Even though I rate The Passage of Power 5/5, I do so even with the belief that Master of the Senate is better. However, Master of the Senate is really only better because of the topic. The Senate and its rules and personalities is much more interesting than the banal realities of being Vice President, yet Caro puts the story in great context, which is his greatest gift as an author.

Caro writes by lining up dominoes. He goes into great depth to explain the personalities of the main characters, in this case John and Bobby Kennedy and, of course, Lyndon Johnson, and then to converge the timelines in a way that makes the eventual climax seem almost pre-destined. Even knowing about JFK's assassination and the successes of LBJ as a legislator, you feel like the eventual product of their lives couldn't be real, that the book is really a book of fiction, like some 1960's version of West Wing.

But it isn't fiction. The story of how LBJ became President under the worst of circumstances puts a great deal of history into perspective. Would LBJ have been this kind of President had he just won himself in 1960? He was a changed man as President, having attained his life long goal. Would JFK have succeeded in passing his economic plans or civil rights? The Kennedy family seems to think so, but it was only with LBJ's knowledge of the Senate that anything god accomplished.

The climax of this story, with LBJ, the mammoth political figure who had transformed the institution of the US Senate before being humbled into the role of Vice President, suddenly thrust into the role of President that he had always wanted, is compelling and revealing. As Caro wrote in Master of the Senate and again here, Power corrupts, but power also reveals, and the power that Johnson attained revealed genuineness and skill that few understood and that surely the Kennedy people underestimated. The end of the book has to make you interested in the next volume and I'm already eager to read it.

However, I would have liked if Caro put the VP transition into more historical context as that was brushed over a bit. I would have also liked some more historical context of JFK's appeal on TV and LBJ's personality and how they juxtaposed in the 1960s. It wasn't just the personalities that defined this story, it was the setting of the time that did and there could have been more attention brought to that.

Still, for what Caro produced, this lived up to my high expectations and when the next installment comes out, I'll buy it right away. Lyndon Johnson is perhaps the most unique character in American politics, fitting perfectly and awkwardly into the time he lived and excelled. And naturally enough, he would be followed by someone who also fit perfectly and awkwardly into the next transition in American politics.