose rumoured release has been a piece of speculation for over a decade. It will surely be the great end to a powerful five-volume work, as Vietnam rages its ugly head and pushes LBJ away from his life-long ambition earlier than he would have liked.
Kudos, Mr. Caro for this wonderful teaser. I am eagerly waiting to see what else you have for your fans, whenever that book sees the light of day!
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
November 30, 2017
Whew! Four down; one to go.
February 9, 2021
Come now Johnson and Caro, that duo with whom I have now spent so many hours (years in literary time!), in this fourth and, God willing, penultimate volume of the Years of Lyndon Johnson. The Passage of Power is excellent, of course; if you've read the first three books you wouldn't expect anything less. Caro is just such a terrific writer, and the Years and events that fill them so fascinating, that you can't but feel a little sad at the prospect of not having another doorstopper to immediately pick up.
Johnson waits too long to run for the 1960 Democratic Presidential nomination and, armed with some good reasons by his closest associates, accepts Kennedy's offer of the VP nomination. He goes from being the "Second Most Powerful Man in Washington" as Senate Majority Leader to a political afterthought as VP, and after a handful of early attempts at increased power are deftly batted aside, Johnson settles in for three miserable years. You can't help but feel bad for him; I mean, I've spent all of this time with him, I feel like he's a friend! Then he is propelled from the least powerful office to the most powerful in what might be the most dramatic one-day event in US history, and in the time between Kennedy's death and his first State of the Union address, he takes command and really holds things together.
Caro's writing on the JFK assassination and funeral are deeply moving; it gives the reader a sense of the magnitude, the raw shock and sadness, of that horrific event that those of us born after accept as a page of history already turned. Scenes from those chapters linger still ("those terrible drums!"). The book is worth reading for that alone. And there is more: The blood feud between Johnson and Robert Kennedy; JFK's personal challenges and triumphs that even his father's immense wealth couldn't prevent or purchase; Johnson's legislative cunning and genius back in action as he fights for the passage of a new Civil Rights bill; the powerful cocktail that is the confluence of Johnson's compassion and ambition, his great ruthlessness and great humanity.
Caro, as always, makes his subjects so real. There aren't Heroes and Villains here, but people as you know them—people like you and me. I think this is the best part of Caro's books; his research and objectivity allow him to paint with so fine a brush. He works very hard to be fair, to give each man his due, and to present them (as best any writer can) as they really were.
It has been a real pleasure to read these books. God preserve Robert Caro!
Johnson waits too long to run for the 1960 Democratic Presidential nomination and, armed with some good reasons by his closest associates, accepts Kennedy's offer of the VP nomination. He goes from being the "Second Most Powerful Man in Washington" as Senate Majority Leader to a political afterthought as VP, and after a handful of early attempts at increased power are deftly batted aside, Johnson settles in for three miserable years. You can't help but feel bad for him; I mean, I've spent all of this time with him, I feel like he's a friend! Then he is propelled from the least powerful office to the most powerful in what might be the most dramatic one-day event in US history, and in the time between Kennedy's death and his first State of the Union address, he takes command and really holds things together.
Caro's writing on the JFK assassination and funeral are deeply moving; it gives the reader a sense of the magnitude, the raw shock and sadness, of that horrific event that those of us born after accept as a page of history already turned. Scenes from those chapters linger still ("those terrible drums!"). The book is worth reading for that alone. And there is more: The blood feud between Johnson and Robert Kennedy; JFK's personal challenges and triumphs that even his father's immense wealth couldn't prevent or purchase; Johnson's legislative cunning and genius back in action as he fights for the passage of a new Civil Rights bill; the powerful cocktail that is the confluence of Johnson's compassion and ambition, his great ruthlessness and great humanity.
Caro, as always, makes his subjects so real. There aren't Heroes and Villains here, but people as you know them—people like you and me. I think this is the best part of Caro's books; his research and objectivity allow him to paint with so fine a brush. He works very hard to be fair, to give each man his due, and to present them (as best any writer can) as they really were.
It has been a real pleasure to read these books. God preserve Robert Caro!
April 26, 2015
The description accompanying this title very accurately summarizes the contents of this volume in Robert A. Caro's brilliant biography of LBJ, and so there's no point in repeating all of that here. Like the earlier volumes, this is an epic work: solidly researched, beautifully written, and very gripping, even though most readers will be well aware of the general history covered here. In particular, the chapters surrounding the day on which John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas capture in great detail one of the most epochal moments in American history. An outstanding work, more than worthy of all the praise that has been heaped upon it.
December 13, 2017
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...
“The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson” is the fourth (and most recently published) volume in Robert Caro’s series covering the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Caro is a former investigative reporter and the author of two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies. He is currently working on the fifth – and presumably final – volume in his LBJ series.
Published in 2012, “The Passage of Power” covers roughly a half-dozen years: from Johnson’s campaign for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination (while Senate Majority Leader) to his first State of the Union Address as President in 1964, just seven weeks after JFK’s assassination.
This 605-page volume is comprised of two sections of nearly equal length: the first consisting of the period leading up to Kennedy’s assassination, and the second focusing on the earliest weeks of LBJ’s presidency. Ever mindful of readers who have not read previous volumes, Caro periodically refers back to important moments in LBJ’s early life to provide valuable context. And he occasionally peers ahead in order to foreshadow themes that will presumably permeate the final volume of the series.
Readers who have followed LBJ’s life throughout this series will find much that is familiar and praiseworthy. Caro’s writing style – fluent and brilliantly insightful but also occasionally cumbersome – is again on display. But happily, the labyrinthine sentences, page-long paragraphs and unnecessary story line tangents that have populated previous volumes seem in shorter supply.
Like previous installments in this series, “The Passage of Power” is almost as much a treatise on the acquisition and use of power as it is a narrative of Lyndon Johnson’s life. But while serving both of those purposes exceedingly well it also provides a fascinating window into a remarkable transformation: of a depressed and politically powerless vice president into a capable and forceful president who managed to control his worst impulses and survive a period of significant political peril.
There are too many excellent moments in this book to exhaustively detail, but among them are useful “mini-biographies” of John Kennedy and Senator Harry Byrd, riveting and penetrating coverage of the relationships between LBJ, JFK and RFK, a canny analysis of the power of the legislative branch of government, and a fascinating discussion of the formation of the Warren Commission.
Caro’s thorough description of the fight for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination (and the selection of LBJ as Kennedy’s running mate) is excellent. His later review of the events surrounding JFK’s assassination proves no less detailed – or engrossing. And somewhat to my surprise, this volume provides far more insight into the Dallas assassination (and the days that followed) than any of the eighteen biographies of JFK and LBJ I’ve previously read.
“The Passage of Power” possesses a few flaws, but none will surprise devoted readers of this series. As demonstrated in previous volumes, Caro can be repetitive. He frequently recycles phrases, quotes and memorable one-liners not only across volumes in the series but also within an individual volume. I’ve now read one specific quote so many times that it seems permanently seared into my memory.
In addition, Caro sometimes becomes so engrossed in the details of whatever issue he is exploring that he fails to provide a clearer sense of the “big picture.” Readers seeking a holistic sense of LBJ rather than a granular understanding of his every strategic move are prone to losing the forest for the trees. And given the enormity of the public challenges LBJ faces during this volume, it is unsurprising (but still regrettable) that so little of his personal life is explored.
Overall, however, “The Passage of Power” is an incredibly compelling and endlessly captivating exploration of six important years – and several enormously consequential days – in the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Anyone who has enjoyed previous volumes will find much to appreciate here, but even readers new to the series will find this volume immensely rewarding. And if the measure of a volume is the degree to which it creates an spirited sense of anticipation for the next volume, “The Passage of Power” is truly exceptional.
Overall rating: 4¾ stars
“The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson” is the fourth (and most recently published) volume in Robert Caro’s series covering the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Caro is a former investigative reporter and the author of two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies. He is currently working on the fifth – and presumably final – volume in his LBJ series.
Published in 2012, “The Passage of Power” covers roughly a half-dozen years: from Johnson’s campaign for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination (while Senate Majority Leader) to his first State of the Union Address as President in 1964, just seven weeks after JFK’s assassination.
This 605-page volume is comprised of two sections of nearly equal length: the first consisting of the period leading up to Kennedy’s assassination, and the second focusing on the earliest weeks of LBJ’s presidency. Ever mindful of readers who have not read previous volumes, Caro periodically refers back to important moments in LBJ’s early life to provide valuable context. And he occasionally peers ahead in order to foreshadow themes that will presumably permeate the final volume of the series.
Readers who have followed LBJ’s life throughout this series will find much that is familiar and praiseworthy. Caro’s writing style – fluent and brilliantly insightful but also occasionally cumbersome – is again on display. But happily, the labyrinthine sentences, page-long paragraphs and unnecessary story line tangents that have populated previous volumes seem in shorter supply.
Like previous installments in this series, “The Passage of Power” is almost as much a treatise on the acquisition and use of power as it is a narrative of Lyndon Johnson’s life. But while serving both of those purposes exceedingly well it also provides a fascinating window into a remarkable transformation: of a depressed and politically powerless vice president into a capable and forceful president who managed to control his worst impulses and survive a period of significant political peril.
There are too many excellent moments in this book to exhaustively detail, but among them are useful “mini-biographies” of John Kennedy and Senator Harry Byrd, riveting and penetrating coverage of the relationships between LBJ, JFK and RFK, a canny analysis of the power of the legislative branch of government, and a fascinating discussion of the formation of the Warren Commission.
Caro’s thorough description of the fight for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination (and the selection of LBJ as Kennedy’s running mate) is excellent. His later review of the events surrounding JFK’s assassination proves no less detailed – or engrossing. And somewhat to my surprise, this volume provides far more insight into the Dallas assassination (and the days that followed) than any of the eighteen biographies of JFK and LBJ I’ve previously read.
“The Passage of Power” possesses a few flaws, but none will surprise devoted readers of this series. As demonstrated in previous volumes, Caro can be repetitive. He frequently recycles phrases, quotes and memorable one-liners not only across volumes in the series but also within an individual volume. I’ve now read one specific quote so many times that it seems permanently seared into my memory.
In addition, Caro sometimes becomes so engrossed in the details of whatever issue he is exploring that he fails to provide a clearer sense of the “big picture.” Readers seeking a holistic sense of LBJ rather than a granular understanding of his every strategic move are prone to losing the forest for the trees. And given the enormity of the public challenges LBJ faces during this volume, it is unsurprising (but still regrettable) that so little of his personal life is explored.
Overall, however, “The Passage of Power” is an incredibly compelling and endlessly captivating exploration of six important years – and several enormously consequential days – in the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Anyone who has enjoyed previous volumes will find much to appreciate here, but even readers new to the series will find this volume immensely rewarding. And if the measure of a volume is the degree to which it creates an spirited sense of anticipation for the next volume, “The Passage of Power” is truly exceptional.
Overall rating: 4¾ stars
July 1, 2019
I have been reading Robert Caro's four extensive volumes about the life of Lyndon B Johnson over the past two years. The experience has been a master class in politics, power, the workings of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the interaction between the Executive and Legislative Branches, and 20th century history up to 1964.
The Passage of Power begins with LBJ, still in his role as the most powerful Senate leader possibly ever, trying to decide if he will run for President in the 1960 election. Because he waffled for too long, he did not get the nomination but was asked to be running mate for John F Kennedy. Becoming a vice president under JFK was a huge descent in influence and an almost complete loss of power.
Then JFK was assassinated and in the space of a few hours, LBJ was in the position he had dreamed of and schemed to reach for most of his life. The next chapters cover his first hours, days, and months filling this new role. That part was as exciting as the parts in Book 3, Master of the Senate, when he achieved his power there and gave that body a 20th century makeover.
The final section covers how he used his Senate leader experience to get passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
I came of political age in the mid 60s at the height of protests against the Vietnam War. My opinion of this man was formed and largely colored by what happened in those years. My friends and I purely hated him. I am glad I took the time to read so much about him. He was deeply flawed but now I am aware of how much influence he had during his presidency and how much change he brought about.
I understand him now as quite a Machiavellian figure whose strengths could overcome his weaknesses. Robert Caro is still writing the final volume but I want to read it immediately. At the end of The Passage of Power, Caro makes it clear that he feels LBJ held his baser instincts in check long enough to get much positive legislation passed but that his momentum and that of our country would be lost because of Vietnam.
I realize that many people do not have the time to read almost 3000 pages about one POTUS, but anyone who does will learn much about politics and the role of government in America. Having read these books, I feel smarter, more able to parse the news, make sense of what is happening today, and hopefully make the best use of my right to vote, a right for which so many women before me have fought.
The Passage of Power begins with LBJ, still in his role as the most powerful Senate leader possibly ever, trying to decide if he will run for President in the 1960 election. Because he waffled for too long, he did not get the nomination but was asked to be running mate for John F Kennedy. Becoming a vice president under JFK was a huge descent in influence and an almost complete loss of power.
Then JFK was assassinated and in the space of a few hours, LBJ was in the position he had dreamed of and schemed to reach for most of his life. The next chapters cover his first hours, days, and months filling this new role. That part was as exciting as the parts in Book 3, Master of the Senate, when he achieved his power there and gave that body a 20th century makeover.
The final section covers how he used his Senate leader experience to get passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
I came of political age in the mid 60s at the height of protests against the Vietnam War. My opinion of this man was formed and largely colored by what happened in those years. My friends and I purely hated him. I am glad I took the time to read so much about him. He was deeply flawed but now I am aware of how much influence he had during his presidency and how much change he brought about.
I understand him now as quite a Machiavellian figure whose strengths could overcome his weaknesses. Robert Caro is still writing the final volume but I want to read it immediately. At the end of The Passage of Power, Caro makes it clear that he feels LBJ held his baser instincts in check long enough to get much positive legislation passed but that his momentum and that of our country would be lost because of Vietnam.
I realize that many people do not have the time to read almost 3000 pages about one POTUS, but anyone who does will learn much about politics and the role of government in America. Having read these books, I feel smarter, more able to parse the news, make sense of what is happening today, and hopefully make the best use of my right to vote, a right for which so many women before me have fought.
December 16, 2012
Robert Caro began researching this series of books in 1976, the year I was born. The scope and ambition of these books do more than cast long shadows, they fill the sky. Their success rests on several factors, including exhaustive research, but ultimately, they are so impressive primarily because their author is as good a storyteller as any novelist working today.
Caro is the unrivaled master of weaving the minutia into a grand tapestry. He never fails to set the historical stage for each moment of Johnson's career, and that's never more important than it is in the year's covered in this book -- 1960 to 1964 -- the years he lost to John F. Kennedy in the Democratic primary, became his running mate in the 1960 general election, and then assumed power upon Kennedy's assassination in 1963. It's at that moment, the moment of the assassination, that this book truly hits its stride.
Johnson took over under unprecedented circumstances, in more ways than one, and Caro masterfully lays that out for the reader. Not only was he present at the time of Kennedy's death, Kennedy was murdered in his home state. At the time of the assassination, rumors were flying that Johnson -- loathed by Robert Kennedy and never trusted or admired by most Kennedy staffers -- was to be dropped from the ticket in 1964. Additionally, the world was already living in a state of constant fear of nuclear war, a war that had been narrowly averted just a year prior during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Johnson had to reassure not only the US but the world that he was a competent leader. To do so, he had to convince men who had never liked him, who had called him "Rufus Cornpone" behind his back, to work for him as they had for Kennedy. He had to do all of this while still being respectful of the Kennedy family and the dead president's legacy. And he had to immediately start thinking of the looming election, in which Robert Kennedy might be waiting to take the nomination from him and assume his brother's place atop the government.
That Johnson was able to do all of these things was a testament to his intelligence and his will. Caro gives this period of Johnson's life room to breathe on the page, spending some 150+ pages on about two months, from late November 1963 to February 1964, when Johnson finally brought the Civil Rights Bill that would become the most positive part of his legacy, to the Senate floor.
Balancing the need to delve into details -- who was on Air Force One that night in Dallas, who did Johnson first call to discuss the Oath of the Office, who were the congressman in the rules committee that threatened to destroy the Civil Rights Bill -- with the desire to properly frame the moment is what makes this yet another master work from Robert A. Caro. To step back and to view the entire series--more than 3,000 pages so far--is breathtaking.
Caro is the unrivaled master of weaving the minutia into a grand tapestry. He never fails to set the historical stage for each moment of Johnson's career, and that's never more important than it is in the year's covered in this book -- 1960 to 1964 -- the years he lost to John F. Kennedy in the Democratic primary, became his running mate in the 1960 general election, and then assumed power upon Kennedy's assassination in 1963. It's at that moment, the moment of the assassination, that this book truly hits its stride.
Johnson took over under unprecedented circumstances, in more ways than one, and Caro masterfully lays that out for the reader. Not only was he present at the time of Kennedy's death, Kennedy was murdered in his home state. At the time of the assassination, rumors were flying that Johnson -- loathed by Robert Kennedy and never trusted or admired by most Kennedy staffers -- was to be dropped from the ticket in 1964. Additionally, the world was already living in a state of constant fear of nuclear war, a war that had been narrowly averted just a year prior during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Johnson had to reassure not only the US but the world that he was a competent leader. To do so, he had to convince men who had never liked him, who had called him "Rufus Cornpone" behind his back, to work for him as they had for Kennedy. He had to do all of this while still being respectful of the Kennedy family and the dead president's legacy. And he had to immediately start thinking of the looming election, in which Robert Kennedy might be waiting to take the nomination from him and assume his brother's place atop the government.
That Johnson was able to do all of these things was a testament to his intelligence and his will. Caro gives this period of Johnson's life room to breathe on the page, spending some 150+ pages on about two months, from late November 1963 to February 1964, when Johnson finally brought the Civil Rights Bill that would become the most positive part of his legacy, to the Senate floor.
Balancing the need to delve into details -- who was on Air Force One that night in Dallas, who did Johnson first call to discuss the Oath of the Office, who were the congressman in the rules committee that threatened to destroy the Civil Rights Bill -- with the desire to properly frame the moment is what makes this yet another master work from Robert A. Caro. To step back and to view the entire series--more than 3,000 pages so far--is breathtaking.
May 18, 2012
This book, which takes Lyndon Johnson from the campaign of 1960, through his Vice Presidential years, and up to the first few months of his presidency, deserves a place among Caro's best works.
There are a few things that are infuriating in this book. Again and again the reader is treated to reminders that Johnson was a maniacal worker, and quotes like "He didn't want to be like Daddy." These are not only repeated ad nausem in this book, but were also repeated ad nausem in the three previous Johnson books of the series, and if anything Caro has been getting even MORE repetitive with these lines as the series goes on. It baffles me why his editor hasn't simply excised them from more than a few paragraphs, but almost every scene change seems to bring them back.
That being said, at a certain point one can ignore their invocation. They function as something akin to Homer's reiteration of the "wine-dark sea" or some such. They merely serve to allow the tale teller to catch his breath before diving into another story. The work itself remains astounding and unparalleled. There are simply no other writers or historians who succeed in placing you right there in the midst of the action so well, and make the reader feel as if they are witnessing history in the making. Again and again Caro's numberless interviews with every important or unimportant participant in a scene pay off with telling details and rich moments.
The simple fact is after each of these books you feel like you understand power and politics in America in an entirely new light, and this new light makes all of the minutiae of political process seem uncommonly exciting. It helps that for the first time, perhaps, in this series, Caro has some topics with truly grand historical reach. His discussions of the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Tax Cut are unrivalled in his work, or perhaps any other, for drama and suspense.
Other little details that have escaped all previous biographers are equally mesmerizing. Caro himself said he could hardly believe them when he was writing them. Consider the private telephone line Johnson insisted on installing in his bedroom directly to the bedroom of the controller of his "blind" financial trust in Texas, so he, the President of the United States, could secretly discuss his investments on an almost nightly basis. Or the fact that Johnson, abused by the Kennedy team (they called him "Uncle Cornpone," among harsher insults, often just within his earshot), told one of his aides that being Vice President was the equivalent of being a "cut dog."
Again, its a magisterial piece of work, and once again after finishing, I can't help but wait for the supposedly final volume. Frankly, I think more than ever that its all for the best if he decides to split THAT one up into two or more volumes. The more the merrier.
March 29, 2018
Over thirty years have passed since the publication of The Path to Power, the first of what Robert Caro envisioned would be a three-volume biography of America’s 36th president. This, his fourth volume, ends in the first months of his presidency, and his assertion that this is the penultimate volume is a little hard to swallow given the thoroughness he has covered Johnson’s life even before reaching his time in the White House (with a third of this book’s 700+ pages chronicling just the first four months as president). Yet Caro has sacrificed brevity for a detailed portrait of irony in his depiction of a master of political power who finds himself deprived of it.
Caro begins with Johnson at the height of his success in the Senate. Still only in his second term, he had taken the weak position of Senate Majority Leader and turned it into the second most powerful position in national politics, thanks largely to his enormous personal and legislative abilities. But Johnson had his eye on an even larger prize – the presidency itself, an office he had aspired to for decades and which in 1960 seemed to many to be his for the taking. Yet Johnson hesitated to commit himself to the race, fearing the humiliation of a defeat. This created an opening that John F. Kennedy eagerly exploited. With his brother Robert collecting commitments in the west – a region critical to Johnson’s chances – Kennedy outmaneuvered the Texas senator, demonstrating just how completely Johnson had misjudged his opponent.
Yet for Johnson a new opportunity presented itself when Kennedy offered him the vice presidential nomination during the convention. For Kennedy, the choice was an obvious one, as Johnson’s presence on the ticket offered Democrats a chance to reclaim the Southern states lost to Dwight Eisenhower in the two previous elections. Johnson’s reasons for accepting are less clear, though Caro describes Johnson’s realistic assessment of his odds as vice president of assuming the presidency in his own right, as well as his belief that “Power is where power goes,” a statement that demonstrates his conviction that he would retain his control over the Senate even as vice president.
Johnson was soon disabused of this notion. Blocked from maintaining his position in the Senate’s Democratic caucus and denied any real responsibilities by the Kennedys, Johnson seemed to wither from the absence of power. For all his failings it is hard not to sympathize with the man in these chapters, who works to ingratiate himself with the Kennedys through expensive gifts and obsequious letters. Yet flattery and jewelry did little to improve his standing in the administration, while the growing scandal surrounding his protégé Bobby Baker was exposing the vice president to increased scrutiny of his business dealings. Though Caro doesn’t press his case any further than the evidence allows, his description of the mounting investigations in the autumn of 1963 suggests that Johnson’s position on the ticket the next year was in jeopardy as he left with the president for a campaign trip to Texas.
All of this changed in Dallas in a matter of minutes. Caro’s chapters on Kennedy’s assassination and Johnson’s assumption of the presidency are among the best in the book, as they convey the sense of bewilderment, tragedy, and sadness which stained that day. Here we see Johnson’s abilities employed to their fullest to reassure a shocked nation of the smooth transition of power. Within days of Kennedy’s funeral the new president took charge of his predecessor’s stalled legislative agenda, working to pass a tax cut bill and civil rights legislation that few expected would become law. Here Caro exploits the numerous telephone conversations the president secretly recorded to depict Johnson’s use of political power, as he threatened, cajoled, and wooed senators and representatives in an effort to attain his goals. The book ends in March 1964, with Johnson fully settled into his office and with the challenge before him of election in his own right, a challenge that – if successful – would complete his journey from the Texas Hill Country to the highest office in the land.
As with his previous volumes Caro has provided a meticulous, painstaking study of the life and career of one of the most fascinating men ever to occupy the presidency, a book that measures up to the high standard set by his earlier works. His errors are few and are easily forgiven in a narrative that engages the reader fully and manages to make the minutiae of legislative maneuvering into entertaining reading. Given Caro’s track record, it may be too much to hope that the next volume – final or not – will be published more quickly than this one, but regardless of how long it takes, if it is anywhere near as good as this one it will be well worth the wait.
Caro begins with Johnson at the height of his success in the Senate. Still only in his second term, he had taken the weak position of Senate Majority Leader and turned it into the second most powerful position in national politics, thanks largely to his enormous personal and legislative abilities. But Johnson had his eye on an even larger prize – the presidency itself, an office he had aspired to for decades and which in 1960 seemed to many to be his for the taking. Yet Johnson hesitated to commit himself to the race, fearing the humiliation of a defeat. This created an opening that John F. Kennedy eagerly exploited. With his brother Robert collecting commitments in the west – a region critical to Johnson’s chances – Kennedy outmaneuvered the Texas senator, demonstrating just how completely Johnson had misjudged his opponent.
Yet for Johnson a new opportunity presented itself when Kennedy offered him the vice presidential nomination during the convention. For Kennedy, the choice was an obvious one, as Johnson’s presence on the ticket offered Democrats a chance to reclaim the Southern states lost to Dwight Eisenhower in the two previous elections. Johnson’s reasons for accepting are less clear, though Caro describes Johnson’s realistic assessment of his odds as vice president of assuming the presidency in his own right, as well as his belief that “Power is where power goes,” a statement that demonstrates his conviction that he would retain his control over the Senate even as vice president.
Johnson was soon disabused of this notion. Blocked from maintaining his position in the Senate’s Democratic caucus and denied any real responsibilities by the Kennedys, Johnson seemed to wither from the absence of power. For all his failings it is hard not to sympathize with the man in these chapters, who works to ingratiate himself with the Kennedys through expensive gifts and obsequious letters. Yet flattery and jewelry did little to improve his standing in the administration, while the growing scandal surrounding his protégé Bobby Baker was exposing the vice president to increased scrutiny of his business dealings. Though Caro doesn’t press his case any further than the evidence allows, his description of the mounting investigations in the autumn of 1963 suggests that Johnson’s position on the ticket the next year was in jeopardy as he left with the president for a campaign trip to Texas.
All of this changed in Dallas in a matter of minutes. Caro’s chapters on Kennedy’s assassination and Johnson’s assumption of the presidency are among the best in the book, as they convey the sense of bewilderment, tragedy, and sadness which stained that day. Here we see Johnson’s abilities employed to their fullest to reassure a shocked nation of the smooth transition of power. Within days of Kennedy’s funeral the new president took charge of his predecessor’s stalled legislative agenda, working to pass a tax cut bill and civil rights legislation that few expected would become law. Here Caro exploits the numerous telephone conversations the president secretly recorded to depict Johnson’s use of political power, as he threatened, cajoled, and wooed senators and representatives in an effort to attain his goals. The book ends in March 1964, with Johnson fully settled into his office and with the challenge before him of election in his own right, a challenge that – if successful – would complete his journey from the Texas Hill Country to the highest office in the land.
As with his previous volumes Caro has provided a meticulous, painstaking study of the life and career of one of the most fascinating men ever to occupy the presidency, a book that measures up to the high standard set by his earlier works. His errors are few and are easily forgiven in a narrative that engages the reader fully and manages to make the minutiae of legislative maneuvering into entertaining reading. Given Caro’s track record, it may be too much to hope that the next volume – final or not – will be published more quickly than this one, but regardless of how long it takes, if it is anywhere near as good as this one it will be well worth the wait.
May 6, 2012
Caro's volumes on the years of Lyndon Johnson have brought the enigmatic, misunderstood and nearly forgotten 36th president back into his rightful spot as one of the great leaders of the 20th century.
The scope of this book is much more narrow than the previous volumes, confining itself to LBJ's endless humiliations as John Kennedy's vice president, his sudden ascension to power through Kennedy's death and Johnson's astonishing grasp of control over the next few months.
Caro constantly apologizes throughout the book's 700 pages that so many issues await resolution until the fifth and final volume is completed.
But what is here is amazing, a Herculean feat of assembling information about Johnson, the Kennedys and the times in which they lived. For those who've never read a Caro book on Johnson, the level of detail may be a bit much to handle. Caro is nothing if not thorough.
Being able to avoid Vietnam, Robert Kennedy's death and Johnson's own exit from the presidency in disgrace allows Caro to focus on the nobler aspects of Johnson's character, especially in the dark days after Dallas. Johnson's quick thinking and ability to shepherd Kennedy's unfinished legislation through Congress is something to marvel and, by itself, assures him an honored spot in history.
As always, Caro balances the hagiography with facts inconvenient to the would-be mythmaker: LBJ's questionable business deals, some of which crossed the line into illegality; his scorn towards and obsession with Robert Kennedy.
This is a worthy successor volume to Caro's brilliant Johnson books. It's essential reading for any serious student of history.
The scope of this book is much more narrow than the previous volumes, confining itself to LBJ's endless humiliations as John Kennedy's vice president, his sudden ascension to power through Kennedy's death and Johnson's astonishing grasp of control over the next few months.
Caro constantly apologizes throughout the book's 700 pages that so many issues await resolution until the fifth and final volume is completed.
But what is here is amazing, a Herculean feat of assembling information about Johnson, the Kennedys and the times in which they lived. For those who've never read a Caro book on Johnson, the level of detail may be a bit much to handle. Caro is nothing if not thorough.
Being able to avoid Vietnam, Robert Kennedy's death and Johnson's own exit from the presidency in disgrace allows Caro to focus on the nobler aspects of Johnson's character, especially in the dark days after Dallas. Johnson's quick thinking and ability to shepherd Kennedy's unfinished legislation through Congress is something to marvel and, by itself, assures him an honored spot in history.
As always, Caro balances the hagiography with facts inconvenient to the would-be mythmaker: LBJ's questionable business deals, some of which crossed the line into illegality; his scorn towards and obsession with Robert Kennedy.
This is a worthy successor volume to Caro's brilliant Johnson books. It's essential reading for any serious student of history.
August 9, 2017
The fourth entry in Robert Caro's long-running Lyndon Johnson series, Passage to Power covers much more well-trod ground than his previous volumes, covering Johnson's time as Vice President and the first nine months of his presidency. Where one of the biggest treats of earlier volumes was gaining insight into new (to me) topics like rural Texas in the '20s or the customs and operations of the Senate, this book felt much more familiar. Which certainly isn't a bad thing: Caro covers the expected highlights (Johnson's fractious relations with the Kennedys and Vice Presidential impotence, his handling of the Kennedy Assassination's aftermath and the passing of the Civil Rights Act) with his usual intellectual vigor and muscular writing. Where Caro has largely disdained Johnson up to this point, he allows unguarded admiration to take over, if only briefly; finally elevated to the highest office, Johnson uses its immense powers for the ultimate good. Pity for America, and the world, it didn't last.
February 18, 2020
A fantastic, deep dive look in the Kennedy's, LBJ's Vice Presidency, the Civil Rights act of 64, and Camelot as a whole. The section detailing JFK's assassination from the eyes of LBJ may have been the most nerve-racking, masterful portrayal of the event I have ever seen.
May 29, 2013
Volume 4 in Caro's lengthy biography of Lyndon Johnson that I originally began, (Vol. 1) in 1982. This one deals with the election of 1960, and the intrigue and travails of LBJ as he attempts to wrest the nomination from John F. Kennedy and fails, and then accepts the nomination for vice president in a gamble, going from the most important Democrat in the country as the greatest Senate majority leader in history to a powerless second-in-command. Miserable as second banana, Johnson is propelled into the top job on November 22, 1963 and walks a tightrope between the "Kennedy men" at the White House, a skeptical press corps and always--his own inner demons. Most of the book deals with what Caro calls the "transition": November 22nd to January 8, 1964, when Johnson announces the War on Poverty and takes over the presidency with his own unique Texan stamp. During this period he successfully negotiated two pieces of Kennedy legislation that were going nowhere: the tax bill which called for a tax cut, and the Civil Rights Bill that had been stalled by Southern Democrats--ultimately getting it passed by July.
Caro is never really sure if Johnson is a hero or a villain. He lauds Johnson's passion for justice, but rightly points out that ambition and reality always were more important. He foreshadows the next volume by revealing that Johnson's worst qualities led to the disaster in Vietnam. Johnson is much like the country he was president of: noble and tawdry, courageous and craven, awful and great.
I found two strange mistakes in the book, common in first day releases but hard to fathom: The disgraced Bobby Baker's last trip to see Johnson at his ranch after he left the presidency could not, as Caro writes, have been in October, 1973, but was in October, 1972. Johnson died in January of 1973; also, a Martin Van Buren quote about the presidency could not have been from 1867, since President Van Buren died in 1862. The book is a bit wordy, and Caro's rather long books have gotten longer, and more wordy, as the volume goes on. There is some concern that Caro will not live to write Volume 5, which will deal with Johnson's election in 1964 and his actual presidency. An anxious fan base awaits the next book... * Reread, April/May, 2013. Listened to the excellent audio presentation of this book again this year. Caro points out in the last chapter how the transition period of 1963-1964 has often been glossed over by historians as "evidence of the efficacy" of the American form of government but Caro shows how Johnson's near genius in getting President Kennedy's tax bill and the civil rights bill out of their respective committees and on the road to passage changed American history for the better. Great profiles of rather forgotten characters in American history who were major players during the era, like Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia and others, and a classic step-by-step, almost exhaustive detailing of the feuds between LBJ and Robert Kennedy that in Caro's words, "Poisoned the Democratic party for most of the 1960s." This is a monumental work, but as I said last year, I fear that a detailed book done in the Caro style on the remaining five years of Johnson's presidency and 9 years of life may be out of reach. I hope Mr. Caro lives past 100.
Caro is never really sure if Johnson is a hero or a villain. He lauds Johnson's passion for justice, but rightly points out that ambition and reality always were more important. He foreshadows the next volume by revealing that Johnson's worst qualities led to the disaster in Vietnam. Johnson is much like the country he was president of: noble and tawdry, courageous and craven, awful and great.
I found two strange mistakes in the book, common in first day releases but hard to fathom: The disgraced Bobby Baker's last trip to see Johnson at his ranch after he left the presidency could not, as Caro writes, have been in October, 1973, but was in October, 1972. Johnson died in January of 1973; also, a Martin Van Buren quote about the presidency could not have been from 1867, since President Van Buren died in 1862. The book is a bit wordy, and Caro's rather long books have gotten longer, and more wordy, as the volume goes on. There is some concern that Caro will not live to write Volume 5, which will deal with Johnson's election in 1964 and his actual presidency. An anxious fan base awaits the next book... * Reread, April/May, 2013. Listened to the excellent audio presentation of this book again this year. Caro points out in the last chapter how the transition period of 1963-1964 has often been glossed over by historians as "evidence of the efficacy" of the American form of government but Caro shows how Johnson's near genius in getting President Kennedy's tax bill and the civil rights bill out of their respective committees and on the road to passage changed American history for the better. Great profiles of rather forgotten characters in American history who were major players during the era, like Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia and others, and a classic step-by-step, almost exhaustive detailing of the feuds between LBJ and Robert Kennedy that in Caro's words, "Poisoned the Democratic party for most of the 1960s." This is a monumental work, but as I said last year, I fear that a detailed book done in the Caro style on the remaining five years of Johnson's presidency and 9 years of life may be out of reach. I hope Mr. Caro lives past 100.
August 30, 2019
Robert Caro is the authority when it comes to LBJ.
Grover Gardner is arguably the best narrator out there.
This book was phenomenal.
The book covers LBJ as he languished as the Vice President for an administration that didn't trust him. He tried to grasp at power, but was rebuffed at every turn.
His career was coming to a crashing end. Rumors were such that JFK was probably going to replace him in 1964. This leaving LBJ isolated. He knew that he couldn't hope to run in 68 as Bobby would be primed to replace John.
LBJ didn't have much of a future.
Then came Dallas. LBJ suddenly found himself the man surrounded by people who didn't like him,
But he handled the transition with the skill and Grace of political master. Realizing that his presidency rested upon the storeis JFK's advisors said, he courted them and got them to support him. Part of the way he did so was to embrace JFK's policies. In the weeks following Kennedy's death, LBJ succeeded in getting Congress to pass all of the major civil rights bills kennedy left behind. Kennedy He timed it right and got everybody to to do what was nesesssary.
LBJ played the different parties perfectly.
But his transition wasn't completely flawless. After he obtained the presidency, some newspapers were investigating his power. Here we learn just how devilishly ruthlessly powerful LBJ became. He beat back the stories about his corruption by threatening those who made them.
In one case he threatened the Houston Chronical and told them that they were going to support him and his presidency through the 1964 presidency and beyond. The Chron balked and LBJ demanded a letter in writing stating that they would endorse him fhile he was president. In 1964, the Chron did endorse LBJ. He was the last Democrat the Chron ensdorsed until 2008.
One of the areas that I found very interesting was when he discussed Kennedy's assissination and the Warren Commission. While many, to this day, believe that he played a role in Kennedy's death, Caro states explicitly that he does not believe that to be the case.
Caro throws LBJ under the bus for a number of sins, but not this one. Which makes it more believable than had some other scholar said the exact same thing.
Grover Gardner is arguably the best narrator out there.
This book was phenomenal.
The book covers LBJ as he languished as the Vice President for an administration that didn't trust him. He tried to grasp at power, but was rebuffed at every turn.
His career was coming to a crashing end. Rumors were such that JFK was probably going to replace him in 1964. This leaving LBJ isolated. He knew that he couldn't hope to run in 68 as Bobby would be primed to replace John.
LBJ didn't have much of a future.
Then came Dallas. LBJ suddenly found himself the man surrounded by people who didn't like him,
But he handled the transition with the skill and Grace of political master. Realizing that his presidency rested upon the storeis JFK's advisors said, he courted them and got them to support him. Part of the way he did so was to embrace JFK's policies. In the weeks following Kennedy's death, LBJ succeeded in getting Congress to pass all of the major civil rights bills kennedy left behind. Kennedy He timed it right and got everybody to to do what was nesesssary.
LBJ played the different parties perfectly.
But his transition wasn't completely flawless. After he obtained the presidency, some newspapers were investigating his power. Here we learn just how devilishly ruthlessly powerful LBJ became. He beat back the stories about his corruption by threatening those who made them.
In one case he threatened the Houston Chronical and told them that they were going to support him and his presidency through the 1964 presidency and beyond. The Chron balked and LBJ demanded a letter in writing stating that they would endorse him fhile he was president. In 1964, the Chron did endorse LBJ. He was the last Democrat the Chron ensdorsed until 2008.
One of the areas that I found very interesting was when he discussed Kennedy's assissination and the Warren Commission. While many, to this day, believe that he played a role in Kennedy's death, Caro states explicitly that he does not believe that to be the case.
Caro throws LBJ under the bus for a number of sins, but not this one. Which makes it more believable than had some other scholar said the exact same thing.
February 3, 2015
So I started this the same day I finished "Master of the Senate," figuring I'd just read the introduction and mayyybe first couple of pages proper to whet my appetite for the thing over the course of the next few weeks. Instead I stayed up late reading the first 400 pages and then more every opportunity I got. The leisurely pace of Master of the Senate is pretty much gone; here we see Johnson vs Kennedy in the 1960 primary, a race through the three early years of the Kennedy administration in which Johnson was systematically marginalized and left without responsibilities, and then a detailed, nearly moment-by-moment account of the seven weeks following JFK's assassination in which Johnson takes over in a cloud of barbecue smoke and secret phone conversations, succeeding in getting Kennedy-initiated proposals through the Senate and announcing the War on Poverty.
Missing from this, I felt, was the strong institutional focus on the Presidency as an institution that was so powerful in The Path to Power and Master of the Senate with respect the House and Senate. Caro is really, really good at describing the quotidian minutiae through which power actually functions in the legislative institutions, and the strong focus on institutions is largely missing here in favor of a focus on the personal war between the outgoing and incoming administrations. The hope is that Caro is saving this material for the (final?) fifth volume, set to show the Johnson administration in its full sickly flower, but it's notably absent here. But who cares? This volume contains great things and promises--in the final chapters, regarding the growing hatred between Robert Kennedy and the new President of the US--still greater.
ROBERT A. CARO: hereby elected best writer for life.
Missing from this, I felt, was the strong institutional focus on the Presidency as an institution that was so powerful in The Path to Power and Master of the Senate with respect the House and Senate. Caro is really, really good at describing the quotidian minutiae through which power actually functions in the legislative institutions, and the strong focus on institutions is largely missing here in favor of a focus on the personal war between the outgoing and incoming administrations. The hope is that Caro is saving this material for the (final?) fifth volume, set to show the Johnson administration in its full sickly flower, but it's notably absent here. But who cares? This volume contains great things and promises--in the final chapters, regarding the growing hatred between Robert Kennedy and the new President of the US--still greater.
ROBERT A. CARO: hereby elected best writer for life.
April 4, 2021
Part 4 of the series holds up with the previous 3, as forming one of the greatest biographies ever written. This book explores Johnson’s decision to become Vice President, his feud with Robert Kennedy, the death of JFK, and LBJ’s first several weeks as President. I loved the end of the book, praising how well LBJ handled the transition and how it many ways it was the peak of his life, but still Caro casts the ugly shadow that is looming in part 5 of this story. I certainly hope Caro is able to finish the last book as well as he wants to, as these have been some of the best books I’ve ever read.
July 16, 2016
This is an intriguing and at times captivating work. The author's interest in the principles of leadership which drew him to study LBJ come through, but the human drama of the shift between JFK's administration and Johnson's is such poignant material that the reader never feels lectured to or that the points of leadership are being ripped out of context.
May 13, 2020
Best political biography I've ever read. Sincerely hope Caro gets to finish this series.
June 30, 2020
A Milkshake:
Several years ago, after a particularly grueling 3-day backpacking trip into the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park, I stopped for a milkshake in the town of Jackson, Wyoming. Upon spooning a bit of the huckleberry concoction into my mouth, I was filled with what to this day is perhaps the most memorable gastronomic pleasure of my life. Each mouthful of the cold, sweet, creamy goodness put me into a state of fleeting ecstasy. I was helpless to stop myself from slurping it down nearly as fast as I could. Yet, at the same time, as I watched the amount left in the cup slowly (or rapidly) diminish, I felt impending fear and anguish because I knew it would soon be gone. Ecstasy … followed by fear and anguish … followed by ecstasy … followed by fear and anguish … ad infinitum (at least until the milkshake was gone).
For me, reading the works of Robert Caro is like that milkshake. Even though reading a book like The Passage of Power does not deliver a similar sensual pleasure, it is still extremely gratifying to me as I soak up the immense knowledge of this author who has so meticulously researched his subject and who so intricately imparts that knowledge to his readers in such perfectly well-crafted words and sentences and organization. His books are notoriously lengthy, but as I have voraciously moved through them, I have found myself actually dreading getting to their ends.
From Majority Leader to Reluctant Presidential Candidate to Vice Presidential nominee:
The time period covered by this fourth volume in the series is 1960 through early 1964 – years that were fairly revolutionary and tumultuous in our nation’s history. In 1960, Lyndon Johnson, as Senate Majority Leader, seemed to have a clear path to the presidential nomination of the Democratic party. After two full terms the popular Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, would not be a contender. Johnson, despite how much he craved power and hungered for the presidency, held himself back from actively pursuing the nomination. The reasons for this are still kind of a mystery, but Caro seems to believe that one overriding factor was Johnson’s fear of failure — if he didn’t really try, he couldn’t really fail.
It was only when it was too late – after John Kennedy (with the assistance of his father’s great fortune and ruthless tactics) had pretty much locked up the nomination – that Johnson finally plunged wholeheartedly into the race. Upon receiving the nomination, Kennedy asked Johnson to be his running mate. The nominee’s brother, Bobby Kennedy, tried to strong-arm Johnson into declining the offer, and even reneging on it after it had been publicly accepted. Many people to this day wonder if JFK had offered the position only out courtesy to his fellow (and superior) Senator, fully expecting Johnson to decline. Politically, however, Johnson’s presence on the ticket was key to the Kennedy victory. Without Johnson on the ticket and his rallying of several unlikely southern states to support the Democratic ticket, Kennedy very likely would have lost.
Vice Presidency:
As Vice President, Johnson was miserable. Having fulfilled his purpose in helping to secure the presidency for Kennedy, Johnson was subsequently mostly shut out of most important assignments and decision-making roles. He was consigned to be a “yes man” who said little and always supported the president. Johnson's initial efforts to retain a large measure of his power within the Senate (after all, according to the Constitution, the Vice President is the President of the Senate) failed spectacularly — and properly so.
The Assassination:
The assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963 is etched vividly in the minds of every American who was alive and cognizant at the time. Being only four and a half years old at the time, I barely fit into that category. Caro devotes many pages to poignantly describing the event itself and the ensuing shock to the nation. But where this book truly excels is in the harrowing descriptions of how the assassination impacted those closest to JFK, including JFK’s brother Bobby, and especially JFK’s successor LBJ.
The Transition:
Historians will never fully agree on how well Johnson took on the role of President in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. But Robert Caro does a splendid job of describing in detail exactly what Johnson did, why he did it, and what its effect actually was and what it would have been had he acted differently. For example, perhaps the most iconic photograph of that day has Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One, with his left hand on a Bible, his right hand raised, as he takes the oath of office. To Johnson’s right is his wife Ladybird. To his left is the forlorn, mournful, blood-spattered Jackie Kennedy. I’ve heard criticism of Johnson for “making” Jackie be there for that picture. Reading this book enlightened me a bit on the matter. The way I see it now is that Johnson had important and terrible decisions to make – immediately. He made them with the decisiveness that our country needed at the time. Jackie, in her obvious state of shock, accepted Johnson’s polite request to be there, and she probably felt as Johnson did, that doing so would be in best interest of the country.
Civil Rights: What the hell is the presidency for?
Almost immediately after becoming president, Johnson began working (and as always, he worked hard and diligently and methodically) to enact passage of President Kennedy’s planned legislation. One item had special significance to him: civil rights. As Majority Leader in the Senate, Johnson had overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles (most notably his own southern Democrats in the Senate) to pass the first civil rights bill since 1875. Now, he wanted to use his power to enact a much stronger act than the very watered-down version of 1957. When his aides told him that such a bill could never be passed and that he should expend his political capital, while he had it, on other agenda items that had a higher likelihood of passage, Johnson replied something to the effect of, “If the president can’t fight for what he feels is truly important, then what the hell is the presidency for?”
Amazingly, Johnson’s dream of signing meaningful civil rights legislation (the Civil Rights Act of 1964) happened within a few months of him becoming president. How he made it happen is one of the great stories of political persuasion and dealing in American history. And Robert Caro makes it both fascinating and understandable as he tells it like no one else could.
Mini biographies:
One thing I love about Robert Caro’s biographies is the inclusion of mini biographies within. The previous volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson included biographies of several people I had previously known very little or nothing about — people like Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, Georgia Senator Richard Russell, and Texas Governor and Senator Pappy O’Daniel.
In this volume the mini biographies included John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Virginia Senator Harry Byrd. As with all of the real-life characters that Robert Caro illuminates for the reader, their stories are fascinating, and they are integral to the overall telling of the real message of Caro’s works, which is the story of power in America — how power is obtained, how it is kept and maintained, how it is wielded for the benefit of some and to the detriment of others, and how it inevitably exacts a dear price upon those who obtain it.
Conclusion:
I can’t recommend this series enough. It portrays a man with serious flaws (as all of us have) who also has some outstanding qualities. He also has huge (the biggest) ambitions, which he pursues relentlessly. Almost everyone would increase their understanding of power and of American government many times over by reading these books.
The fifth and final volume in the series is still yet to be published. It will cover what is surely the most interesting and controversial period in Lyndon Johnson's life — including the Vietnam War with all its consequences. Robert Caro is now 84 years old. He has been working on the LBJ series since 1975, after finishing his Pulitzer Prize winning book The Power Broker. No one seems to know when the final volume will be published, but I pray, on a nearly daily basis, that Robert Caro and his marvelous research assistant, his wife of 63 years, Ina, maintain good health at least until that time.
Several years ago, after a particularly grueling 3-day backpacking trip into the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park, I stopped for a milkshake in the town of Jackson, Wyoming. Upon spooning a bit of the huckleberry concoction into my mouth, I was filled with what to this day is perhaps the most memorable gastronomic pleasure of my life. Each mouthful of the cold, sweet, creamy goodness put me into a state of fleeting ecstasy. I was helpless to stop myself from slurping it down nearly as fast as I could. Yet, at the same time, as I watched the amount left in the cup slowly (or rapidly) diminish, I felt impending fear and anguish because I knew it would soon be gone. Ecstasy … followed by fear and anguish … followed by ecstasy … followed by fear and anguish … ad infinitum (at least until the milkshake was gone).
For me, reading the works of Robert Caro is like that milkshake. Even though reading a book like The Passage of Power does not deliver a similar sensual pleasure, it is still extremely gratifying to me as I soak up the immense knowledge of this author who has so meticulously researched his subject and who so intricately imparts that knowledge to his readers in such perfectly well-crafted words and sentences and organization. His books are notoriously lengthy, but as I have voraciously moved through them, I have found myself actually dreading getting to their ends.
From Majority Leader to Reluctant Presidential Candidate to Vice Presidential nominee:
The time period covered by this fourth volume in the series is 1960 through early 1964 – years that were fairly revolutionary and tumultuous in our nation’s history. In 1960, Lyndon Johnson, as Senate Majority Leader, seemed to have a clear path to the presidential nomination of the Democratic party. After two full terms the popular Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, would not be a contender. Johnson, despite how much he craved power and hungered for the presidency, held himself back from actively pursuing the nomination. The reasons for this are still kind of a mystery, but Caro seems to believe that one overriding factor was Johnson’s fear of failure — if he didn’t really try, he couldn’t really fail.
It was only when it was too late – after John Kennedy (with the assistance of his father’s great fortune and ruthless tactics) had pretty much locked up the nomination – that Johnson finally plunged wholeheartedly into the race. Upon receiving the nomination, Kennedy asked Johnson to be his running mate. The nominee’s brother, Bobby Kennedy, tried to strong-arm Johnson into declining the offer, and even reneging on it after it had been publicly accepted. Many people to this day wonder if JFK had offered the position only out courtesy to his fellow (and superior) Senator, fully expecting Johnson to decline. Politically, however, Johnson’s presence on the ticket was key to the Kennedy victory. Without Johnson on the ticket and his rallying of several unlikely southern states to support the Democratic ticket, Kennedy very likely would have lost.
Vice Presidency:
As Vice President, Johnson was miserable. Having fulfilled his purpose in helping to secure the presidency for Kennedy, Johnson was subsequently mostly shut out of most important assignments and decision-making roles. He was consigned to be a “yes man” who said little and always supported the president. Johnson's initial efforts to retain a large measure of his power within the Senate (after all, according to the Constitution, the Vice President is the President of the Senate) failed spectacularly — and properly so.
The Assassination:
The assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963 is etched vividly in the minds of every American who was alive and cognizant at the time. Being only four and a half years old at the time, I barely fit into that category. Caro devotes many pages to poignantly describing the event itself and the ensuing shock to the nation. But where this book truly excels is in the harrowing descriptions of how the assassination impacted those closest to JFK, including JFK’s brother Bobby, and especially JFK’s successor LBJ.
The Transition:
Historians will never fully agree on how well Johnson took on the role of President in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. But Robert Caro does a splendid job of describing in detail exactly what Johnson did, why he did it, and what its effect actually was and what it would have been had he acted differently. For example, perhaps the most iconic photograph of that day has Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One, with his left hand on a Bible, his right hand raised, as he takes the oath of office. To Johnson’s right is his wife Ladybird. To his left is the forlorn, mournful, blood-spattered Jackie Kennedy. I’ve heard criticism of Johnson for “making” Jackie be there for that picture. Reading this book enlightened me a bit on the matter. The way I see it now is that Johnson had important and terrible decisions to make – immediately. He made them with the decisiveness that our country needed at the time. Jackie, in her obvious state of shock, accepted Johnson’s polite request to be there, and she probably felt as Johnson did, that doing so would be in best interest of the country.
Civil Rights: What the hell is the presidency for?
Almost immediately after becoming president, Johnson began working (and as always, he worked hard and diligently and methodically) to enact passage of President Kennedy’s planned legislation. One item had special significance to him: civil rights. As Majority Leader in the Senate, Johnson had overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles (most notably his own southern Democrats in the Senate) to pass the first civil rights bill since 1875. Now, he wanted to use his power to enact a much stronger act than the very watered-down version of 1957. When his aides told him that such a bill could never be passed and that he should expend his political capital, while he had it, on other agenda items that had a higher likelihood of passage, Johnson replied something to the effect of, “If the president can’t fight for what he feels is truly important, then what the hell is the presidency for?”
Amazingly, Johnson’s dream of signing meaningful civil rights legislation (the Civil Rights Act of 1964) happened within a few months of him becoming president. How he made it happen is one of the great stories of political persuasion and dealing in American history. And Robert Caro makes it both fascinating and understandable as he tells it like no one else could.
Mini biographies:
One thing I love about Robert Caro’s biographies is the inclusion of mini biographies within. The previous volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson included biographies of several people I had previously known very little or nothing about — people like Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, Georgia Senator Richard Russell, and Texas Governor and Senator Pappy O’Daniel.
In this volume the mini biographies included John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Virginia Senator Harry Byrd. As with all of the real-life characters that Robert Caro illuminates for the reader, their stories are fascinating, and they are integral to the overall telling of the real message of Caro’s works, which is the story of power in America — how power is obtained, how it is kept and maintained, how it is wielded for the benefit of some and to the detriment of others, and how it inevitably exacts a dear price upon those who obtain it.
Conclusion:
I can’t recommend this series enough. It portrays a man with serious flaws (as all of us have) who also has some outstanding qualities. He also has huge (the biggest) ambitions, which he pursues relentlessly. Almost everyone would increase their understanding of power and of American government many times over by reading these books.
The fifth and final volume in the series is still yet to be published. It will cover what is surely the most interesting and controversial period in Lyndon Johnson's life — including the Vietnam War with all its consequences. Robert Caro is now 84 years old. He has been working on the LBJ series since 1975, after finishing his Pulitzer Prize winning book The Power Broker. No one seems to know when the final volume will be published, but I pray, on a nearly daily basis, that Robert Caro and his marvelous research assistant, his wife of 63 years, Ina, maintain good health at least until that time.
May 25, 2012
I love Caro's multi-volume biography of LBJ. I tore through the first three volumes last year, and I got The Passage of Power as soon as it came out. He's a wonderful writer (if easily parodied). The chapter in The Path to Power about Hill Country women making do in a land without electricity was mind-boggling, and Caro is predictably good telling the story of the JFK assassination and the minutes, hours and days immediately afterward, where LBJ assumed command. Caro can switch from extreme close-up to vast panoramas; he can examine a particularly important day moment by revealing moment and then cover months at a time; he can take abstruse or obscure bureaucratic maneuvers and make them the stuff of drama. I love Robert Caro.
I don't, however, trust Robert Caro. He's not so much a historian as a myth-maker, and his agenda is less about historical analysis and more about LBJ as the Shakespearean anti-hero that defined postwar American politics, for good or ill. In Means of Ascent, most notoriously, this led him to lionize Coke Stevenson as a sort of cowboy Cincinnatus, the better to paint LBJ as a quasi-demonic figure of the new politics and all that it would wrought. The reader would have to read between the lines to see evidence that Stevenson was an anti-intellectual fundamentalist, that he had profited from ballot-stuffing as much as LBJ, or that LBJ was running as a Truman Democrat while Coke was part of Strom Thurmond's Jim Crow insurgency.
The Passage of Power is less glaring in this regard, but Caro's storytelling agenda still predominates. Can it really be true, for example, that LBJ's mutual feud with Robert Kennedy is worth the hundred-plus pages that Caro devotes to it? Or is it that the mutual hatred of two larger than life men is easier for Caro to write about than, say, the economic impact of the 1964 tax cut that LBJ worked so hard to pass? Caro's portraits of the Kennedy brothers are indelible and fascinating, and it's nice to see an old fashioned liberal who's willing to really stick it to Bobby Kennedy like he deserves. But considering how many major policies were passed under LBJ, it's unfortunate that he spends so much time on minor bits of palace intrigue.
Caro's mythic conception of LBJ also affects his political history. Caro presents the Congress of 1963 as being in the iron grip of the 'conservative coalition', a combination of right-wing Republicans and southern Democrats that dominated the two houses of Congress and used the committee system to stymie liberal legislation. Only LBJ, Caro suggests, was able to use his political genius to break through the logjam. But the evidence suggests that the conservative coalition was less formidable than Caro makes it seem. Conservatives had been unable to prevent JFK and Sam Rayburn from weakening the southern hold on the House Rules Committee. And the best efforts of Goldwater Republicans were unable to keep many Republicans from embracing civil rights. (Minority leader Charles Halleck's support for the Goldwaterite "southern strategy" led Republicans to dump him in favor of the more moderate Gerald Ford.) LBJ certainly deserves credit for seeing the fault lines that existed and exploiting them, but Caro gives the lion's share of the credit to him when larger forces were at work.
Similarly, a lot of attention is paid to LBJ's ability to win over Congressmen and Senators. But historical comparisons reveal that LBJ's record in this regard isn't remarkably different from Barack Obama's. Caro often describes Johnson as the master political deal-maker, but LBJ wasn't so much a master as he was the beneficiary of large majorities and favorable political winds... for a time.
Again, I love these books, and I intend to re-read them. But they are large enough and prestigious enough that they get treated as authoritative, and this they are not. Caro is a fine writer, but if you want sound historical analysis, get a second opinion.
I don't, however, trust Robert Caro. He's not so much a historian as a myth-maker, and his agenda is less about historical analysis and more about LBJ as the Shakespearean anti-hero that defined postwar American politics, for good or ill. In Means of Ascent, most notoriously, this led him to lionize Coke Stevenson as a sort of cowboy Cincinnatus, the better to paint LBJ as a quasi-demonic figure of the new politics and all that it would wrought. The reader would have to read between the lines to see evidence that Stevenson was an anti-intellectual fundamentalist, that he had profited from ballot-stuffing as much as LBJ, or that LBJ was running as a Truman Democrat while Coke was part of Strom Thurmond's Jim Crow insurgency.
The Passage of Power is less glaring in this regard, but Caro's storytelling agenda still predominates. Can it really be true, for example, that LBJ's mutual feud with Robert Kennedy is worth the hundred-plus pages that Caro devotes to it? Or is it that the mutual hatred of two larger than life men is easier for Caro to write about than, say, the economic impact of the 1964 tax cut that LBJ worked so hard to pass? Caro's portraits of the Kennedy brothers are indelible and fascinating, and it's nice to see an old fashioned liberal who's willing to really stick it to Bobby Kennedy like he deserves. But considering how many major policies were passed under LBJ, it's unfortunate that he spends so much time on minor bits of palace intrigue.
Caro's mythic conception of LBJ also affects his political history. Caro presents the Congress of 1963 as being in the iron grip of the 'conservative coalition', a combination of right-wing Republicans and southern Democrats that dominated the two houses of Congress and used the committee system to stymie liberal legislation. Only LBJ, Caro suggests, was able to use his political genius to break through the logjam. But the evidence suggests that the conservative coalition was less formidable than Caro makes it seem. Conservatives had been unable to prevent JFK and Sam Rayburn from weakening the southern hold on the House Rules Committee. And the best efforts of Goldwater Republicans were unable to keep many Republicans from embracing civil rights. (Minority leader Charles Halleck's support for the Goldwaterite "southern strategy" led Republicans to dump him in favor of the more moderate Gerald Ford.) LBJ certainly deserves credit for seeing the fault lines that existed and exploiting them, but Caro gives the lion's share of the credit to him when larger forces were at work.
Similarly, a lot of attention is paid to LBJ's ability to win over Congressmen and Senators. But historical comparisons reveal that LBJ's record in this regard isn't remarkably different from Barack Obama's. Caro often describes Johnson as the master political deal-maker, but LBJ wasn't so much a master as he was the beneficiary of large majorities and favorable political winds... for a time.
Again, I love these books, and I intend to re-read them. But they are large enough and prestigious enough that they get treated as authoritative, and this they are not. Caro is a fine writer, but if you want sound historical analysis, get a second opinion.
July 8, 2022
“The Passage of Power” was an excellent penultimate volume to Robert Caro’s yet-to-be completed The Years of Lyndon Johnson. The roughly first half of the book covers his attempt to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency and his loss resulting in the vice presidency. The second half covers the transition period of his first almost seven weeks in office. The vivid descriptions Caro gives of Johnson’s varying moods and demeanors as Vice President are so different than the descriptions of him when he is forced into the presidency. Caro does an excellent job of showing how the powerlessness of Lyndon Johnson during the years under Kennedy gives way to his power upon ascension to the top spot. Upon receipt of the power again, Johnson’s entire bearing changes, becoming purposeful and full of energy again. During this time he is able to overcome his more negative personality traits to get so much done in those first almost seven weeks. Caro sheds a light on the often overlooked transition period, showing how effective Johnson was in that role.
The first half of the book drags very slightly at times, and I found the second half of the book to read a bit faster. I still can’t overstate how great both sections were but as there was less substance to Johnson’s life during the vice presidency as compared to the presidency, it follows that that section of the book may be slightly slower.
Caro also shows us the complexity of the relations Johnson had with various individuals including of course RFK, adding to the value of this book as it not only discusses Johnson of course, but also delves into others in his orbit and his times.
As always, Caro does a masterful job here.
The first half of the book drags very slightly at times, and I found the second half of the book to read a bit faster. I still can’t overstate how great both sections were but as there was less substance to Johnson’s life during the vice presidency as compared to the presidency, it follows that that section of the book may be slightly slower.
Caro also shows us the complexity of the relations Johnson had with various individuals including of course RFK, adding to the value of this book as it not only discusses Johnson of course, but also delves into others in his orbit and his times.
As always, Caro does a masterful job here.
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