Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Book Review)

Amazon.Com ^ | H. O'Billovich

[PJ-Comix]

Amazon.com
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 of 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.

[ewchil]

I'm not sure which volume (the first I think) but it's all about how cruddy life is in the Hill Country because there is no electricity. All about water, and wood, and work, and dirt, and kerosene lamps. It was engrossing.

[PJ-Comix]

That was in the first volume and was the chapter about rural electrification that I mentioned was outstanding. Funny that a subject that would seem mundane turned out to be so interesting. Kudos to the writing skills of Robert Caro!