The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: Master of the Senate

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #3)

4.49 of 5 stars 4.49 · rating details · 4,016 ratings · 294 reviews

Book Three of Robert A. Caro’s monumental work, The Years of Lyndon Johnson—the most admired and riveting political biography of our era—which began with the best-selling and prizewinning The Path to Power and Means of Ascent.

Master of the Senate carries Lyndon Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United St...more Book Three of Robert A. Caro’s monumental work, The Years of Lyndon Johnson—the most admired and riveting political biography of our era—which began with the best-selling and prizewinning The Path to Power and Means of Ascent.

Master of the Senate carries Lyndon Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate. At the heart of the book is its unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done.

It was during these years that all Johnson’s experience—from his Texas Hill Country boyhood to his passionate representation in Congress of his hardscrabble constituents to his tireless construction of a political machine—came to fruition. Caro introduces the story with a dramatic account of the Senate itself: how Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun had made it the center of governmental energy, the forum in which the great issues of the country were thrashed out. And how, by the time Johnson arrived, it had dwindled into a body that merely responded to executive initiatives, all but impervious to the forces of change. Caro anatomizes the genius for political strategy and tactics by which, in an institution that had made the seniority system all-powerful for a century and more, Johnson became Majority Leader after only a single term—the youngest and greatest Senate Leader in our history; how he manipulated the Senate’s hallowed rules and customs and the weaknesses and strengths of his colleagues to change the “unchangeable” Senate from a loose confederation of sovereign senators to a whirring legislative machine under his own iron-fisted control.

Caro demonstrates how Johnson’s political genius enabled him to reconcile the unreconcilable: to retain the support of the southerners who controlled the Senate while earning the trust—or at least the cooperation—of the liberals, led by Paul Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, without whom he could not achieve his goal of winning the presidency. He shows the dark side of Johnson’s ambition: how he proved his loyalty to the great oil barons who had financed his rise to power by ruthlessly destroying the career of the New Dealer who was in charge of regulating them, Federal Power Commission Chairman Leland Olds. And we watch him achieve the impossible: convincing southerners that although he was firmly in their camp as the anointed successor to their leader, Richard Russell, it was essential that they allow him to make some progress toward civil rights. In a breathtaking tour de force, Caro details Johnson’s amazing triumph in maneuvering to passage the first civil rights legislation since 1875.

Master of the Senate is told with an abundance of rich detail that could only have come from Caro’s peerless research—years immersed in the worlds of Johnson and the United States Senate, examining thousands of documents and talking to hundreds of people, from pages and cloakroom clerks to senators and administrative aides. The result is both a galvanizing portrait of the man himself—the titan of Capitol Hill, volcanic, mesmerizing—and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings of personal and legislative power. It is a work that displays all the acuteness of understanding and narrative brilliance that led the New York Times to call Caro’s The Path to Power “a monumental political saga . . . powerful and stirring.”(less)

Hardcover, 1200 pages

Published April 23rd 2002 by Alfred A. Knopf (first published January 1st 2002)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Best Books of the 21st Century

386th out of 3,588 books — 9,496 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 01, 2008 Erik Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe the single greatest book on how politics in modern America works. This is the third of a projected four-volume bio on LBJ, and the first two were superior books, but this thing is a masterpiece. To my thinking, it's the second greatest history book written about America.

9 likes · like · see review

Mar 28, 2009 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jessica by: everyone i've ever known who's read it

I've started about eight books in the past week, but I can't get into any of them. I've just been flailing around in the Proust, and nothing else I've tried to read lately has done anything for me.... so tonight I decided to stop this charade and go for what I want.

I've suspected for awhile that I was born to read this book, yet I keep telling myself it's not time yet. There's something a little scary about starting a book like this one. What if it's not as mindblowing as I think it's going to b...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 12, 2007 Brendan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, american-history, biography, pulitzer-prize-winners

Robert Caro has got to be the best American biographer of the past 50 years. It's sad that he's only turned out 4 books in the last 35 years, but each one is so exceptionally researched and well-written.

Master of the Senate is another chapter in Caro's multi-volume study of Lyndon Johnson, focusing on his time in the Senate, specifically his efforts to pass the first Civil Rights bill since Reconstruction. His study of the political dynamics of the Senate in the 1950s, including the entrenched...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't wait for the final volume of this to come out. While everyone I know told me I was crazy for delving into a three volume bio of LBJ that ends just as he finally becomes V.P., it is a great reminder that politics has always been dirty and the dirtiest always win (Oh, yeah...the country also loses then.) Having said that I found the LBJ in the book one of those amazing characters who made me battle myself. Half the time I loved him and half the time I hated him. In domestic policy the goal...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 19, 2009 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people interested in US politics

This is an excellent book on two levels: it sheds light on the character of Lyndon Johnson and it reveals the intricate workings of the US Senate. I was appalled by the side of LBJ that Caro uncovers. He was an ego-maniacal bully who used physical intimidation and lies to manipulate those around him. He was the youngest Senator to hold the position of Senate majority leader and he was truly masterful at claiming and wielding the power that came with that position. The book uses the famous Civil...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 16, 2007 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, biography, americanhistory

Quite simply, one of the finest books I have ever read. Some have acturatley described Caro's biographies as more akin to a thriller )or western) than a political biography. This volume is lengthy but reads terribly quickly and chronilces Johnson's rise to power and political machinations in the U.S. Senate. Especially memorable events chronicled included Johnson's efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such bill since Reconstruction. Another beloved aspect of the book are the r...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 28, 2009 Roger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the third last book in Michael Caro's series on the life of Lyndon Johnson. The book gives you details on his 12 years in the US Senate. How LBJ became the majority leader of the Senate from being a freshman senator. He used all of his talents to become the most powerful man in the Senate despite his junior status and was able to push legislation including the first Civil Rights bill since Reconstruction. The book tells how LBJ's past history allowed him a southern senator to push the Ci...more

like · see review

Jun 28, 2012 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked the first two volumes in Caro's life of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Means of Ascent and The Path to Power, but this third volume was definitely the best of the three. Here, Caro focuses on Lyndon Johnson during the Senate years from 1949, when he first entered the Senate, until 1960 when he was elected Vice President. Caro continues to portray Johnson as an extremely complex individual. One side of the man was a Machiavellian bully intent on furthering his own interests through the tra...more

1 like · like · see review

May 31, 2012 Nathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aside from a brief analysis during undergrad and an in-depth look at the 1964 Civil Rights Act in law school, I had very little knowledge of Lyndon Johnson. That said, I was aware of his deft skills as a legislator and found him to be an interesting individual worth studying. “Master of the Senate” is one part biography and one part political-science handbook. The biography portion will leave you saddened at how dastardly a man can be, and the political side will leave you just as impressed at h...more Aside from a brief analysis during undergrad and an in-depth look at the 1964 Civil Rights Act in law school, I had very little knowledge of Lyndon Johnson. That said, I was aware of his deft skills as a legislator and found him to be an interesting individual worth studying. “Master of the Senate” is one part biography and one part political-science handbook. The biography portion will leave you saddened at how dastardly a man can be, and the political side will leave you just as impressed at how cunning a man can be.

When political discourse grows particularly heated, we tend to look back at the great political leaders of bygone eras with a certain degree of nostalgia. The founding fathers, in particular, occasionally receive a rose-tinted description of civility and compromise. But any belief that political feuding is a modern invention is inaccurate. It takes only a brief review of the constitutional ratifiers to find John Adams calling Alexander Hamilton, “The bastard brat of a Scottish peddler…devoid of every principle,” or Hamilton passing on insults to Thomas Jefferson as a man of repulsive moral character. Surely political scheming and name-calling is nothing new, but “Master of the Senate” demonstrates how LBJ created the modern incarnation of Washington deceit and derision. Caro’s book essentially uses LBJ to analyze the question of whether the ends justify the means, while displaying the brazenly boorish nature of Johnson’s means.

Caro presents Johnson as a Machiavellian bully who used every method possible to further his own interests. He was sycophant to the senate power players, and once he won them over, LBJ used them as a shield leaving him free to influence others. LBJ maneuvered through the senate with deceit—lies about his motivation, his ambition, and even his health. His machinations included physical intimidation, threats, and cajoling. Caro builds his book to the climax of passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which LBJ successfully moved through the Senate.

Unfortunately, the Johnson that Caro describes seems more motivated by his aspirations for power and the presidency and less motivated by a desire to help African Americans exercise their right to vote. Consequently, the question of whether the end justifies the means takes a subtle shift during the book. Instead of defining the “end” as passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the “end” seems more accurately defined as Johnson’s acquisition of power. Lyndon Johnson was a master of the senate in the same way that a bully is master of the playground—domination through brute force. Caro occasionally seems to excuse Johnson’s behavior, but such justification is fallacious: LBJ moved the 1957 C.R.A. through the Senate; the 1957 C.R.A. was good; therefore LBJ was good. The conclusion simply does not necessarily follow from the premise.

Despite a syllogistic outline that draws a somewhat flawed conclusion, “Master of the Senate” was a fascinating read. If you enjoy history, the legislative process, or simply the study of power, Caro’s book is certainly worth your time. My only fault with the book is its lack of detail in explanation for Johnson’s more unprincipled tendencies, but that admittedly may result from only reading the third volume of Caro’s series. I give “Master of the Senate” an enthused endorsement.
(less)

like · see review

May 06, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nearly a month since my last blog, but I’ve actually been on a fast pace to get here, completing the 2500 pages of the three extant volumes of Robert A. Caro’s biographical work The Years of Lyndon Johnson. There’s a fourth book to come, but with Master of the Senate, (The preceding two being The Path to Power, Means of Ascent) we’ve now arrived at the eve of 1960, the year of his election to the vice-presidency. The next volume will presumably carry through the presidency to his death, though w...more Nearly a month since my last blog, but I’ve actually been on a fast pace to get here, completing the 2500 pages of the three extant volumes of Robert A. Caro’s biographical work The Years of Lyndon Johnson. There’s a fourth book to come, but with Master of the Senate, (The preceding two being The Path to Power, Means of Ascent) we’ve now arrived at the eve of 1960, the year of his election to the vice-presidency. The next volume will presumably carry through the presidency to his death, though with Caro’s thoroughness, I wouldn’t put a fifth volume past him. He’s devoted over thirty years to the project so far. That’s nearly an entire career, with The Power Broker about the titanic Robert Moses of New York as his other Pulitzer claim to fame.
It’s hard to imagine a work of this length achieving a constant sense of urgency and drama. But Caro does it, and no brief quotations can convey how well he doe it. You’ll just have to try it for yourself. If you want to read just one, I recommend the second volume--Means of Ascent--which is the story of that run for the Senate. All drama all the time and more theatrical history than you can find in the evening news. Taken as a whole, however, The Years of Lyndon Johnson is such a monumental, disturbing, and well-written work, it almost reads like a novel.
Johnson was, in a sense, my second president. I was aware of Eisenhower, but with boyhood lack of connection to the adult world, didn’t feel part of his political era. When I graduated from high school in 1959, you still had to be twenty-one to drink or vote, so I was a spectator for the 1960 elections of JFK and LBJ.* By the time of the 1963 assassination, however, I had fully bought into and identified with the Camelot myth and was in deep grief with the rest of the nation. With Johnson’s succession followed the horror and the glory of Vietnam and the Great Society, respectively. LBJ didn’t start things in Vietnam, but he poured more lives than anyone else into the Southeast Asian jungles.
Even with Nixon’s Parrot’s Beak incursions into Cambodia and other fiascos, no other American bears more responsibility for those ugly years than Lyndon Johnson. On the other hand, no other person with a white skin save Abraham Lincoln did more to advance the cause of justice for American citizens of darker hue than Lyndon Johnson. And those two facts exemplify what Caro calls the dark thread and the bright thread in the fabric of LBJ’s life and career. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that none of it would have happened like that without the 87 fraudulent votes which Johnson stole to gain his senate seat in 1948.
Johnson grew up in intense poverty. Texas hill country was so poor, they couldn’t afford Negroes. Whites had to do all the “nigger work” themselves, so he was relatively free of direct experience with minorities of intense experience with normal southern prejudices of the time. Not as free as he claimed to be, of course. That would have been impossible. However, he demonstrated intense compassion for the poor of his own race as well as for those of other races from time to time. One of his early jobs was as a schoolteacher in a small Tex-Mex town where in the course of one year he practically transformed his have-not Cotulla High School into a place where kids could at least play ball and have a debate club. He identified with the transient kids who would be in class one day, then be trucked off to the fields the next. The same thing had happened to his own white friends (though not to him) when he was growing up. Again, when he had a chance to head up a youth employment agency as part of the early new deal, he did a lot to make sure black kids at least appeared to get more than their fair share of the resources. As a congressional representative, he pioneered through great personal sacrifice to bring electricity to sparsely-populated hill country when no power company wanted to do it.
That compassion, however, needed to coincide with his ambition, or it became expendable. Most of us have a streak like that unless we’re Mother Theresa. We’re glad to help others as long as it doesn’t cost us too much time, money, convenience. But Johnson carried this normal human impulse to gargantuan proportions--as he did most matters in his life. From his earliest days, he had to win, and had to be the center of attention. “Just had to,” as an early acquaintance put it. When he was around six, an older girl came by each morning to pick him up on her donkey to take him to school. He insisted on riding in front. “Lyndon, I’m older and it’s my donkey,” she’d say. But he persisted, and he did ride in front. Later on, he managed to manipulate the student government at his college so that he controlled yearbook, newspaper, and the student council which passed out student jobs. And he did it by stealing elections, small-time extortion, and gathering votes where no one else had thought to look. These elements of unscrupulous and genuine political genius continue throughout his career.
From his first federally elected post to the last, he was thrall to the financing of Texas contractor brothers George and Herman Brown. The had a partner named Root. Thus did Brown and Root grow rich with federal contracts, and thus did Johnson have unprecedented financing for his campaigns. You might recognize the name Brown, Root, and Kellogg. Parent company of Halliburton? Could it be that Johnson has helped make possible not only first Vietnam but the second? But I digress.
He was in a myriad of ways a thoroughly venal and savage man. He callously and intentionally destroyed careers to get what he wanted, verbally abused his employees and his family, persuaded himself that he deserved what he had stolen, that he had won it fair and square, scratched and rubbed himself in public in the the most intimate manner, pissed in the open anywhere he felt like it-- even in the Senate parking lot in front of women, forced his staff to take dictation from him in the same room where he was defecating, and boastfully displayed his “jumbo” (as he nicknamed it) to male colleagues. He cared not at all for music, art, literarture, or theater, but he could read people with the eye of a psychoanalyst. He could tell you what you wanted most, dreaded most, and he wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of your desires and your fears to get what he wanted. His first priority for hiring staff people was not intelligence or education, but loyalty--which meant people whom he could call at midnight to come shine his shoes or do anything else he ordered.
And yet, he had the capacity to make himself charming and sought after. He was a gifted raconteur, witty and the life of any party. “Just plain fun,” many said. He made himself into a “professional son” with older men and women who were lonely. The powerful Sam Rayburn (also from Texas) in the house of Representatives was one. Richard Russell in the Senate was another. And these men would do for him what they would do for no one else. This was another impulse that started early. His college classmates called him “brown-nose” for the way he ingratiated himself with faculty and administrators. He worked harder and more thoroughly than anyone else, worked himself repeatedly into and through bronchitis, pneumonia, kidney stones, and a heart attack. He was frantic to get to the presidency ASAP because Johnson men tended to die early of heart attacks, so he was convinced he had to do it all by age sixty. His instincts and unscrupulousness enabled him to manipulate people and even institutions (He almost single-handedly subverted the Senate seniority system.) For his own gain. It mattered not who or what got demolished in the process. And so we got Vietnam. And yet, when his ambition and his compassion coincided, he achieved unparalleled benefits for millions. And so we got the great civil rights legislation of 1964 (same year as the Gulf of Tonkin.)
Maybe it wasn’t necessary in the end for Caro to write all these pages. LBJ’s 1948 Senate victory, I read, has now become a musical (The Winner), so the whole story may be passing into popular lore and the truth will no longer matter. Nevertheless, I’m waiting, waiting for that fourth (or fifth?) volume the way some people wait for Harry Potter’s next (or last). Even though I know how it turns out and they don’t, I can’t wait to see how it happened. As it turns out, even though I lived through it, I didn’t know a thing about it before.
* A Note on the initials: I don’t know whether Kennedy consciously cultivated the three-initial FDR echo, but Johnson certainly did. He was a new-dealer (when it was convenient), had wanted the presidency since boyhood, and went to the extent of making sure his wife and daughters (Lady Bird, Lynda Bird, and Luci Baines) would all be “LBJ’s”.(less)

like · see review

Sep 27, 2011 vard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-that-blew-me-away, great-biographies-and-memoirs

I cannot praise this book highly enough.

I was born in 1956 so although I remember President Kennedy and especially his assassination, Lyndon Johnson is the president I associate most with my childhood. I never knew quite what to make of him. Here was a man who had masterminded passage of Medicare and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and here was the very same man embroiling us deeper and deeper in a war whose point I never understood.

Reading Caro's biography made a huge difference to me in beginning...more

like · see review

May 03, 2011 Jean Nicolazzo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted to read this book to understand how it was possible, politically, to achieve the massive social and economic justice gains of the first half of the 20th century, especially now that we're seeing them undermined and attacked on every front. Whatever LBJ did to make the Great Society happen, he would certainly not be able to do it now. Fox News and its deranged fans would compare him to Hitler, Stalin, and Castro, and he'd go down in flames.

LBJ was everything I thought he was in the 60's...more

like · see review

Mar 09, 2011 Jack rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, history, presidents, politics, nonfiction

This is the greatest political biography I have ever read. If you’re interested in topics such as the history of the US Senate, politics, the history of Texas, political parties, the 1950s, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, or the Civil Rights movement, this is a great book to read. If you’re even slightly interested in LBJ, then this is a MUST read. For some time I thought that Teddy Roosevelt was the most interesting person in American history. Teddy has been pushed aside by LBJ! In about 1,000 pages,...more This is the greatest political biography I have ever read. If you’re interested in topics such as the history of the US Senate, politics, the history of Texas, political parties, the 1950s, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, or the Civil Rights movement, this is a great book to read. If you’re even slightly interested in LBJ, then this is a MUST read. For some time I thought that Teddy Roosevelt was the most interesting person in American history. Teddy has been pushed aside by LBJ! In about 1,000 pages, Robert Caro only focused on LBJ’s 12 years in the Senate. Many great books about great peoples’ entire lives have been thoroughly covered in fewer pages. But those books were not about LBJ. Even more amazing than the thoroughness of the book, as I made my way through it, the book got better and better. The last third of the book, where Caro takes on LBJ’s work - and the lack thereof - on Civil Rights, the book is as good as the most readable John Grisham novel. I couldn’t put it down.
Too many people are written off too easily: they’re great, or they’re horrible. Of course, just about all of us are both good at some times, and bad at others, and we usually operate comfortably in between the two extremes. The same can be said of LBJ. Well, not exactly. He WAS horrible. He destroyed people for personal gain. He helped keep millions of Americans in inhuman conditions. He was corrupt. He stole lots of money. And he was power hungry. However, he also did more for a race of people in this country’s history than any other president aside from Abraham Lincoln (as per Caro). And if LBJ took on an issue as his own, he fought for it with every legislative tool imaginable, and he would invent previously unimagined tools if it was necessary. He also knew how to get the most out of people. The bottom line: if you wanted to win in the US Senate, LBJ was the one person you would want on your side, and the very last person you would want opposing you.
Caro is an amazing writer and researcher. How great it is that he’s also a journalist, and not a traditional historian or social scientist. And when it comes to social science, I don’t think any political scientist could explain the workings of the Senate in such a fascinating way. Any compilation of voting records, with pivot points and theories, could probably not explain how things really happened nearly as effectively as Caro did.
Even Caro’s “Debts to all the people who helped me” section is a great read. Apparently, his wife was a true workhorse when it came to researching for the book, and Caro spared no kind words in praising her assistance, as he does here: “This book … is improved in a hundred - or a thousand, who can count? - ways by the discoveries she has made in the files of vanished statesmen and bigots.” There are an awful lot of bigots in this book, few bigger than LBJ, and there are also plenty of statesmen in Caro’s masterpiece, and LBJ was sometimes one of them as well.
From what I have read, Caro’s last book on LBJ and his presidency is due to come out in 2012. During that time when the country drops its collective IQ to argue about the candidates, I’ll happily disappear into the 1960s to read more about the most amazing politician in American history. Considering that the topics will include more Civil Rights battles, the Vietnam War, and all sorts of interesting issues, it will not always be a fun ride, but Caro will make it as worthwhile as anyone could.(less)

like · see review

Dec 30, 2009 Don Robertson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great read that reveals the appeal of such a madman as was LBJ. This is a significant look inside the faults of our republic as it is revealed by the men who rise to lead it. LBJ is revealed here as a colossal figure and failure epitomizing the inherent weakness of leadership provided by all such men.

What rings loudest here is how LBJ defined reality all around himself, and also how this was his biggest conceptual failure. This paralyzed the man.

Having lived through this era, and having read C...more

like · see review

Sep 20, 2009 Frank Stein rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yes, this, the third volume in the Johnson biography, is also one of the best books ever written, like the other ones. And yes, I can't wait until the next volume comes out.

Caro is such a great writer because he is so honestly interested in the minutiae of process, and he treats all his great works as procedural thrillers. He doesn't just want to know that Johnson was able to win a vote in the Senate, he wants to know exactly what horse-trades he had to make, what motions he would use to speed u...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 16, 2013 dusty.rhodes rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the best of the first 3 volumes of Caro's LBJ books.

This one serves to cement the character of the man at hand, as well as his strengths and weaknesses. And the way his weaknesses are strengths at times and his strengths weaknesses. LBJ's method of inhabiting a middle space between ideologies that focuses on them as ends to means and means to ends is fascinatingly important. It relates to the America we've just lived in and provides an understanding of what power really is and reveals.

I...more

like · see review

Oct 26, 2012 Charles Moody rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some have expressed concern about the slowing pace of Robert Caro’s biography of LBJ. It was initially envisioned as a 3-volume project, but the 1100-page third volume (Master of the Senate) did not even reach Johnson’s vice-presidential years. The recently published fourth volume ends in the first few months of Johnson’s presidency.

After reading Master of the Senate, I no longer care. If Caro next chooses to write a 1200-page book about 12 hours spent by Johnson in 1964, I will gratefully read...more

like · see review

Jun 25, 2010 UChicagoLaw added it · review of another edition

Shelves: faculty-recommendations

The book covers Johnson’s years in the Senate (1949-1960) in painstaking detail, describing everything from his greatest legislative victories to his minor tussles over office space and staff. What’s fascinating about the work is the way in which it demonstrates that no single factor, personal or political, can explain the rise of an historical figure of Johnson’s significance. Johnson’s unparalleled success in the Senate would not have been possible but for a combination of overwhelming persona...more

like · see review

Mar 17, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This Lyndon Johnson biography is up to three volumes and somewhere between 2500 and 3000 pages, and we're just through his Senate career. Lots of good stuff and interesting diversions - minibiographies of Sam Rayburn, Richard Russell, and Coke Stevenson (Governor of Texas in the 40's and Johnson opponent for the Senate in 1948), among others - but being spread over three (so far) volumes, a lot of the information has to be repeated in each book either as a refresher or for the benefit of a reade...more

like · see review

Jun 11, 2012 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stop # 3 in the Summer of Lyndon, I am reading these books the way Justice Souter said you have to read Proust--in one big gulp. This one follows our hero's rise to domination in the U.S. Senate. It didn't take him long, and he got power the way he got power his whole life, by sucking up to powerful older people and then making himself indispensable. The main focus is on Lyndon's struggle over civil rights. He owed his enormous power to the Southern senators, but knew that, in order to be a plau...more

like · see review

Apr 13, 2009 Murray rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This, the second in the outstanding biography of a complex and somewhat unpleasant man, is gripping and full of extraordinary insights. There is a long section dealing with the senator who LBJ finally beat, in the Texas democratic primary. Undoubtedly Johnson cheated in a manner that has set the tone for American politics ever since. I do not have the book to hand to look up the senator's name, but the description is of a person for whom the mould seems to have been permanently broken. He lived...more

like · see review

Jul 15, 2011 Jon-Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, politics

This is one of the great books about the Cold War era and the rise and fall of the New Deal coalition. It is scrupulously researched. It is extremely broad in scope, yet the author is able to pin down the relevant details that illustrate without being needlessly cumulative.

I have only one reservation, one that I may withdraw in the future. That is that the author is going too far to prove that Johnson was a son of a bitch. Is it because he thinks that other biographers have simply been hagiograp...more This is one of the great books about the Cold War era and the rise and fall of the New Deal coalition. It is scrupulously researched. It is extremely broad in scope, yet the author is able to pin down the relevant details that illustrate without being needlessly cumulative.

I have only one reservation, one that I may withdraw in the future. That is that the author is going too far to prove that Johnson was a son of a bitch. Is it because he thinks that other biographers have simply been hagiographers? or is that he is simply carving out a niche as a sort of Slate-magazine liberal contrarian? I don't know enough about Johnson or the author to be able to tell, though from what I'm learning from the book it would be ironically Johnson-like if he were.

Maybe it's that I always perceived that Vietnam had taken so much of the shine off of Johnson that it wasn't necessary to go out of your way to make that point. Doubt about the man already existed. There is always going to be an asterisk next to his name despite Civil Rights.

History's trends are strange. Truman was rehabilitated by a favorable biography. People go in and out of favor. And while the baby-boomer sainting of JFK will last as long as they do, more and more we're learning that he was as much of a son of a bitch as the rest of them.

But I've never been much for Presidents' personalities. I'm much more fond of their accomplishments. None of these men was a saint. But some of them, like Johnson, moved the ball in the right direction.

Johnson broke the New Deal coalition. Sure, there was a political calculation involved: that the black vote would become a solid base for the Democratic party. But the cost was the South, and, by the time Johnson left office, it would include suburban white America too. It was also the right thing to do. No matter how cynical I am, or how much of a son of a bitch Johnson was, you cannot really suggest that that calculation was a good move on pure politics. The South and its allies were then, and remain today, extremely powerful, far outsized relative to their population.

Johnson was also, in my extremely unpopular opinion, initially right about Vietnam. By 1968, the debate was between "hawks" and "doves." What people often forget--but which is made clear in this book--is that the debate in the halls of power after World War II was not between "hawks" and "doves." It was between the extreme right who wanted total war with the communists, and the establishment that wanted to pursue the policy of containment. The policy of containment might as well be referring to containing the right-wing forces at home as well as communists abroad.

The "loss" of China in 1949 caused a right-wing freak out on a scale only repeated since over civil rights and the election of Barack Obama. The red scare was real. MacArthur might have been able to depose Truman. Nixon was right for wondering why he never got credit for ending the war in Vietnam without a right-wing freak out.

But Johnson wouldn't give up. He escalated and escalated. He bombed and bombed. And The Best And The Brightest knew before 1966 that it was all over but the crying. Were 7 more years really required? I don't think so. But this is said to show that the "peace" debate is anachronistic prior to the late 60s. Before that it really was a conflict between people like MacArthur that wanted to nuke China and people like Eisenhower who were ok with the armistice line; between people like Curtis LeMay who would provocatively send our strategic bombers to the very edge of Soviet airspace before turning them around and people like John Kennedy who would come to agreements with Krushchev.

In the first phase of the Cold War, the people who would blockade Cuba, hold the communists at the 38th paralel, and topple government after government in Latin America were the commie sympathizers because they didn't want to launch World War III right then and there.

Johnson was probably a son of a bitch as a man, but he helped the country as a president and getting too lost in the details of the transactions he makes along the way in order to (apparently) take him down a notch to avoid what others have written to overpraise him seems to me to miss the mark in the other direction.(less)

like · see review

Jun 01, 2012 Christian Dibblee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, politics, biography, favorites

This is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. Caro not only brings the full story to life, but blends his impeccable research with a driving narrative that leaves you hoping for more. There are a few big points about this tome.

First, LBJ clearly had an incredible ability to read people and make his presence felt. He was able to find common ground on certain issues (civil rights being the most noteworthy) and craft legislation out of it. His many persuasion tactics stemmed from his p...more This is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. Caro not only brings the full story to life, but blends his impeccable research with a driving narrative that leaves you hoping for more. There are a few big points about this tome.

First, LBJ clearly had an incredible ability to read people and make his presence felt. He was able to find common ground on certain issues (civil rights being the most noteworthy) and craft legislation out of it. His many persuasion tactics stemmed from his personality and subsequently revolutionized Senate leadership positions. He made it such that seniority no longer mattered most in committee assignments, preferring instead to reward his friends with favorable assignments and committees. This book really made me appreciate how much power Senate leadership now has, and lots of it stemmed from Johnson.

He did revolutionize, but make no mistake: LBJ was a politician. His initial election to the House featured the stealing of votes in TX. He also consistently took care of those who had supported him, namely the big oil companies in Texas. His treatment of Leland Olds, by all accounts a dedicated public servant, helped oil barons drive up prices on rural farmers. Similarly, LBJ did not move against Joseph McCarthy until he knew the public wanted him to, even though he had the votes earlier, all because he wanted to keep his supporters happy. As he progressed in power, Johnson still had these same reservations but got better at using his Leadership as an excuse not to vote with the South. It seems Richard Russell and the oil folks back home agreed with this, since they pegged LBJ early on to be president.

And that's another feature of LBJ: ambition. He used his interests to dictate the majority of his Senate time. Caro believes Johnson had compassion for minorities at heart but did not act on that feeling until the 1950s. I think given what I read, LBJ may have had the compassion but continued to advance his career rather than take on civil rights. In the end, he took on civil rights in 1957 less for the issue but more for the presidency and wanting to brush off the Southern stink. His legislative mastery in that fight was, frankly, ingenious. But, we should not be fooled into thinking Johnson didn't always have more power in mind.

Overall, I'd say my opinion of Johnson was deepened by this book. Smart guy, immensely intelligent, but in the end a politician willing to sacrifice anything to get ahead. He certainly provided the impetus for his presidential run in the Senate and on civil right maybe LBJ was the great champion of blacks Caro portrays. But, I'd say I saw a man who let his interests run the country, not necessarily vice versa. Still, every public figure should read this to be effective. A grasp of parliamentary rules saved Johnson multiple times and his ability to understand people could provide huge dividends for any aspiring politician.

Epic of a book, but one of my favorites. Caro researches very deeply and yet the 1000+ pages goes by very fast. Other than an appreciation for LBJ on civil rights that I slightly disagree with, he writes with complete fairness to him and provides some necessary historical context about Russell, civil rights, Olds, and the previous Senates. A great book.(less)

like · see review

May 20, 2013 J rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, politics

This book stands out as the best book I have ever read about the US Senate. Caro's treatment of the Senate and how it actually works is so thorough. His description of how LBJ transformed the role of Minority and Majority Leader of the US Senate. It is a fascinating character study of a man who pursued his agenda above all others, and his relentless consolidation of power.

I never realized how ruthless and monomaniacal this son of the South was. Because this is the first book I have read in Caro...more

like · see review

Dec 08, 2009 Khalid rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book examines in detail Lyndon Johnson's career in the Senate, from his arrival in 1950 until his election as JFK's vice president in 1960. The milestone of Johnson's Senate years was the 1957 Civil Rights Act, whose passage he single-handedly engineered. As important as the bill was--both in its own right and as a precursor to wider-reaching civil rights legislation--it was only close to Johnson's Southern "anti-civil rights" heart as a means to his dream: the presidency. Caro writes that n...more

like · see review

Aug 15, 2010 V. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not actually finished with this very large, third book in the series. I'm taking a hiatus. I read the other 2 and started the 3rd in too short a time span. It has changed everything I thought I knew or felt about LBJ. I'm still waiting for the part about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For that act alone, he always seemed like a hero. Especially after reading the Taylor Branch series about America during the King years. But now that I've come to know Johnson (through Caro's word...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 19, 2010 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Make no mistake: Lyndon Baines Johnson was a stone cold, LEGISLATIVE ANIMAL. His accomplishments, maneuvering, and overall dominance as a tactician are all the more remarkable when you consider the regular, alternating fits of paralysis and tantruming that have unfortunately come to characterize the modern day, pitiful excuse for the United States Senate we've inherited. Caro's knowledge, both of the institution and of the man himself, is clearly comprehensive, but what I loved about "Master of...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 24, 2012 Eben Muse rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another riveting volume in this saga. I've been told that, somewhere in the series, I will come to respect Lyndon B. Johnson. I am still waiting and the suspense is growing because he just keeps sinking lower and lower as a person. The early part of the book is also a great introduction to the US Senate. Caro argues that the effort to design a chamber where discussion and debate would be allowed and encouraged, so that American policy would be considered and not rashly voted in, has led inevitab...more

like · see review

Oct 04, 2009 Andtruth Danielson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Goddamn, Lyndon Johnson was a fucked-up maniac; but in the U.S. Senate, which is run by fucked-up Alzheimer's patients, the fucked-up maniac is king. This book shows clearly why it took someone like Lyndon Johnson to lie, cheat, have affairs, and election-steal his way into getting the Senate to stand up for the rights of black people in the segregated South. The book is written in a sprawling, epic style and the repetitiveness sometimes gets on your nerves, but in the pictures it paints and the...more

like · see review

Mar 15, 2013 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even if you have not read the first two books of the series, Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate" is still worth reading. Out of the 4 books Caro has written about LBJ so far, this one probably covers LBJ the least. It is an excellent way to learn the history of the Senate and why it so frequently gets so little done. The book also provides a nice mini-biography of Richard Russell, the long-serving Senator from Georgia. Prior to reading this book, I had no idea who the Russell Senate Building wa...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (18)

More editions...

Genres

Biography

149 users

History

145 users

Politics

60 users

Non Fiction

57 users

History > American History

31 users

Politics > Presidents

20 users

Biography Memoir

9 users

Literature > American

7 users

Presidents > Us Presidents

7 users

Literature > 20th Century

3 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Robert A. Caro

He's the author of The Power Broker (1974), for which he won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize. It's a biography of Robert Moses, an urban planner and leading builder of New York City. President Obama said that he read the biography when he was 22 years old and that the book "mesmerized" him. Obama said, "I'm sure it helped to shape how I think about politics."
Caro has also written three biographies on Lynd...more

More about Robert A. Caro...

Books by Robert A. Caro

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1)

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #2)

The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #4)

Robert A. Caro's the Years of Lyndon Johnson Set: The Path to Power; Means of Ascent; Master of the Senate; The Passage of Power

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Master of the Senate

4 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

title link	preview: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: Master of the Senate
avg rating	preview: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: Master of the Senate Goodreads rating: 4.49 (4016 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1506763.The_Years_of_Lyndon_Johnson_Volume_3?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320445450l/1506763.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1506763.The_Years_of_Lyndon_Johnson_Volume_3?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro[/url]

The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #3)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website