Robert Caro's Master of the Senate examines in meticulous detail Lyndon Johnson's career in that body, from his arrival in 1950 (after 12 years in the House of Representatives) until his election as JFK's vice president in 1960. This, the third in a projected four-volume series, studies not only the pragmatic, ruthless, ambitious Johnson, who wielded influence with both consummate skill and "raw, elemental brutality," but also the Senate itself, which Caro describes (pre-1957) as a "cruel joke" and an "impregnable stronghold" against social change. 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 and of itself 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 not only does power corrupt, it "reveals," and that's exactly what this massive, scrupulously researched book does. A model of social, psychological, and political insight, it is not just masterful; it is a masterpiece. --H. O'Billovich

From Publishers Weekly
As a genre, Senate biography tends not to excite. The Senate is a genteel establishment engaged in a legislative process that often appears arcane to outsiders. Nevertheless, there is something uniquely mesmerizing about the wily, combative Lyndon Johnson as portrayed by Caro. In this, the third installment of his projected four-volume life of Johnson (following The Path to Power and Means of Ascent), Caro traces the Texan's career from his days as a newly elected junior senator in 1949 up to his fight for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960. In 1953, Johnson became the youngest minority leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, the youngest majority leader. Throughout the book, Caro portrays an uncompromisingly ambitious man at the height of his political and rhetorical powers: a furtive, relentless operator who routinely played both sides of the street to his advantage in a range of disputes. "He would tell us [segregationists]," recalled Herman Talmadge, "I'm one of you, but I can help you more if I don't meet with you." At the same time, Johnson worked behind the scenes to cultivate NAACP leaders. Though it emerges here that he was perhaps not instinctively on the side of the angels in this or other controversies, the pragmatic Senator Johnson nevertheless understood the drift of history well, and invariably chose to swim with the tide, rather than against. The same would not be said later of the Johnson who dwelled so glumly in the White House, expanding a war that even he, eventually, came to loathe. But that is another volume: one that we shall await eagerly. Photos. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
More of Caro's monumental biography. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
In 1957 the Senate was moribund, caught in a deadly three-way stalemate between Republicans, Southern Democrats, and liberal Northern Democrats. In 1949, however, Lyndon Johnson was elected from Texas, and, like God Almighty, bent down, molded it in his image, and breathed new life into it. In this third volume, Caro follows Johnson's career from that election to his masterstroke of political engineering as the Senate's young majority leader--the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The abridgment has a completeness and an artistic integrity all its own. Stephen Lang's narration, too, is an artistic achievement. Miraculously without caricature, Lang creates credible voices for the towering hill-country Texan; Kennedy of Massachusetts; the fast-talking senator from Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey; and many others. Lang switches effortlessly and accurately between Johnson snarling at Senate clerks and Caro's brilliant narrative. This is history at its best, and in manageable doses. P.E.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* The obvious question about the third volume inCaro's dynamic, definitive biography of LBJ, following itsaward-winning predecessors, The Path to Power (1982) and Meansof Ascent (1990), is: Does it live up to the profound success of theearlier volumes? The answer is a resounding yes. Caro now coversJohnson's career in the U.S. Senate (1949-61), where, remarkablyquickly, he rose to majority leader. We primarily remember LBJ as thepresident confounded by the Vietnam War. But what Caro soauthoritatively yet so rousingly shows us is Johnson's unprecedentedand unsurpassed talent for leading the Senate exactly where he wantedit to go. And where he wanted it to go was, most significantly, in thedirection of civil rights legislation; he laid the groundwork, withthe Civil Rights Act of 1957, for the even greater civil rightslegislation he secured from Congress during his presidency. What Caroalso achieves so fully and compellingly is not only an understandingof Johnson's power and the psychological compulsions behind theaccumulation and exercise of it but also an awareness of theU.S. Senate's moribund state, which it had slipped into decades beforeJohnson walked into the chamber. He succeeded in turning the upperhouse into a force to be reckoned with within the structure of thefederal government. With first serial rights sold to the NewYorker, this is the biography of the season, and librarians shouldexpect to order more than one copy. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A wonderful, a glorious tale . . . It will be hard to equal this amazing book. It reads like a Trollope novel, but not even Trollope explored the ambitions and the gullibilities of men as deliciously as Robert Caro does." --Anthony Lewis, New York Times Book Review

"Mesmerizing . . . A tale rife with drama and hypnotic in the telling . . .The historian's equivalent of a Mahler symphony . . . [It] brings Lyndon blazing into the Senate." --Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"Caro must be America's greatest living Presidential biographer . . . No other contemporary biographer offers such a complex picture of the forces driving an American politician, or populates his work with such vividly drawn secondary characters." --Richard S. Dunham, BusinessWeek

"A panoramic study . . . Combining the best techniques of investigative reporting with majestic storytelling ability, Caro has created a vivid, revelatory institutional history as well as a rich hologram of Johnson's character." --Jill Abramson, New York Times

"Probably the best book ever written about the U.S. Senate. A terrific study of power politics." --Steve Neal, Chicago Sun-Times

"After more than a quarter of a century of research and thought about Lyndon Johnson, Caro sees the man in full . . . Caro's immersion in the man and period yields a fascinating, entertaining abundance." --Lance Morrow, Time

"Brilliant . . . An indefatigable researcher and dazzling prose stylist, Caro has pulled off the seemingly impossible: He has converted the mundane legislative agenda of the Truman-Eisenhower era into a riveting political drama worthy of Robert Penn Warren." --Douglas Brinkley, Boston Globe

"In this fascinating book, Robert Caro does more than carry forward his epic life of Lyndon Johnson. With compelling narrative power and with remarkable subtlety and sensitivity, he illuminates the Senate of the United States and its byzantine power struggles. In this historical tour-de-force, Robert Caro shows himself the true 'master of the Senate.' " --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

"To immerse oneself in Robert Caro's heroic biographies is to come face to face with a shocking but unavoidable realization: Much of what we think we know about money, power and politics is a fairy tale . . . Master of the Senate forces us not only to rewrite our national political history but to rethink it as well . . . Compulsively readable." --Eric Alterman, The Nation

"A spectacular piece of historical biography, delicious reading for both political junkies and serious students of the political process . . . Fascinating . . .Worth the wait." --Robert D. Novak, The Weekly Standard

"In terms of political biography, not only does it not get better than this, it can't . . .The highest expression of biography as art . . . Caro's command of his material is absolute . . . As absorbing as an epic movie." --Patrick Beach, Austin American-Statesman

"Master of the Senate is vintage Caro--a portrait so deft, vivid, and compelling that you practically feel LBJ gripping your arm and bending you to his will." --Jean Strouse

"The most complete portrait of the Senate ever drawn. The work, told within the framework of the life of Lyndon Johnson, is really an epic history of the twentieth century." --Michael Wolff, New York

"Every paradox that makes politics truly, endlessly, fascinating . . . is there in . . .The Years of Lyndon Johnson . . .Regarded by many as the greatest political biography of the modern era. Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics." --Daniel Finkelstein, The Times (London)

"For Caro writing a biography is writing a thriller--in Johnson's case, a western. You can't stop turning the pages." --Michael Howard, The Times (London)

"Quite breathtaking . . . One of the great political biographies." --Gordon Brown, The Times (London)

"An epic tale of winning and wielding power." --Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

"In this magnificent work, Robert Caro has given us the grand and absorbing saga of Lyndon Johnson, the U.S. Senate, and the Democratic Party at mid-century. The richly cadenced prose is hypnotic, the research prodigious, the analysis acute, the mood spellbinding, and the cast of characters mythic in scale. I cannot conceive of a better book about Capitol Hill. An unforgettable, epic achievement in the art of biography." --Ron Chernow

"Caro is a master of biography . . . with his Tolstoyan touch for storytelling and drama . . . A dazzling tour de force that certifies Caro as the country's preeminent specialist in examining political power and its uses." --Paul Duke, Baltimore Sun

"A gripping tale of suspense. The narrative tension rarely dissipates . . . We know that Johnson will ultimately succeed, but the thrill lies in learning how." --Jordan Rau, Newsday

"Masterful . . . A work of genius." --Steve Weinberg, New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Breathtaking to read, like spending a week curled up with a magnificent political novel." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Modern Maturity

"Caro writes history with [a] novelist's sensitivity . . . No historian offers a more vivid sense not only of what happened, but what it looked like and felt like." --Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today

"Caro drives the story forward irresistibly . . . If Mr Caro's work on Johnson has not already set a new standard in American political biography, it surely will when his story of Johnson's presidency is complete." --The Economist

"Does it live up to the profound success of the earlier volumes? The answer is a resounding yes . . . The biography of the season." --Brad Hooper, Booklist

"Uniquely mesmerizing." --Publishers Weekly

"Magisterial . . . A Plutarch (or perhaps Suetonius) for our time: would that all political biographies were so good." --Kirkus Reviews




From the Hardcover edition.

Review
"A wonderful, a glorious tale . . . It will be hard to equal this amazing book. It reads like a Trollope novel, but not even Trollope explored the ambitions and the gullibilities of men as deliciously as Robert Caro does." --Anthony Lewis, New York Times Book Review

"Mesmerizing . . . A tale rife with drama and hypnotic in the telling . . .The historian's equivalent of a Mahler symphony . . . [It] brings Lyndon blazing into the Senate." --Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"Caro must be America's greatest living Presidential biographer . . . No other contemporary biographer offers such a complex picture of the forces driving an American politician, or populates his work with such vividly drawn secondary characters." --Richard S. Dunham, BusinessWeek

"A panoramic study . . . Combining the best techniques of investigative reporting with majestic storytelling ability, Caro has created a vivid, revelatory institutional history as well as a rich hologram of Johnson's character." --Jill Abramson, New York Times

"Probably the best book ever written about the U.S. Senate. A terrific study of power politics." --Steve Neal, Chicago Sun-Times

"After more than a quarter of a century of research and thought about Lyndon Johnson, Caro sees the man in full . . . Caro's immersion in the man and period yields a fascinating, entertaining abundance." --Lance Morrow, Time

"Brilliant . . . An indefatigable researcher and dazzling prose stylist, Caro has pulled off the seemingly impossible: He has converted the mundane legislative agenda of the Truman-Eisenhower era into a riveting political drama worthy of Robert Penn Warren." --Douglas Brinkley, Boston Globe

"In this fascinating book, Robert Caro does more than carry forward his epic life of Lyndon Johnson. With compelling narrative power and with remarkable subtlety and sensitivity, he illuminates the Senate of the United States and its byzantine power struggles. In this historical tour-de-force, Robert Caro shows himself the true 'master of the Senate.' " --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

"To immerse oneself in Robert Caro's heroic biographies is to come face to face with a shocking but unavoidable realization: Much of what we think we know about money, power and politics is a fairy tale . . . Master of the Senate forces us not only to rewrite our national political history but to rethink it as well . . . Compulsively readable." --Eric Alterman, The Nation

"A spectacular piece of historical biography, delicious reading for both political junkies and serious students of the political process . . . Fascinating . . .Worth the wait." --Robert D. Novak, The Weekly Standard

"In terms of political biography, not only does it not get better than this, it can't . . .The highest expression of biography as art . . . Caro's command of his material is absolute . . . As absorbing as an epic movie." --Patrick Beach, Austin American-Statesman

"Master of the Senate is vintage Caro--a portrait so deft, vivid, and compelling that you practically feel LBJ gripping your arm and bending you to his will." --Jean Strouse

"The most complete portrait of the Senate ever drawn. The work, told within the framework of the life of Lyndon Johnson, is really an epic history of the twentieth century." --Michael Wolff, New York

"Every paradox that makes politics truly, endlessly, fascinating . . . is there in . . .The Years of Lyndon Johnson . . .Regarded by many as the greatest political biography of the modern era. Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics." --Daniel Finkelstein, The Times (London)

"For Caro writing a biography is writing a thriller--in Johnson's case, a western. You can't stop turning the pages." --Michael Howard, The Times (London)

"Quite breathtaking . . . One of the great political biographies." --Gordon Brown, The Times (London)

"An epic tale of winning and wielding power." --Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

"In this magnificent work, Robert Caro has given us the grand and absorbing saga of Lyndon Johnson, the U.S. Senate, and the Democratic Party at mid-century. The richly cadenced prose is hypnotic, the research prodigious, the analysis acute, the mood spellbinding, and the cast of characters mythic in scale. I cannot conceive of a better book about Capitol Hill. An unforgettable, epic achievement in the art of biography." --Ron Chernow

"Caro is a master of biography . . . with his Tolstoyan touch for storytelling and drama . . . A dazzling tour de force that certifies Caro as the country's preeminent specialist in examining political power and its uses." --Paul Duke, Baltimore Sun

"A gripping tale of suspense. The narrative tension rarely dissipates . . . We know that Johnson will ultimately succeed, but the thrill lies in learning how." --Jordan Rau, Newsday

"Masterful . . . A work of genius." --Steve Weinberg, New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Breathtaking to read, like spending a week curled up with a magnificent political novel." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Modern Maturity

"Caro writes history with [a] novelist's sensitivity . . . No historian offers a more vivid sense not only of what happened, but what it looked like and felt like." --Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today

"Caro drives the story forward irresistibly . . . If Mr Caro's work on Johnson has not already set a new standard in American political biography, it surely will when his story of Johnson's presidency is complete." --The Economist

"Does it live up to the profound success of the earlier volumes? The answer is a resounding yes . . . The biography of the season." --Brad Hooper, Booklist

"Uniquely mesmerizing." --Publishers Weekly

"Magisterial . . . A Plutarch (or perhaps Suetonius) for our time: would that all political biographies were so good." --Kirkus Reviews




From the Hardcover edition.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Power -- how it is won, used, and abused -- fascinates Robert Caro. It fascinated Lyndon B. Johnson, a born-poor son of backcountry Texas. His statement "I do understand power.... I know where to look for it, and how to use it," reflects a focused intelligence that Machiavelli would have admired.

In this third volume of his magisterial biography of the protean LBJ, Caro brilliantly analyzes his marshaling and manipulation of power. During LBJ's Senate years, as civil rights became a more urgent issue, the power of individuals to block legislation became a major issue. Opposition to civil rights, Caro notes, was the southern senators' ongoing revenge for Gettysburg, a defense of the mythologized southern way of life: gentility in the big house, obedient blacks in field and factory, and respect for God, woman, and tradition.

Caro provides an unforgettable account of LBJ's self-serving late-hour conversion to the Constitution and decency and demonstrates how -- by promise, threat, and trade-off -- he used his power as majority leader to steer the 1957 Civil Rights Bill into law. Caro's explorations of hearts and minds, particularly senators', are unrivaled. Courteous, unyielding Richard Russell; anti-Semitic James Eastland; honorable Paul Douglas; visionary Hubert Humphrey; brilliant Bobby Baker; underrated John Connally -- they and a myriad of others people a Darwinian world. Caro pitches his readers into their gut-felt emotions, into the nation's diverse hopes, fears, and needs. He demonstrates that politics is the art of getting bills passed. When simple, legislation is seldom fair, and vice versa; hence the endless add-ins and strikeouts that accompany congressional enactment of a law.

There are a dozen histories here: the Senate, the committee system, parliamentary procedure, states' rights, voter registration, the Johnson clan, political skullduggery, and more, all intensively researched and wonderfully told. Driving the narrative, energizing every issue, manipulating every situation, is the dynamic, ego-fueled LBJ, the flawed giant and divided personality who could within an hour lovingly cradle a Hispanic child and coarsely abuse his wife, who sought back-at-the-ranch simplicity while ruthlessly manipulating policy and process.

LBJ won the battle for civil rights legislation -- laws that reshaped the nation. He deserves a biographer of the prizewinning Caro's energy and brilliance. (Peter Skinner)

Peter Skinner lives in New York City.

ANNOTATION

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Nonfiction

Nominated for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award, Biography/Autobiography

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The most riveting political biography of our time, Robert A. Caro’s life of Lyndon B. Johnson, continues. Master of the Senate takes Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 through 1960, in the United States Senate. Once the most august and revered body in politics, by the time Johnson arrived the Senate had become a parody of itself and an obstacle that for decades had blocked desperately needed liberal legislation. Caro shows how Johnson’s brilliance, charm, and ruthlessness enabled him to become the youngest and most powerful Majority Leader in history and how he used his incomparable legislative genius--seducing both Northern liberals and Southern conservatives--to pass the first Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction. Brilliantly weaving rich detail into a gripping narrative, Caro gives us both a galvanizing portrait of Johnson himself and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings of legislative power.

Author Biography:

SYNOPSIS

Those who caught the first two volumes of Caro's massive work on Lyndon Johnson won't wait long before devouring the third; those who wish to begin with the third volume can do so. Drawing on meticulous research and writing with a fine smooth style, Caro covers events and activities between 1949 and 1960, the 12 years Johnson was a Senator. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Economist

Detail by engrossing detail, Mr Caro exposes the seemingly innocuous strategems and quiet favours to his seniors by which Johnson transformed himself into the master of the Senate. ... In Mr Caro's hands, it is really the process that fascinates. Mr Caro tracks Johnson's most intricate manoeuvres in an unprecedented close-up of how a politician of his calibre could shepherd through such a broad and divisive piece of legislation [the civil rights bill].

Bismarck's sardonic crack that making laws, like making sausages, should never be looked at too closely, is triumphantly refuted. Mr Caro's research spans decades and his command of material is encyclopedic. He drives the story forward irresistibly and makes the arcane almost graphic...If Mr Caro's work on Johnson has not already set a new standard in American political biography, it surely will when his story of Johnson's presidency is complete

Michael Wolff - New York

The most complete portrait of the Senate ever drawn. The work, told within the framework of the life of Lyndon Johnson, is really an epic history of the twentieth century.

Steve Neal - Chicago Sun-Times

Probably the best book ever written about the U.S. Senate. A terrific study of power politics.

Malcom Jones - Newsweek

Mesmerizing...The historian's equivalent of a Mahler symphony--vast, detailed and striving for the universal...Without ever straying from the mountain of facts he's amassed, Caro delivers a tale rife with drama and hypnotic in the telling...[It] brings Lyndon blazing into the Senate.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - Modern Maturity

Breathtaking to read, like spending a week curled up with a magnificent political novel....here we get a giant, a colossus who bestrode the U.S. Senate from 1949 until 1961. Caro tells this story as it has never been told before. We see Johnson revealed...overpowering everyone around him with the irresistible Johnson treatment. Read all 37 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

In this magnificent work, Robert Caro has given us the grand and absorbing saga of Lyndon Johnson, the U.S. Senate, and the Democratic Party at mid-century. The richly cadenced prose is hypnotic, the research prodigious, the analysis acute, the mood spellbinding, and the cast of characters mythic in scale. I cannot conceive of a better book about Capitol Hill. An unforgettable, epic achievement in the art of biography. — Ron Chernow

In this fascinating book, Robert Caro does more than carry forward his epic life of Lyndon Johnson. With compelling narrative power and with remarkable subtlety and sensitivity, he illuminates the Senate of the United States and its byzantine power struggles. In this historical tour-de-force, Robert Caro shows himself the true Master of the Senate. — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.