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"Master of the Senate" - the third entry in a projected four volume biography of Lyndon Johnson - may well be author Robert Caro's greatest work. Picking up where "Means of Ascent" (volume 2 of the same series) left off in 1948, we meet Lyndon Johnson in his titular role as first apprentice and later master of the United States Senate.
Along the way, though, we are treated to a series of fascinating character study vignettes, some of which could stand as biographies in their own right - Georgia's quiet, dignified zealot Richard B. Russell, Minnesota's impatient, well-meaning Hubert H. Humphrey, among a host of many others. Before the curtains even really go up on Lyndon Johnson, Caro provides a mini-history of the United States Senate itself, and individuals interested in this most august and frequently frustrating body will profit greatly from this background narrative.
As in the previous two volumes of "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" Caro is a critical biographer. His view of Johnson is not a romanticized one - Johnson's more repugnant character traits are evident throughout the text - but Caro does not seek to bury him entirely.
Rather, what emerges from the pages of "Master of the Senate" is a portrait of an extremely imperfect man making imperfect decisions, usually with his eyes on attaining the presidency - the ultimate prize of U.S. politics. This pursuit leads Johnson down surprising pathways, and his ability to mold and wield his position as Majority Leader of the Senate would have immense ramifications for both that institution and the nation as a whole once the years of Lyndon Johnson reached their inevitable conclusion.
Now that the first decade of the twenty-first century - one largely shaped by another politician from Texas - is rapidly receding into the past, we might do well to heed the lessons about both the possibilities and the limitations of political power in a democratic society that Caro artfully lays before us in "Master of the Senate."
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Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro
HungryGradStudent, January 1, 2010
"Master of the Senate" - the third entry in a projected four volume biography of Lyndon Johnson - may well be author Robert Caro's greatest work. Picking up where "Means of Ascent" (volume 2 of the same series) left off in 1948, we meet Lyndon Johnson in his titular role as first apprentice and later master of the United States Senate.Along the way, though, we are treated to a series of fascinating character study vignettes, some of which could stand as biographies in their own right - Georgia's quiet, dignified zealot Richard B. Russell, Minnesota's impatient, well-meaning Hubert H. Humphrey, among a host of many others. Before the curtains even really go up on Lyndon Johnson, Caro provides a mini-history of the United States Senate itself, and individuals interested in this most august and frequently frustrating body will profit greatly from this background narrative.
As in the previous two volumes of "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" Caro is a critical biographer. His view of Johnson is not a romanticized one - Johnson's more repugnant character traits are evident throughout the text - but Caro does not seek to bury him entirely.
Rather, what emerges from the pages of "Master of the Senate" is a portrait of an extremely imperfect man making imperfect decisions, usually with his eyes on attaining the presidency - the ultimate prize of U.S. politics. This pursuit leads Johnson down surprising pathways, and his ability to mold and wield his position as Majority Leader of the Senate would have immense ramifications for both that institution and the nation as a whole once the years of Lyndon Johnson reached their inevitable conclusion.
Now that the first decade of the twenty-first century - one largely shaped by another politician from Texas - is rapidly receding into the past, we might do well to heed the lessons about both the possibilities and the limitations of political power in a democratic society that Caro artfully lays before us in "Master of the Senate."
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)