I remember the first time I came across Caro. I was browsing the shelves of my local library in England when my eyes lit upon a huge volume entitled The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert Caro. This looks interesting, I thought. I had no idea then that this would be probably the greatest political biography I would read in my lifetime and that in 2014 I would still be anxiously awaiting the fifth and final volume of the work.
I’ve just treated myself to the four volumes already published and I’m going to re-embark on one of the greatest reads of my life. From its beginnings in the Hill Country of Texas we follow Johnson as a child and young student. We watch him maturing, learning, developing what I am convinced was the sharpest political brain of the 20th century. The characters are incredible: Wilbert Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, who owned the Hillbilly Flour Company, hosted a popular radio show, and on the strength of his fame became Governor of Texas and later junior Senator for the state, literally stealing the election from Johnson, who swore that he would never lose another. Coke Stevenson, “Mr Texas”, an upright and popular Governor of Texas who ran for McDaniel’s vacant Senate seat, his opponent being LBJ. The story of that campaign is as gripping as a novel, the election going down to the wire and eventually resting on the contents of Box 13 from Duval County, Texas. Stevenson had gone to court alleging voter fraud organized by LBJ and his minions. Finally the fabled box sat at the back of the courtroom, all eyes upon it. What would the contents reveal? We would never know. LBJ had been pulling strings in Austen and got the case stopped (shades of the Republicans in 2000!). Johnson became Senator and never looked back.
I think my favourite volume is Master of the Senate, Vol 3. I don’t think that anybody in American history has known and understood the workings of the House and Senate like Johnson. It’s certain that Civil Rights legislation would never have made it past the Southern bloc of Senators without Johnson (who, of course, was one of them.) There’s never been a Senate Majority Leader (or Minority) like him and I doubt if there will ever be one so skilful again In my opinion Johnson’s work in getting the CV legislation through and the later Great Society far outweighs the burden he bears for Vietnam.
I liked his biography of Robert Moses: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
In case you are not familiar with the name:
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was the “master builder” of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and was arguably one of the most polarizing figures in the history of urban planning in the United States. His decisions favoring highways over public transit helped create the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation. One of his major contributions to urban planning was New York’s large parkway network.
I too have pored over *The Power Broker *and wrote a term paper on that Robert Moses bio in an Urban Studies course in my latest college stint (BA in PA, in 1986.
Major fan of Caro. I’ve read all his Johnson books and his Moses biography.
The only nit I’d pick is that Caro has essentially written a highlight reel of Johnson’s life rather than a general biography. The first volume was the exception, being a general biography of Johnson’s early life. But the subsequent three volumes have focused on specific periods of Johnson’s life: the 1948 Senate election, the 1957 Civil Rights Bill, and the 1963 transition to the Presidency.
These were certainly important events in Johnson’s career and life but I have to wonder if this approach is inherently unbalanced.
Well in 2019 you are still undoubtedly waiting for the 5th volume of this work. Caro is 83 and you wonder how long his health is going to stay adequate. But there is an interesting New Yorker article he just did:
That sadly reminds me of John Norwich, another one of my favorite historians to read. In fact, his history of Venice was the book that started me reading history for my own enjoyment.
That was long enough ago that I knew Norwich must be getting old. And when he published Four Princes in 2016, it was widely expected to be his last book (and Norwich said as much).
So I was delighted to see his new book, France: A History, when it was released a few months back. And then I read the endpiece which said that he had died two months after completing it.
Yes, I like Caro, but have read only some of his stuff. Interesting, readable, and exhaustively well-researched. I know there was some criticism that he romanticized Coke Stevenson, though, in his book about LBJ’s winning Senate campaign.
Caro was a college classmate of my dad’s, and they’ve corresponded a bit in recent years, although they didn’t know each other well while both were on campus.