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

Rating:
Summary: A Man Without True Beliefs
Review: Caro's latest installment is every bit as good as the first two volumes. The first portion of the book dealing with the history of the senate may be a little dry, but this background information is absolutely critical in understanding Johnson's monumental task of reforming the seniority system and avoiding filibusters.

Once again, Caro takes large volumes of information and makes it easy for the reader to retain. For example, he uses the term, "The three R's" to describe Johnson's mentoring by key figures such as FDR, Sam Rayburn, and Richard Russell.

While the book is very objective, I believe the reader is left with a sense of a man without any true beliefs. Caro demonstrates this by explaining that Johnson's ambition always took precedence over any sense of right and wrong. Civil rights only become a Johnson priority as he realizes he cannot win the presidency as a regional southern candidate. Support for public power helped Johnson in his first congressional session, but this ideal was quickly abandoned when he realized to maintain power he needed the support of rich, Texas oilmen.

I highly recommend this book. The reader will learn the inner workings of the senate, the struggle for civil rights, and most importantly to coin a Caro term, "How power reveals".

Rating:
Summary: Political history at its best!
Review: Caro's LBJ: Master of the Senate is truly a masterpiece on LBJ's tenure in the US Senate and the history of how that body functions. I have scarcely enjoyed reading a book as much as I have this voluminous study. Caro traces some of the great orators of the senate from the days of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, which he termed as the "Golden Age" of the Senate, through its decline, and finally up to the point of the emergence of a true political mastermind, Lyndon B. Johnson.

Johnson's ultimate goal was nothing other than the highest office in the land and every step along the way from US Congressman to Majority Leader of the US Senate was merely a stepping stone. But Johnson's years in the senate are the most remarkable. In his first term as a senator, Johnson became Majority Leader and the youngest one in history at that. In a senate that operated by seniority and where freshmen senators were like children who were only to be seen and not heard, Johnson had demonstated his great political skills.

Johnson, as Caro pointed out, understood how to find power and how to use it. From the first day he entered the senate, Johnson determined he would find out who the bigshots were and then use his political charm to earn their trust. Richard Russell was the most powerful and influential senator in that great body and Johnson pulled out all the stops.

Southern senators held most of the powerful committee charimanships in the senate and as a result, they as chairmen and as a group were the real powerbrokers of the senate. Johnson understood their importance and how to manipulate them and all the other senators to further his ambitions.

Johnson understood that to become president he had to have the support of northern liberals. How Johnson played to both sides is quite interesting and entertaining to read about. One comes away with the impression that Johnson did not have any core beliefs, he just knew how to agree with all sides and make them believe he was one of them.

Johnson also understood that he needed to have the financial backing of the wealthy and very conservative oil tycoons in Texas. One of the blemishes on Johnson's period in the senate was the utter destruction of Leland Olds who had been appointed by Johnson's idol FDR as chariman of the FPC and later renominated by President Truman. This proved how ruthless Johnson could be in destroying a good man in order to pander to these oil tycoons in order to enhance his political goals.

The most remarkabe feat of Johnson's career in the senate was the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act that was utterly useless in its results, but was in actuality a feat that had not been accomplished since the Reconstruction Period. Liberals justly demanded more, but Johnson understood that a more liberal bill would never have passed.

I greatly admired the courage and sincerity of people like Hubert Humphrey who fought so hard for Civil Rights. As a proud southerner, I also greatly admired southern senators like Richard Russell who had so much ability and talent, but all their talent was, in my opinion, put to shame by their vehement opposition to Civil Rights for blacks in this country.

From reading this book you will get a good working knowledge of the history of the US Senate and how it operated then and hopefully be able to compare it with how it operates today. Lyndon Johnson was perhaps the most politically astute individual in our nation's history whose talents in working the senate are nothing short of amazing. A times humorous and at times appalling this is a book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: A master work with a central flaw
Review: I have read all three of Robert Caro's volumes on LBJ with fascination. Caro is unsurpassed as a researcher, and while there is far too much repetition here (similar evidence marshalled to make a similar point) and too wide a sense of relevance (was it necessary to spend a chapter, for example, on Coke Stevenson's happy marriage AFTER he lost the 1948 Democratic Primary for the Senate to LBJ?) and a lot of stagey writing, too (eg, thundering one-sentence paragraphs), the degree to which Caro succeeds in reconstructing a context for the most minute of LBJ's machinations gives priceless insight and makes this a truly exciting work to read.
The great flaw of these books, however, is that they make Johnson a one-dimensional character, a tireless self-seeker and manipulator of men and women who cannot live a day without furthering his ambitions. In the service of his cause, Caro's Johnson never commits himself, never gives a hint of his true views, if he has any. He started out as a New Dealer but with Southern Conservatives he always behaved like one of them. Then finally, added to this portrait of the shamelessly sycophantic bully, Caro also would have us believe that Johnson all along was an idealist who really wanted to help people, a trait that Caro sees expressed in LBJ's heroic early performance as a teacher of poor Texas children. This assessment will be borne out by the record of LBJ's presidency (Caro is still at work), when Johnson did abandon his Southern base and revert to the emulation of his original model, FDR. But there is no way that the Johnson has described so far will be able convincingly to be transformed into the idealistic reformer president Caro hints at in volume theree. The complexity of motivation simply isn't there in these three volumes. Caro's LBJ seems always to be approached through the eyes of others, whereas LBJ's own point of view remains elusive.
LBJ's life makes a fascinating story--that of a man who used every dirty trick in the book on his way to the top, then tried to use his position to help people. Caro's book would have been better titled LBJ and the Art of Corruption, for he shows that part of the story brilliantly--how money and power work together (roughly, power equals money squared). It's the other side of the story that is unconvincing here, and we are still left wondering Who is the real LBJ?

Rating:
Summary: The rules of the game
Review: Robert Caro's latest volume on the career of Lyndon Johnson is a fascinating warts and all study of the uses of parliamentary power. Even though this is meant to be a picture of the Senate in the 1950s, I would imagine anyone wishing to understand the workings of this institution will find this book useful. This is due to the subject of Caro's efforts, who undeerstand the workings of the senate better than probably anyone in its history. This is a well-researched book, which along with Robert Dallek's two volumes, is likely to set the standard for LBJ biographies in the years to come. Caro has done his homework and the portraits of Johnson, as well as other members of the senate are intelligent and well-researched. Even though this book is about a president (this period will be covered in future books)it redresses an inbalance in the way Americans view their history, which is almost exclusively through the administrations of its presidents. Books which deal with the career of senators, representatives, or federal judges, are not published to a sufficiently wide-enough audience. As a consequence, the mainstream tends to view its achievements (and failings) as the responsibility of the executive, quite the opposite of how things actually work or how the founding fathers intend things to work. Hopefully this book, which has been justly successful, will lead to a restoration in balance in this area.

Even though I gave this book a five star rating, I should alert any potential readers to a flaw that runs through all of the books that Caro has written. This is a seeming unwillingness to concede what a dirty business politics is. In all of the books, Caro makes comparisons with other people who encountered LBJ through the years and these comparisons reflect poorly on Johnson. The problem is that none of the people that are cited went on to become Majority leader (and a powerful one at that) or President. In discussing LBJ's views on matters such as race and what he was willing to do about this issue, a better comparison would be someone like FDR. Caro also should have consulted Kenneth Davis's books on FDR, particularly the one covering 1937-40 (even though they do not deal with the period in question-the bibliography includes books which do not deal with the 1950s-era Senate) Politics is the art of the possible after all. I think that perhaps the one thing that is missing and would make my praise unqualified is to put LBJ's actions in the context of others seeking to get ahead in politics. Some of the more extreme examples of LBJ's behavior might not seem so strange as a result.

Rating:
Summary: A GIANT TEXAS BARBECUE OF A BIOGRAPHY....
Review: This book was well worth the wait. Those who read "Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent", the first two books in the series, will not be disappointed. It's all here. The chicanery, the manipulation, the ruthless and low cunning mixed up with the soaring idealism, the deep compassion, the empathy for the poor and oppressed that together made up the contradictory character of LBJ. This book does not simply capture LBJ, it also captures the Senate and its other powerful men--Russell, Humphrey, Douglas, Hayden, and so on. The book brings to life the arcane political maneuverings surrounding events--some long forgotten like the Leland Olds confirmation battle where LBJ ruthlessly destroyed a liberal government regulator to keep Texas oil campaign contributions coming, others of great import like the great parliamentary battles that paved the way for civil rights legislation. Master of the Senate has all the marks we come to associate with a Caro biography--the lavish James Mitchneresque descriptions, the Edward Gibbon literary prose, the painstaking documentation and in-depth interviews of people who knew LBJ. This book is biography as we have not seen in a long time in the grand, multi-volume Victorian style. Long life, good health, and prosperity to Robert Caro so he can write Volume IV!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant digust
Review: This is a phenomenal book. For 900 of its 1000+ pages, I was absolutely riveted, unable to think of anything else until I finished. The strongest and most indelible impression left by the book is of the utter corruption of the US Senate, an institution steeped in reactionary politics and thoroughly soiled by "campaign contributions," otherwise known as bribes from big business. To read in such detail of Senators' horse-trading their votes, abandoning all principle for personal gain within the Senate playground, is truly chilling. Caro's portrait of the Senate is devastating, and no one who holds our government in high esteem can leave this book unshaken. The book is flawed, however. While generally a huge fan of Caro's style, sometimes he gets the better of himself, writing run on sentences (one ran 8 lines and included over 15 commas) and repeating his own analysis.

In fact, this last criticism points to a large weakness in the book's closing chapters: Caro seems determined to make the passage of the "Civil Rights" bill of '57 the climax of the book and to give Johnson credit for it, yet he lacks the evidence to do so. He spends page after page assuring the reader how impossible any compromise was on this bill while offering little detail as to what Johnson was doing between January and July of '57. In fact, several critical decisions were not made or even very much influenced by Johnson. While Johnson pulled off sevearl stunning maneuvers, they came after months of prevarication and they all severed to destroy the bill's spirit. The bill itself was no great shakes, as Caro briefly admits, and was so gutted by the time it was passed that all but the most deluded of liberals recognized that it was almost worse than passing noting. Johnson may have "redeemed" himself in '64 and '65, but the '57 bill was a shameful, useless piece of legislation.

However, the book is thrilling and horrifying and a terrific read. There are many gorgeous set pieces, including the history of the Senate, the barbaric crucifixion of Leland Olds, the mini-bio of Russell, and the account of the '56 Democratic Convention. An interesting sub-theme running through the book is the corruption of Hubert Humphrey, a Senator with so much promise who quickly emasculated himself and his beliefs in order to gain political advantage as Johnson's toady. That sad, sad tale will hopefully be told in someone else's book.

Finally, to the criticism that this book does not delve deeply enough in Johnson the man or his psyche, well, that's fine by me. I came to this book hoping to learn about LBJ (I haven't read the first two in the series) and the Senate. I got absolutely more than I could handle. As I see it, the book's subtitle, "The Years of Lyndon Johnson," rebuffs any criticism that it focusses to much on events outside of LBJ. As it is, this book provides us with a terrifying close-up view of Senate power through its use and, more often, abuse, by Johnson.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the series so far
Review: This is a rather strange book. It is sort of history and sort of biography but really it is more of a novel. This is of course not to disparage the skill of the writer Caro. He is a person who is an accomplished historian and a master of the written word. It is more what he chooses to write. He writes history in the way that McCauley or Plutarch did. Not the dry recording of events but rather the use of events to tell a certain story or to say something.

The story is of course that of the greatest champion of the poor and the Afro Americans since the death of Lincoln was Lydon Baines Johnson. Yet anyone reading the three volumes of Caro's story so far would never even guess that such was Johnson's destiny. Because no figure was less idealistic, more in the pockets of big oil than Johnson. His political background was Texas and his allies were the southern supporters of the Jim Crow system. However in a book of more than a thousand pages Johnson's future and success in civil rights is only mentioned as a more or less ironic aside.

The book opens by describing the workings of the American Senate. How the bizarre seniority system and the strangle hold of the Democratic Party in the south enabled the Senate to strangle progressive legislation for a generation. A good deal of Caro's previous volumes concentrate on the character weakness of its protagonist. This book is very much the portrait of an anti hero. However the discussion of Johnson's time in the Senate show what a supreme political operator and tactician he was. He was able to become Senate leader within his first term. More importantly he was able to make that position one of importance. He was able to get his own party to override the seniority system and to create a dialogue between the liberal and conservative wings of his party. Johson was still very much in the pocket of big oil as is shown clearly in the hatchet job he did for them in getting rid of Olds. Yet Johnson was able to change the dynamics of the system, an achievement which dwarfs others who sat in that chamber.

The climax of the book is the passing in 1957 of the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. It was an act which was limited to protecting the voting rights of Afro Americans. In reality it was never enforced vigorously by Eisenhower and during its course of operation the number of enrolled voters who were Afro American actually fell. Caro however sees this as a important event as it put civil rights back on the legislative agenda and more importantly gave Johnson the credential to run as a Southern Presidential candidate who did not carry with him the baggage of segregation.

Reading the book one is struck by how much of it is not strictly history but more a book about history. However it is an intensely readable work which keeps you turning the pages and spikes up the interest. Caro is a master communicator so that he can use a few words to not only explain the civil rights era but he can conjure up the passions which motivated both sides. It is one of the best books on the American Political system to be written.