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The Years of Lyndon Johnson #3
Master of the Senate
Master of the Senate, Book Three of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, carries 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, told with an abundance of rich detail that could only have come from Caro’s peerless research, is both a galvanizing portrait of the man himself—the titan of Capital Hill, volcanic, mesmerizing—and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings and personal and legislative power.
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, told with an abundance of rich detail that could only have come from Caro’s peerless research, is both a galvanizing portrait of the man himself—the titan of Capital Hill, volcanic, mesmerizing—and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings and personal and legislative power.
1167 pages, Paperback
First published April 23, 2002
About the author
Robert A. Caro
45 books2,426 followersRobert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a planned five volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize (awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist"), three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a planned five volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize (awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist"), three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.
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January 16, 2021
“At the turn of the century, with the onset of the Progressive Era, the tide became a wave – a great wave of conscience, of anger over injustice, of demand for a cleansing of government and for a mobilization of government to meet the needs of its people. The wave of Progressivism and reform washed across America, through statehouses and city halls, even through the White House. When the wave crashed against the Senate, it broke on the Senate, the waters falling away from it as they had been falling away for half a century. The Senate stood as it had been standing for so long – a mighty dam standing athwart, and stemming, the tides of social justice…”
- Robert Caro, The Master of the Senate
It is no secret that the history of the United States of America is a checkered past indeed. Along with notions of representative government instead of heaven-sent monarchs, of economic mobility rather than feudalism, of freedom of thought and voice and movement, there was race-based slavery, systematized inequalities, and the use of military power as a coercive force. From the beginning, there has been a war between ideals and reality, between what America is and what it might become.
As Robert Caro points out in the first chapter of his magisterial Master of the Senate, the United States Senate played a large role in this battle for a nation’s soul. According to an apocryphal story, George Washington once compared the Senate to a “saucer” meant to cool coffee before drinking, slowing down legislation that might otherwise be rushed. To Caro, however, the Senate is a “dam,” where a minority of Senators representing a minority of the country can maintain the status quo for decades.
Master of the Senate is the third volume in Caro’s huge (and thus far ongoing) multivolume biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Yet as he has done in previous volumes, Caro is not just interested in the man, but his times as well. In earlier volumes, Caro devoted a great deal of space to men such as Sam Rayburn (Path to Power and Coke Stevenson (Means of Ascent), who played outsized parts in Johnson’s career arc. In the manner of a great novelist, Caro presented these men – sometimes at the cost of strict historical fidelity – in contrast to Johnson, who he often finds lacking in ethical scruples.
In this book, finally, Caro starts to soften on Johnson. This is the moment when the man who ruthlessly sought about acquiring power began to use it, and to use it for righteousness and good. Up until this point, Caro has shown mostly disdain for Johnson. Now, he begins the process of anointing him the greatest champion of civil rights to ever hold high office, further ranking him alongside Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King as the most effective civil rights leaders in history.
To do this, Caro finds a non-human antagonist for Johnson to battle against: the Senate itself.
After introducing the Senate in a fifty-page chapter, Caro embarks upon the most beautifully and brilliantly written lawyer’s brief you can imagine. For while this is an immersive portrait of a man, it is also an argument meant to prove Caro’s thesis. In doing so, there is a lot of rehashing of previously-told events. Besides inflating the page count (1,040 pages of text), there is a lot of repetition for those who have read the prior two entries in the series.
Despite the sensation of being hit over the head with certain points, I found Caro’s technique rather effective. Like a lawyer or high school writing instructor, he tells you what he’s going to say, he says it, and then he reminds you what you’ve just been told. While a tad pedantic, it certainly sticks in your memory. More than that, Caro has created a book that can stand all on its own. You do not need to have read the first two doorstoppers to enjoy this one.
Like his other Johnson books, Caro spends a lot of time fleshing out the peripheral characters, though oddly enough, Lady Bird and Johnson's children are seldom mentioned. The “heavy” in Master of the Senate is one of the country’s unknown villains: Richard Brevard Russell, “a Russell of the Russells of Georgia.” Every bit the “southern gentleman,” Russell was smart, savvy, and an avowed segregationist whose patrician nature made him even more dangerous than a snarling racist with a tiki torch. Caro gives Russell a rather lengthy biographical aside, fleshing him out, even though some passages nearly drip with deserved scorn.
There is also a chapter devoted to Minnesota's finest, the liberal lion Hubert Horatio Humphrey, whom Senator Paul Douglas called “the orator of the dawn.” Oddly, though Humphrey is given a big rollout, we don't really learn a lot about him, and though he hovers in the background, despite adding many pages to an already-hefty tome. When I first read this (before book four was released), I assumed that Johnson’s eventual vice-president would receive a lot more print. Of course, in the intervening years, Caro’s proposed-four volume project got extended to five, so we are still waiting to here from Humphrey again.
It’s almost a waste of space to mention it, but a lot is packed into this mammoth book, beyond the initial history of the U.S. Senate (alone worth the price of admission): Humphrey's 1948 convention speech; Johnson's sub-committee work during the Korean War; Johnson's maneuvering to become a powerful Majority Leader; the Senate investigation into the removal of Douglas MacArthur (where, to give Senator Russell his due, he stood up for the civilian-military divide that is spelled out in the U.S. Constitution); the communist witch hunts of Joe McCarthy; Johnson's near-fatal heart attack; and much more.
The great event, though, the singular event around which all other events orbited – the aptly named Great Cause – was the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Bill. To be sure, the 1957 Civil Rights Bill was weak and near meaningless. Indeed, Johnson was assailed at the time for helping to gut it. Yet it was the first civil rights bill passed in the Senate since 1875; all other attempts had been filibustered by the South. Caro goes into incredible, at times excruciating detail, as to how Johnson solved this Gordian knot. There is no way to summarize the labyrinthine maneuvers required to get even a weak civil rights bill through the Senate, yet Caro manages to make the Byzantine rules of the Senate understandable. Whatever else you think about Johnson’s motivations or the effectiveness of the bill, getting something passed, anything passed, was a huge victory. The world, unfortunately, can seldom be changed all at once. Most often, it has to be forced along, inch by inch.
Master of the Senate’s sharp focus on the Senate years means that you lose out a lot on Johnson's personal life. If you’re worried that Caro has gone totally soft on Johnson, don’t worry, he still spends sufficient time dwelling on his affair with Helen Gahagan Douglas.
Upon initially completing Master of the Senate, I ranked it as my second favorite of the three books, with Path to Power being first. Having recently reread this, in light of the fourth volume being released, and the fifth volume nearing (hopefully) completion, I have wholly reconsidered that initial reaction.
Not only is Master of the Senate the crowning glory of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, it is one of the best single history books I have ever read. It is enormously ambitious, at times enormously challenging, but it is – at the end – enormously satisfying, an achievement of unbelievable magnitude that will anger you, frustrate you, and move you.
- Robert Caro, The Master of the Senate
It is no secret that the history of the United States of America is a checkered past indeed. Along with notions of representative government instead of heaven-sent monarchs, of economic mobility rather than feudalism, of freedom of thought and voice and movement, there was race-based slavery, systematized inequalities, and the use of military power as a coercive force. From the beginning, there has been a war between ideals and reality, between what America is and what it might become.
As Robert Caro points out in the first chapter of his magisterial Master of the Senate, the United States Senate played a large role in this battle for a nation’s soul. According to an apocryphal story, George Washington once compared the Senate to a “saucer” meant to cool coffee before drinking, slowing down legislation that might otherwise be rushed. To Caro, however, the Senate is a “dam,” where a minority of Senators representing a minority of the country can maintain the status quo for decades.
Master of the Senate is the third volume in Caro’s huge (and thus far ongoing) multivolume biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Yet as he has done in previous volumes, Caro is not just interested in the man, but his times as well. In earlier volumes, Caro devoted a great deal of space to men such as Sam Rayburn (Path to Power and Coke Stevenson (Means of Ascent), who played outsized parts in Johnson’s career arc. In the manner of a great novelist, Caro presented these men – sometimes at the cost of strict historical fidelity – in contrast to Johnson, who he often finds lacking in ethical scruples.
In this book, finally, Caro starts to soften on Johnson. This is the moment when the man who ruthlessly sought about acquiring power began to use it, and to use it for righteousness and good. Up until this point, Caro has shown mostly disdain for Johnson. Now, he begins the process of anointing him the greatest champion of civil rights to ever hold high office, further ranking him alongside Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King as the most effective civil rights leaders in history.
To do this, Caro finds a non-human antagonist for Johnson to battle against: the Senate itself.
After introducing the Senate in a fifty-page chapter, Caro embarks upon the most beautifully and brilliantly written lawyer’s brief you can imagine. For while this is an immersive portrait of a man, it is also an argument meant to prove Caro’s thesis. In doing so, there is a lot of rehashing of previously-told events. Besides inflating the page count (1,040 pages of text), there is a lot of repetition for those who have read the prior two entries in the series.
Despite the sensation of being hit over the head with certain points, I found Caro’s technique rather effective. Like a lawyer or high school writing instructor, he tells you what he’s going to say, he says it, and then he reminds you what you’ve just been told. While a tad pedantic, it certainly sticks in your memory. More than that, Caro has created a book that can stand all on its own. You do not need to have read the first two doorstoppers to enjoy this one.
Like his other Johnson books, Caro spends a lot of time fleshing out the peripheral characters, though oddly enough, Lady Bird and Johnson's children are seldom mentioned. The “heavy” in Master of the Senate is one of the country’s unknown villains: Richard Brevard Russell, “a Russell of the Russells of Georgia.” Every bit the “southern gentleman,” Russell was smart, savvy, and an avowed segregationist whose patrician nature made him even more dangerous than a snarling racist with a tiki torch. Caro gives Russell a rather lengthy biographical aside, fleshing him out, even though some passages nearly drip with deserved scorn.
There is also a chapter devoted to Minnesota's finest, the liberal lion Hubert Horatio Humphrey, whom Senator Paul Douglas called “the orator of the dawn.” Oddly, though Humphrey is given a big rollout, we don't really learn a lot about him, and though he hovers in the background, despite adding many pages to an already-hefty tome. When I first read this (before book four was released), I assumed that Johnson’s eventual vice-president would receive a lot more print. Of course, in the intervening years, Caro’s proposed-four volume project got extended to five, so we are still waiting to here from Humphrey again.
It’s almost a waste of space to mention it, but a lot is packed into this mammoth book, beyond the initial history of the U.S. Senate (alone worth the price of admission): Humphrey's 1948 convention speech; Johnson's sub-committee work during the Korean War; Johnson's maneuvering to become a powerful Majority Leader; the Senate investigation into the removal of Douglas MacArthur (where, to give Senator Russell his due, he stood up for the civilian-military divide that is spelled out in the U.S. Constitution); the communist witch hunts of Joe McCarthy; Johnson's near-fatal heart attack; and much more.
The great event, though, the singular event around which all other events orbited – the aptly named Great Cause – was the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Bill. To be sure, the 1957 Civil Rights Bill was weak and near meaningless. Indeed, Johnson was assailed at the time for helping to gut it. Yet it was the first civil rights bill passed in the Senate since 1875; all other attempts had been filibustered by the South. Caro goes into incredible, at times excruciating detail, as to how Johnson solved this Gordian knot. There is no way to summarize the labyrinthine maneuvers required to get even a weak civil rights bill through the Senate, yet Caro manages to make the Byzantine rules of the Senate understandable. Whatever else you think about Johnson’s motivations or the effectiveness of the bill, getting something passed, anything passed, was a huge victory. The world, unfortunately, can seldom be changed all at once. Most often, it has to be forced along, inch by inch.
Master of the Senate’s sharp focus on the Senate years means that you lose out a lot on Johnson's personal life. If you’re worried that Caro has gone totally soft on Johnson, don’t worry, he still spends sufficient time dwelling on his affair with Helen Gahagan Douglas.
Upon initially completing Master of the Senate, I ranked it as my second favorite of the three books, with Path to Power being first. Having recently reread this, in light of the fourth volume being released, and the fifth volume nearing (hopefully) completion, I have wholly reconsidered that initial reaction.
Not only is Master of the Senate the crowning glory of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, it is one of the best single history books I have ever read. It is enormously ambitious, at times enormously challenging, but it is – at the end – enormously satisfying, an achievement of unbelievable magnitude that will anger you, frustrate you, and move you.
July 23, 2019
This is a long book. Caro provides extended passages of background about a quarter of the book on the history of the Senate, from the great days of Webster, Clay and Calhoun to current times. He also went into detail about the architecture and seats in the Senate both before and after the War of 1812. Approximately half of the book covers in detail the epic battle over the 1957 Civil Rights Bill. Johnson’s magic is the main subject of the book: how he made things happen in the U.S. Senate. Johnson’s wheeling, threatening, stroking large egos, explaining why his goal was essential for the Country‘s good, he ran an institution that had never before been run by anyone.
“Master of the Senate” is the third volume of Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson. I seem to be reading this series backwards as I started with Volume four. Caro presents a Johnson that is well rounded. We get to see him with all his warts and all, but also are given admiring recognition of all his accomplishments. Race was the great test for Johnson and the country during his years as Senate Majority leader 1955-61. Caro reveals the obstructed federal action on the cruel mistreatment of blacks in the South; no civil rights legislation had been enacted since 1875, at the end of the Reconstruction.
For years after Johnson entered the Senate in 1949, he mostly voted with the Southerners. He chose as his mentor senator Richard Russell of Georgia, one of the most powerful men in the Senate. Johnson’s friend Philip Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, kept telling Johnson he had to do something for civil rights. In 1957 President Eisenhower proposed Civil Rights Legislation. It appeared impossible to pass the legislation, but Johnson made it happen. Caro’s description of how he did it is masterly. His strategy was to persuade the Southerners that is was in their best interest to let something labeled civil rights go through. The Eisenhower bill was focused on the right to vote, which the South denied the blacks by force and trickery. Johnson weakened the bill but if he didn’t it would not pass. Johnson thought of it as a beginning as opening to further more meaningful legislation.
Caro shows how Johnson learned the rules of the Senate and then used them. He then learned about the men in the Senate, their vanities, frailties and their weakness. He then sold himself to each as their friend, political adviser, their sounding board their Mr.-Fix-it. He also found a way to bridge the chasm between the Southern Democrats and the Northern liberals. The author goes into detail about the Olds Hearing. I will never again watch a Senate hearing without remembering what Johnson did to this man. Olds was up for re-confirmation of the Utilities commission and Johnson destroyed the man accusing him of being a communist just so he could obtain the favor and backing of the Texas gas and oil companies. Johnson organized a sneak attack and controlled the whole hearing so the man could not have the opportunity to refute the charges.
Caro concludes that with the single exception of Lincoln, Johnson was the greatest white champion of blacks in American History. Grover Gardner does an excellent job narrating the book.
“Master of the Senate” is the third volume of Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson. I seem to be reading this series backwards as I started with Volume four. Caro presents a Johnson that is well rounded. We get to see him with all his warts and all, but also are given admiring recognition of all his accomplishments. Race was the great test for Johnson and the country during his years as Senate Majority leader 1955-61. Caro reveals the obstructed federal action on the cruel mistreatment of blacks in the South; no civil rights legislation had been enacted since 1875, at the end of the Reconstruction.
For years after Johnson entered the Senate in 1949, he mostly voted with the Southerners. He chose as his mentor senator Richard Russell of Georgia, one of the most powerful men in the Senate. Johnson’s friend Philip Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, kept telling Johnson he had to do something for civil rights. In 1957 President Eisenhower proposed Civil Rights Legislation. It appeared impossible to pass the legislation, but Johnson made it happen. Caro’s description of how he did it is masterly. His strategy was to persuade the Southerners that is was in their best interest to let something labeled civil rights go through. The Eisenhower bill was focused on the right to vote, which the South denied the blacks by force and trickery. Johnson weakened the bill but if he didn’t it would not pass. Johnson thought of it as a beginning as opening to further more meaningful legislation.
Caro shows how Johnson learned the rules of the Senate and then used them. He then learned about the men in the Senate, their vanities, frailties and their weakness. He then sold himself to each as their friend, political adviser, their sounding board their Mr.-Fix-it. He also found a way to bridge the chasm between the Southern Democrats and the Northern liberals. The author goes into detail about the Olds Hearing. I will never again watch a Senate hearing without remembering what Johnson did to this man. Olds was up for re-confirmation of the Utilities commission and Johnson destroyed the man accusing him of being a communist just so he could obtain the favor and backing of the Texas gas and oil companies. Johnson organized a sneak attack and controlled the whole hearing so the man could not have the opportunity to refute the charges.
Caro concludes that with the single exception of Lincoln, Johnson was the greatest white champion of blacks in American History. Grover Gardner does an excellent job narrating the book.
December 8, 2017
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will”
― Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate
The first thing one must discuss when talking about this book is its size. Its umpf. Its heft. It doesn't come to you, you go to it. Weighing in at almost 2lbs, this book is 3x the size of premature babies that survive now. It is a beast: 1167 pages including notes and index. But man, there was a gem on every page. And not just a historical detail, but Caro's prose makes this book easier consume than a ice tea on a hot August day. Every book I finish in this series, makes me even more certain that this may be one of the greatest biographies of the last 100 years.
Master of the Senate, is the third book in Caro's (eventually there should be five volumes; four have been published so far about 1 per decade) 'Years of Lyndon Johnson', and focuses primarily on Johnson's tenure in the Senate. The book examines, in detail, LBJ's RISE to power in the Senate, his revolutionary GENIUS in extracting new powers, and his USE of those powers both to aid his quest for the White House and in passing the 1957 Civil Rights law.
One can think of this book as almost three distinct works. There is so much to think about with just THIS volume, it helps to break it into smaller bites:
PARTS I&II (Pgs 1 - 350) -
The first 1/3 examines the history of the Senate and the rise of the seniority system and the South's dominance in the Senate leadership. It examines LBJ's entrance into the Senate and his struggles to fit in and find his place. It then examines Richard Russell (the guy they named the Russell Senate building after) and his family's history and his history and rise to power in the US Senate. Why? Because Senator Russell was to become the key to LBJ's success in the Senate. The first 1/3 of the book examines how LBJ used many of the same techniques to develop a relationship with Russell that in his House years he used with Sam Rayburn (LBJ had a way with older men with power: Rayburn, Russell, LBJ). The first 1/3 ends with LBJ destroying the career and reputation of Leland Olds when he was re-appointed to head the FPC (Federal Power Commission) in 1949. In doing so, LBJ was able to gain some more cred with Texas' oil industry and with his Southern fellow senators. The last bit of the first section also details Johnson's use of his "Preparedness Investigating" subcommittee (similar to the one used by Truman during WWII) in order to raise his name recognition during the beginning of the Korean War. Caro contrasts the way that LBJ ran the committee with the way that Truman ran his.
PARTS III&IV (Pgs 351 - 682) -
The second 1/3 examines the role of the Senate Majority leader and how past senators who controlled the gavel failed to control the US Senate. Part of the issue was most of the power in the Senate was controlled by committee chairmen and those seats were based on seniority. Caro describes how the Senate fit LBJ and how he quickly adapted to the Senate's formalities and unique customs. And he watched. He gathered information on senators, their needs, wants and weaknesses. He also maintained access to Texas oil, which meant he had access to money. Before LBJ, the Senate Majority leader job was considered a "nothing job". It didn't give you power, and it created huge risks. But that was before LBJ. LBJ discovered that knowledge and coordination is power. This section also develops a chapter about Senator Humphrey. Humphrey's relationship with Johnson is important because he is an interesting contrast to Johnson AND because their friendship and relationship is important to both later. So LBJ, through his relationship with Russell gets named as the youngest Majority Leader. Using his unique skills, his work-ethic, his ability to understand people's needs and weaknesses Johnson starts to consolidate power. He begins to use power. Johnson also understand that with a weak Republican party, and a pragmatic president, the Democrats can gain power by helping President Eisenhower to accomplish many of his goals. This period also involved dealing with Senator McCarthy. Not directly, Johnson NEVER moves early. But he patiently waited, perhaps too long, to do anything. As Johnson gains more power, his quietness fades and the old lapel-grabbing, power using Johnson returns. You don't cross Senator Johnson now. If you do, you won't get the committee assignment you want, or your bill won't be heard, or you will be shunned. With his exercise of power Johnson starts to make the Senate work. The senate, a place where bills went to die, now begins to operate. With Johnson at the controls, things begin to get done. Johnson's name starts to rise.
PARTS V-VI (Pgs 683-1040) -
[will finish Friday]
― Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate
The first thing one must discuss when talking about this book is its size. Its umpf. Its heft. It doesn't come to you, you go to it. Weighing in at almost 2lbs, this book is 3x the size of premature babies that survive now. It is a beast: 1167 pages including notes and index. But man, there was a gem on every page. And not just a historical detail, but Caro's prose makes this book easier consume than a ice tea on a hot August day. Every book I finish in this series, makes me even more certain that this may be one of the greatest biographies of the last 100 years.
Master of the Senate, is the third book in Caro's (eventually there should be five volumes; four have been published so far about 1 per decade) 'Years of Lyndon Johnson', and focuses primarily on Johnson's tenure in the Senate. The book examines, in detail, LBJ's RISE to power in the Senate, his revolutionary GENIUS in extracting new powers, and his USE of those powers both to aid his quest for the White House and in passing the 1957 Civil Rights law.
One can think of this book as almost three distinct works. There is so much to think about with just THIS volume, it helps to break it into smaller bites:
PARTS I&II (Pgs 1 - 350) -
The first 1/3 examines the history of the Senate and the rise of the seniority system and the South's dominance in the Senate leadership. It examines LBJ's entrance into the Senate and his struggles to fit in and find his place. It then examines Richard Russell (the guy they named the Russell Senate building after) and his family's history and his history and rise to power in the US Senate. Why? Because Senator Russell was to become the key to LBJ's success in the Senate. The first 1/3 of the book examines how LBJ used many of the same techniques to develop a relationship with Russell that in his House years he used with Sam Rayburn (LBJ had a way with older men with power: Rayburn, Russell, LBJ). The first 1/3 ends with LBJ destroying the career and reputation of Leland Olds when he was re-appointed to head the FPC (Federal Power Commission) in 1949. In doing so, LBJ was able to gain some more cred with Texas' oil industry and with his Southern fellow senators. The last bit of the first section also details Johnson's use of his "Preparedness Investigating" subcommittee (similar to the one used by Truman during WWII) in order to raise his name recognition during the beginning of the Korean War. Caro contrasts the way that LBJ ran the committee with the way that Truman ran his.
PARTS III&IV (Pgs 351 - 682) -
The second 1/3 examines the role of the Senate Majority leader and how past senators who controlled the gavel failed to control the US Senate. Part of the issue was most of the power in the Senate was controlled by committee chairmen and those seats were based on seniority. Caro describes how the Senate fit LBJ and how he quickly adapted to the Senate's formalities and unique customs. And he watched. He gathered information on senators, their needs, wants and weaknesses. He also maintained access to Texas oil, which meant he had access to money. Before LBJ, the Senate Majority leader job was considered a "nothing job". It didn't give you power, and it created huge risks. But that was before LBJ. LBJ discovered that knowledge and coordination is power. This section also develops a chapter about Senator Humphrey. Humphrey's relationship with Johnson is important because he is an interesting contrast to Johnson AND because their friendship and relationship is important to both later. So LBJ, through his relationship with Russell gets named as the youngest Majority Leader. Using his unique skills, his work-ethic, his ability to understand people's needs and weaknesses Johnson starts to consolidate power. He begins to use power. Johnson also understand that with a weak Republican party, and a pragmatic president, the Democrats can gain power by helping President Eisenhower to accomplish many of his goals. This period also involved dealing with Senator McCarthy. Not directly, Johnson NEVER moves early. But he patiently waited, perhaps too long, to do anything. As Johnson gains more power, his quietness fades and the old lapel-grabbing, power using Johnson returns. You don't cross Senator Johnson now. If you do, you won't get the committee assignment you want, or your bill won't be heard, or you will be shunned. With his exercise of power Johnson starts to make the Senate work. The senate, a place where bills went to die, now begins to operate. With Johnson at the controls, things begin to get done. Johnson's name starts to rise.
PARTS V-VI (Pgs 683-1040) -
[will finish Friday]
May 8, 2021
Caro makes history as compelling as fiction. LBJ is a great subject and he takes his time through 5 volumes. This is volume 3 and there is a lot to be learned about using the Senate rules and cloakroom as effectively as Johnson was able to do.
Pros: Great details; LBJ's faults and virtues are all on display; a critical period in U.S. history is well documented
Cons: Lady Bird, John Connelly and Bill Moyers all refused to talk to Caro as he wrote this volume. They are the keepers of much truth and their absence is significant. Were they reluctant to talk or just reluctant to trust Caro?
Pros: Great details; LBJ's faults and virtues are all on display; a critical period in U.S. history is well documented
Cons: Lady Bird, John Connelly and Bill Moyers all refused to talk to Caro as he wrote this volume. They are the keepers of much truth and their absence is significant. Were they reluctant to talk or just reluctant to trust Caro?
August 4, 2017
Best book of the series, and best book about American history that I think I've read. Now we are getting to the drama and corruption at an interesting scale - the US Senate. And the portrait we have of Johnson is fascinating.
Lyndon Johnson was just simply power hungry. He had no principles of note, no things he was on a mission to do - except to hold as much power as he could. But he was brilliant at reading people, knowing what they wanted, and finding ways to horse-trade in his huge and growing network - and help them get it. A genius at being a politician. But lacking principles - I hope there are politicians that can do both.
But this is not just a book about LBJ and his time in the senate - it is a history of the senate, and of 1960's America. I didn't appreciate the power the Senate has in US politics - small numbers of senators can block legislation for a long time. The book hints that WWII can be blamed on the senate - because the president wanted to act against Hitler much earlier but the senate didn't let him - a crazy allegation if true. And the filibusters! I didn't appreciate what those really were and how powerful they were. It was also very impressive reading how quickly LBJ took over leadership of the Senate - most senators had to wait until they were old to have the seniority to do much - LBJ within two years of being a senator had become elected leader and then did away with the seniority rule - both unprecedented changes.
And of course, much of the book is about the fact that the southern senators collaborated to prevent any civil rights legislation for 100 years. It was well into the 20th century before African Americans got the right to vote, and we removed segregation - and this delay is all due to the senate.
LBJ is known for being the president who passed civil rights - but the story of how he was a "southern senator" (from Texas) who had the southern senators as his base, but had to pass civil rights bills through the senate in order to make the liberals believe he was on their side so he could have a presidential bid - was fascinating. He did it not caring a single bit about the actual cause - it was simply the only path to be president, as the country had hit a point where the northerners were no longer going to let segregation go on, and the southerners were only going to give it up over their dead bodies. LBJ worked both sides, found compromises, made each side believe he was really on their side, and got the first ever civil rights bill of the 1900's passed to give African Americans the right to vote.
Lyndon Johnson was just simply power hungry. He had no principles of note, no things he was on a mission to do - except to hold as much power as he could. But he was brilliant at reading people, knowing what they wanted, and finding ways to horse-trade in his huge and growing network - and help them get it. A genius at being a politician. But lacking principles - I hope there are politicians that can do both.
But this is not just a book about LBJ and his time in the senate - it is a history of the senate, and of 1960's America. I didn't appreciate the power the Senate has in US politics - small numbers of senators can block legislation for a long time. The book hints that WWII can be blamed on the senate - because the president wanted to act against Hitler much earlier but the senate didn't let him - a crazy allegation if true. And the filibusters! I didn't appreciate what those really were and how powerful they were. It was also very impressive reading how quickly LBJ took over leadership of the Senate - most senators had to wait until they were old to have the seniority to do much - LBJ within two years of being a senator had become elected leader and then did away with the seniority rule - both unprecedented changes.
And of course, much of the book is about the fact that the southern senators collaborated to prevent any civil rights legislation for 100 years. It was well into the 20th century before African Americans got the right to vote, and we removed segregation - and this delay is all due to the senate.
LBJ is known for being the president who passed civil rights - but the story of how he was a "southern senator" (from Texas) who had the southern senators as his base, but had to pass civil rights bills through the senate in order to make the liberals believe he was on their side so he could have a presidential bid - was fascinating. He did it not caring a single bit about the actual cause - it was simply the only path to be president, as the country had hit a point where the northerners were no longer going to let segregation go on, and the southerners were only going to give it up over their dead bodies. LBJ worked both sides, found compromises, made each side believe he was really on their side, and got the first ever civil rights bill of the 1900's passed to give African Americans the right to vote.
July 11, 2023
In hopes of trying to stir up the vibes for Robert A. Caro to complete this multi-volume biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, I chose to begin a re-read of those tomes already published. Let’s see if it works!
Robert A. Caro is brilliant, both as a writer and a political historian. In this third volume of the massive biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, Caro takes us into some of the most powerful and complicated times in LBJ’s political years; his time as a senator.This was an exciting period, which culminated in his selection as Democratic Leader in the Senate, spending some key time in the majority of the legislative body. There is a thorough examination of LBJ’s time in the Senate, as he continues to thirst for power. There is a notable push when it comes to early Civil Rights, putting Johnson in the middle of things as he holds onto his southern roots but explores a national push to be a presidential contender. Caro uses this, the longest tome in the series to date, to explore many issues and provides the reader with context ahead of some of America’s more harried years when it comes to Civil Rights, which includes the perennial issue of inclusive voting.
After LBJ’s failed attempt to win a seat in the Senate back in 1941, many thought that he would lose interest and retreat into himself. This was a wake-up call for him to hone his skills and set his sights on the next chance. When that time came in 1948, LBJ leapt at the chance and, through some scheming that emerged in-depth throughout the second book in the series, Johnson was able to eke out a tiny victory in the Democratic primary before winning a seat in the US Senate that November. America was in an interesting place, post-war and on the verge of the Cold War, with Harry Truman in the White House.
Caro explores how LBJ found himself in the middle of many chance encounters as a new senator, trying to learn the importance of the institution. Johnson turned to some of the greats in Senate lore to help him, specifically Richard Russell (D, GA) who was the General of the Democratic south. LBJ had to find his niche in the Upper House as he tried to identify with the Southern Democrats and broker power amongst senators on both sides of the aisle. While the late 1940s and most of the 1950s are truly embarrassing times for progressive legislators in the United States, the issue of civil rights came up numerous times. Caro goes into great detail explaining WHY and HOW the South blocked any possibility of passage of legislation, even when the US Supreme Court’s rulings all but demanded it. Caro shows how LBJ does earn the moniker used as the title for this book, THE MASTER OF THE SENATE, in order to get something passed on civil rights, while appeasing the South enough that they did not block its passage. As the Majority Leader began examining a bid for the White House, he knew that he had to straddle many camps to earn support from all necessary corners.
Caro uses a great deal of information garnered from interviews, press clippings, and congressional records. That said, he brings the stories to life so that it appears to be less of a weighty biography and more a detailed work of fiction. There were times I had to remind myself that this was completely true and the details are hardened facts. Caro’s use of dialogue, narrative detail, and a strong description of characters/players on the scene takes the book out of its biographical genre and places it amongst some of the greatest books I have ever read. While referring to events in past volumes, Caro can still take an abbreviated spin on things and do so from a slightly different angle, so the reader need not skip over the passages, worried about having already delved into the issue.
The utter length of this book (and all three volumes in the series up to now) may scare away the average reader. However, with a passion to learn and an interest in politics, the pages seem to fly by as the story/history progresses. Daunting as it may be, Caro can sure tell a story and it is one well worth the reader’s time.
Kudos does not suffice in this instance, as Caro creates such a masterful piece of work. I am thoroughly looking forward to the fourth volume, where Caro examines the 1960 Presidential campaign and the behind-the-scenes politics that has to offer. This book comes highly recommended to history buffs, but I would recommending starting on page 1 of the first volume, for the best BANG!
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
Robert A. Caro is brilliant, both as a writer and a political historian. In this third volume of the massive biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, Caro takes us into some of the most powerful and complicated times in LBJ’s political years; his time as a senator.This was an exciting period, which culminated in his selection as Democratic Leader in the Senate, spending some key time in the majority of the legislative body. There is a thorough examination of LBJ’s time in the Senate, as he continues to thirst for power. There is a notable push when it comes to early Civil Rights, putting Johnson in the middle of things as he holds onto his southern roots but explores a national push to be a presidential contender. Caro uses this, the longest tome in the series to date, to explore many issues and provides the reader with context ahead of some of America’s more harried years when it comes to Civil Rights, which includes the perennial issue of inclusive voting.
After LBJ’s failed attempt to win a seat in the Senate back in 1941, many thought that he would lose interest and retreat into himself. This was a wake-up call for him to hone his skills and set his sights on the next chance. When that time came in 1948, LBJ leapt at the chance and, through some scheming that emerged in-depth throughout the second book in the series, Johnson was able to eke out a tiny victory in the Democratic primary before winning a seat in the US Senate that November. America was in an interesting place, post-war and on the verge of the Cold War, with Harry Truman in the White House.
Caro explores how LBJ found himself in the middle of many chance encounters as a new senator, trying to learn the importance of the institution. Johnson turned to some of the greats in Senate lore to help him, specifically Richard Russell (D, GA) who was the General of the Democratic south. LBJ had to find his niche in the Upper House as he tried to identify with the Southern Democrats and broker power amongst senators on both sides of the aisle. While the late 1940s and most of the 1950s are truly embarrassing times for progressive legislators in the United States, the issue of civil rights came up numerous times. Caro goes into great detail explaining WHY and HOW the South blocked any possibility of passage of legislation, even when the US Supreme Court’s rulings all but demanded it. Caro shows how LBJ does earn the moniker used as the title for this book, THE MASTER OF THE SENATE, in order to get something passed on civil rights, while appeasing the South enough that they did not block its passage. As the Majority Leader began examining a bid for the White House, he knew that he had to straddle many camps to earn support from all necessary corners.
Caro uses a great deal of information garnered from interviews, press clippings, and congressional records. That said, he brings the stories to life so that it appears to be less of a weighty biography and more a detailed work of fiction. There were times I had to remind myself that this was completely true and the details are hardened facts. Caro’s use of dialogue, narrative detail, and a strong description of characters/players on the scene takes the book out of its biographical genre and places it amongst some of the greatest books I have ever read. While referring to events in past volumes, Caro can still take an abbreviated spin on things and do so from a slightly different angle, so the reader need not skip over the passages, worried about having already delved into the issue.
The utter length of this book (and all three volumes in the series up to now) may scare away the average reader. However, with a passion to learn and an interest in politics, the pages seem to fly by as the story/history progresses. Daunting as it may be, Caro can sure tell a story and it is one well worth the reader’s time.
Kudos does not suffice in this instance, as Caro creates such a masterful piece of work. I am thoroughly looking forward to the fourth volume, where Caro examines the 1960 Presidential campaign and the behind-the-scenes politics that has to offer. This book comes highly recommended to history buffs, but I would recommending starting on page 1 of the first volume, for the best BANG!
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
May 11, 2024
This was another addition to Robert Caro's award-winning series on Lyndon Baines Johnson. This third volume covered his time as US Senator to Vice President, spanning twelve years of monumentous leadership from 1948 to 1960. LBJ's climb through calculated moves led to his Majority Leader in the Senate.
But although during the final three years of his Senate career, Lyndon Johnson's power over the Senate was as great as ever, the legislative achievements of this last stage of his Senate career were in many ways no more than a reprise of his early years in the Senate. pg 1020Eventually he was chosen as the Vice President nomination by the Democratic Party and was elected alongside JFK. But Caro wrote how LBJ was put into a position that was not meant for him: transitioning from a legislative leader to the executive branch of government.
During his early weeks as Vice President, when he was presiding over the Senate while a Senator was delivering a lengthy speech, he would walk over to one of the few senators on the floor and begin to chat. The senators he approached were always courteous to him, but often they had to break off the conversation. They had other things to do. When he had had power, they had been anxious to talk to him, eager for a few minutes of his time. They weren't anxious now. After a while, he stopped coming...Overall this was a great read. Caro again wrote a detailed yet not boring narrative like the previous volumes. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in LBJ and American politics of the 20th century.
...for eight years he had been the center of attention. When he came in now, several senators were there, sitting in the armchairs. He said hello to them. They said hello to him. He stood there for several minutes, apparently waiting for someone to stand up or talk to him, or to invite him to sit down. No one did... pg 1040
December 15, 2017
This is probably the single best book of history I have ever read. Period
October 29, 2014
Like the second, the third volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson progresses from a slow start to a riveting finish. In the first 100 pages Caro recounts the exercise of power in the Senate from its inception to the time Lyndon Johnson entered in 1948. At that time, the firmly entrenched seniority system vested unmitigated power in the committee chairmen who were old, conservative and southern. This instructive history lesson gives us the context we need to assess Johnson’s significant accomplishments to follow.
Johnson as a freshman senator quickly sizes up the situation, lays out his plan and executes it with precision in spite of seemingly overwhelming obstacles. He uses his magic with older men, sucking up to the existing Senate leaders, Richard Russell most prominently, winning their trust and support. He brings national attention to himself taking control of a minor subcommittee and blowing out of all proportion its minor findings. He ascends to power as he has in the past, by taking a thankless job, in this case assistant leader or whip, and transforming it into one of importance.
Along the way he pleases his Texas financial backers by lambasting a hapless Leander Olds as a communist. As chairman of the Federal Power Commission, Olds tightly regulated oil and gas prices. Johnson took him out ensuring continued generous financial support from Texas oilmen. As a telling example of LBJ’s ethics, after completely destroying Olds in front of the nation, he walked up to him after the hearing to shake his hand saying he didn’t mean anything personal, it was just politics and he hoped they were still friends. Even though Johnson didn’t really believe or probably even care whether Olds was a communist, neither did he believe that he had done anything wrong in ruining him.
Much of volume three documents the slipping and sliding Johnson does between liberals and conservatives first as whip and then as majority leader. He always bends just enough to keep each side in his debt yet never goes so far as to alienate the other. He is the Senate dance master. And he gets things done, settling issues without extended fights. Bills get passed as conflicts are resolved in a way we could never envision in today’s Congress. In the Johnson style, each step of the way he accumulates power as he rewards those who help and ostracizes those who don’t. You are either a member of his team or forget ever getting anything for yourself or your constituents. Who else could have the support at the same time of both Hubert Humphrey and Richard Russell?
Civil Rights was an issue Johnson had decided not to take on, letting the Southern Democrats empowered by the filibuster prevent any serious effort at a bill. Two things changed that. First was the nationwide clamor for action that developed in the wake of the Emmett Till murder case and the Montgomery busing segregation chaos with widespread violence and bombings. Buttressed by TV images and widespread popular magazine coverage, Civil Rights would no longer be dispatched to the background. Second was Johnson’s presidential bid debacle at the 1956 Democratic convention. His delusions of grandeur shattered, he realized his perception by the nation as a sectional leader of the now even further diminished South stood in the way of his presidential ambitions.
The Civil Rights bill of 1957, a weak attempt at protecting minority voting rights, was LBJ’s answer to his dilemma. In describing how this bill was engineered and became law Caro is at his best. Despite the bill’s shortcomings it took unbelievable dedication and skill to get it passed. Caro encapsulates clearly why Johnson was truly the “Master of the Senate”. Regardless of what one thinks of the final bill or Johnson’s character, one has to recognize a remarkable individual who better than anybody understood how to gain and use power. Having read the first two volumes serves the reader well here. They show how everything in Johnson’s life culminated in the person that could accomplish the extraordinary. It is almost impossible to imagine anyone else getting this legislation passed.
I am left with a fundamental question. Today’s Congress is hopelessly deadlocked. This is normal. As Caro’s history lesson of the Senate illustrates so well, only under unusual circumstances (civil war, depression) did the Senate get anything done, except of course what financial interests paid for. Could Lyndon Johnson control the Senate today? Would we want him too? Is self-aggrandizement, deceit, intimidation and the rawest of power politics necessary for progress? Is it worth it?
Johnson as a freshman senator quickly sizes up the situation, lays out his plan and executes it with precision in spite of seemingly overwhelming obstacles. He uses his magic with older men, sucking up to the existing Senate leaders, Richard Russell most prominently, winning their trust and support. He brings national attention to himself taking control of a minor subcommittee and blowing out of all proportion its minor findings. He ascends to power as he has in the past, by taking a thankless job, in this case assistant leader or whip, and transforming it into one of importance.
Along the way he pleases his Texas financial backers by lambasting a hapless Leander Olds as a communist. As chairman of the Federal Power Commission, Olds tightly regulated oil and gas prices. Johnson took him out ensuring continued generous financial support from Texas oilmen. As a telling example of LBJ’s ethics, after completely destroying Olds in front of the nation, he walked up to him after the hearing to shake his hand saying he didn’t mean anything personal, it was just politics and he hoped they were still friends. Even though Johnson didn’t really believe or probably even care whether Olds was a communist, neither did he believe that he had done anything wrong in ruining him.
Much of volume three documents the slipping and sliding Johnson does between liberals and conservatives first as whip and then as majority leader. He always bends just enough to keep each side in his debt yet never goes so far as to alienate the other. He is the Senate dance master. And he gets things done, settling issues without extended fights. Bills get passed as conflicts are resolved in a way we could never envision in today’s Congress. In the Johnson style, each step of the way he accumulates power as he rewards those who help and ostracizes those who don’t. You are either a member of his team or forget ever getting anything for yourself or your constituents. Who else could have the support at the same time of both Hubert Humphrey and Richard Russell?
Civil Rights was an issue Johnson had decided not to take on, letting the Southern Democrats empowered by the filibuster prevent any serious effort at a bill. Two things changed that. First was the nationwide clamor for action that developed in the wake of the Emmett Till murder case and the Montgomery busing segregation chaos with widespread violence and bombings. Buttressed by TV images and widespread popular magazine coverage, Civil Rights would no longer be dispatched to the background. Second was Johnson’s presidential bid debacle at the 1956 Democratic convention. His delusions of grandeur shattered, he realized his perception by the nation as a sectional leader of the now even further diminished South stood in the way of his presidential ambitions.
The Civil Rights bill of 1957, a weak attempt at protecting minority voting rights, was LBJ’s answer to his dilemma. In describing how this bill was engineered and became law Caro is at his best. Despite the bill’s shortcomings it took unbelievable dedication and skill to get it passed. Caro encapsulates clearly why Johnson was truly the “Master of the Senate”. Regardless of what one thinks of the final bill or Johnson’s character, one has to recognize a remarkable individual who better than anybody understood how to gain and use power. Having read the first two volumes serves the reader well here. They show how everything in Johnson’s life culminated in the person that could accomplish the extraordinary. It is almost impossible to imagine anyone else getting this legislation passed.
I am left with a fundamental question. Today’s Congress is hopelessly deadlocked. This is normal. As Caro’s history lesson of the Senate illustrates so well, only under unusual circumstances (civil war, depression) did the Senate get anything done, except of course what financial interests paid for. Could Lyndon Johnson control the Senate today? Would we want him too? Is self-aggrandizement, deceit, intimidation and the rawest of power politics necessary for progress? Is it worth it?
June 19, 2017
Reread.
Whew! What a relief. Only two more volumes to go.
Whew! What a relief. Only two more volumes to go.
May 30, 2019
‘The Years of Lyndon Johnson *** Master of the Senate’ by Robert A. Caro is a monumental achievement. The book deserves every award it has received. It is an American history book, a biography and a college-level civics text all in one. I found it overwhelming in insider detail and shockingly revealing of the spectrum of human culpability in self-interest as well as the amazing heights human cleverness can reach if housed in an intelligent brain. Caro strips away layers of political cover and media spin to show how the sausage meats of legislation is made (and stalled) in America and who the political butcher-specialists of the Senate were from the 1940’s until the early 1960’s.
Gentle reader, my biggest takeaway from this book is hungry sharks definitely are not the toughest predators on earth. Most people think serial killers are the most dangerous type of people. No. Not. Do not ever get in the way of professional politicians without being cocked and loaded at all times....
‘Master of the Senate’ begins with a short history of the Senate. It’s fascinating! It’s depressing! It’s amazing! These chapters should be required reading in all Civics classes. The customs and rules of the United States Senate are indistinguishable from the most oldest and primitive rituals of ancient religious rites of the past.
Kidding! No, actually, I’m not. Exaggerating, ok. Maybe. The protocols are straight out of the Middle Ages. The Dark Middle Ages. The Senate’s rituals are only treated as if they are holy writ from Mount Horeb written millennia ago.
Lyndon Johnson passed the many arcane tests elder statesmen in Texas and in the United States Congress use to weed out the weak in the dog packs formed of up-and-coming politicians. Cutthroat underhanded tactics reduce competition or serve to whip unruly independents into followers of the party platform. Johnson found the steep learning curve of doing politics a genuine trial by fire and kissing ass as do all freshmen politicians. But he also possessed an inner messianic fire of his own to become President of the United States even before he ever won an election. Coming from poverty humiliated him. The shame of powerlessness and disrespect for his family and place in Texas never left him. Many people are cowed and weighed down by powerlessness. Johnson became focused on becoming the most powerful man in the United States. The story of how Johnson got to own one of the top political jobs - Majority Leader of the Senate - and rewriting the job description along the way from a moribund figurehead to a powerful one of dictatorship - is an incredible story of incredible will and a willingness to throw anyone and everyone under the bus when needed. “Steel magnolias” is not a description only for southern women, but of southern male politicians, particularly those with presidential hopes, particularly Lyndon Johnson - although Johnson only cared to appear civilized for the media and frenemies holding powerful jobs above him.
Meanwhile...
Ugly social issues were disturbing the usually quiescent voters of the United States after World War II and in the 1950’s, like overt systemic legal racism and naked raw capitalist rapine and unadulterated greed of powerful business interests (oil, gas, railroads). The preference of politicians was to keep voters quiet, ignorant, uneducated and distracted while maintaining the status quo of corrupt fundraising and White Male supremacy and personal social climbing. For example, Senate Southerners controlled the Senate through seniority rules. They demanded Jim Crow laws be untouched and maintained in their states. In the Senate, a minority of Senators can stop any proposed legislation dead. They could and did utterly destroy by making powerless any politicians who tried to change the ongoing de facto slavery of Black-Americans. The Southerners, who voted as a united block, whose leaders were committee chairmen in most of the committees because of seniority rules, came from eleven states (out of the fifty which consist of the United States). Later, even into the 1960’s, only eight Southern states were still militantly resisting any changes to their laws of segregation - but they were able to either stop or gut all civil rights legislation in the Senate through procedural rules and outright threats of financial and career destruction. Many Senators from the Midwest and Southern States get most of their financial support from conservative wealthy oligarchs who own media and job-creating businesses. So. It is true how much wealthy oligarchs and organizations utterly own Senators, then, in Lyndon Johnson’s lifetime, and now, whatever an elected legislator’s personal goals and beliefs.
But sometimes a legislator, with political smarts and charisma, with an incredible force of personality, and finally, power, in time, overwhelms the special interests and the reactionary mouthbreather tribes in Congress with breathtaking strategic plots which overturn all norms! For awhile. In Lyndon Johnson’s case - twelve years.
Lyndon Johnson was a f*kcing political genius because he ALWAYS put ambition for power first over principles and beliefs. How he finally got the job of Majority Leader and kept it is eye-opening, and awesomely disgusting as well as impressive. He was a very conservative Democrat. He suppressed what few liberal values he had in order to gain the support of the Southern powerbrokers controlling the Senate and begged on his knees those wealthy men with fat purses to give him money and resources, no matter what. I think he’d have drowned babies in order to gain favors without a qualm in order to get power. But he did feel civil rights legislation should be passed as long as he did not lose control over the Senate, once he became Majority leader. He had to keep his liberal friends while convincing his liberal enemies to work with the Southerners. Frankly, Johnson was a fantastic Majority Leader. However, to be that guy that he was, made of him a horrible human being on several levels. Grudgingly, I can see why he was a hard narcissistic man in Congress (and at home, for the matter). It was a hard job to force Senators with different passions, goals and beliefs from fifty states to compromise and sometimes to do things which meant not getting re-elected. Make no mistake - many of those powerful Southern Senators HATED Black people with every fiber of their being, and they won their elections from a majority of people who felt the same. It wasn’t only about money, power and exploitation. Segregation made living with Black people personally bearable for them. Desegregation was mentally impossible, simply unthinkable for them. Many White Southerners cheered the murders of Black children - no exaggeration. The confounding part was these same hater men were decent, even nice, churchgoing, likeable, lovable, in other, even most, other areas of their lives.
Other case histories of important legislation, such as getting electricity to poor neighborhoods, is also discussed. It is fascinating stuff! Part of why Congress dragged its feet on helping electricity-producing installations being built was rich men wanted to privatize electrical production and gouge the customers for what was assumed would be fantastic profits from those few who would pay - and many members of Congress wanted this as well. The poor would simply live without electricity. Others, liberals of course, wanted to make electrical production into public/government-owned businesses in order to make electricity affordable for the masses.
You know, the usual seesaw of power-seeking soul-destroying selfishness and benighted altruism. Trust me on this, economics, statistics (other than popularity polls) and the economy are the last thing these members have on their todos.
I thought Lyndon Johnson was mostly a good guy before I read this biography, which was my impression of him when I was a teenager, excepting his incomprehensible continuation of the Vietnam War. I don’t know anymore about what I think of him after finishing it. He was without question a Koch Industries supporter, and he was totally 100% behind grabbing oil resources and promoting oil production for his wealthy oilmen friends no matter how extravagantly rich the businesses deals were for his friends or how much his oil buddies gouged the public or despoiled the environment. Also, he held back a lot of progressive and liberal legislation, supposedly because he felt the bills were too disruptive, or damaging to his relationships with conservative Southerners or that passage of a bill into law would stop his hopes for a successful presidential campaign in a few years.
However, I wonder now if ANY nice or fair-minded person, or anyone wanting justice and democratic values at the top of their values list, the number one and two criteria ruling their heart, could do what politicians appear to do. Pragmatism is absolutely the necessary top skill required in politicians’ skill sets if they hope to succeed. It appears legislation can’t be passed without massive compromises, like trading oil-drilling concessions in return for increasing taxes on the rich, if the taxes are collected only on days without an ‘s’ . Cosplay is everyday posturing for these guys - today Superman, tomorrow Magneto, next week the Hulk.
Robert Caro, using intricately researched documentation and in-depth interviews, has been writing a, so far, planned five-book series about the life of Lyndon Johnson. This is the only one I have read of the four completed and published volumes. It is incredibly informative about American politics and how Congress REALLY functions. (Hints: Knowledge of Procedures, Rituals and Power connections is more important than policy or ideals. Hierarchical respect is more important than personal morals. Disobedience or trying to overturn the Senate system means shunning and all loss of power or committee memberships, no access to friends, offices or resources.)
There are “Debts, Sources, Notes and Index” sections, along with photos of Lyndon Johnson, his Senate offices and some of his staff.
Gentle reader, my biggest takeaway from this book is hungry sharks definitely are not the toughest predators on earth. Most people think serial killers are the most dangerous type of people. No. Not. Do not ever get in the way of professional politicians without being cocked and loaded at all times....
‘Master of the Senate’ begins with a short history of the Senate. It’s fascinating! It’s depressing! It’s amazing! These chapters should be required reading in all Civics classes. The customs and rules of the United States Senate are indistinguishable from the most oldest and primitive rituals of ancient religious rites of the past.
Kidding! No, actually, I’m not. Exaggerating, ok. Maybe. The protocols are straight out of the Middle Ages. The Dark Middle Ages. The Senate’s rituals are only treated as if they are holy writ from Mount Horeb written millennia ago.
Lyndon Johnson passed the many arcane tests elder statesmen in Texas and in the United States Congress use to weed out the weak in the dog packs formed of up-and-coming politicians. Cutthroat underhanded tactics reduce competition or serve to whip unruly independents into followers of the party platform. Johnson found the steep learning curve of doing politics a genuine trial by fire and kissing ass as do all freshmen politicians. But he also possessed an inner messianic fire of his own to become President of the United States even before he ever won an election. Coming from poverty humiliated him. The shame of powerlessness and disrespect for his family and place in Texas never left him. Many people are cowed and weighed down by powerlessness. Johnson became focused on becoming the most powerful man in the United States. The story of how Johnson got to own one of the top political jobs - Majority Leader of the Senate - and rewriting the job description along the way from a moribund figurehead to a powerful one of dictatorship - is an incredible story of incredible will and a willingness to throw anyone and everyone under the bus when needed. “Steel magnolias” is not a description only for southern women, but of southern male politicians, particularly those with presidential hopes, particularly Lyndon Johnson - although Johnson only cared to appear civilized for the media and frenemies holding powerful jobs above him.
Meanwhile...
Ugly social issues were disturbing the usually quiescent voters of the United States after World War II and in the 1950’s, like overt systemic legal racism and naked raw capitalist rapine and unadulterated greed of powerful business interests (oil, gas, railroads). The preference of politicians was to keep voters quiet, ignorant, uneducated and distracted while maintaining the status quo of corrupt fundraising and White Male supremacy and personal social climbing. For example, Senate Southerners controlled the Senate through seniority rules. They demanded Jim Crow laws be untouched and maintained in their states. In the Senate, a minority of Senators can stop any proposed legislation dead. They could and did utterly destroy by making powerless any politicians who tried to change the ongoing de facto slavery of Black-Americans. The Southerners, who voted as a united block, whose leaders were committee chairmen in most of the committees because of seniority rules, came from eleven states (out of the fifty which consist of the United States). Later, even into the 1960’s, only eight Southern states were still militantly resisting any changes to their laws of segregation - but they were able to either stop or gut all civil rights legislation in the Senate through procedural rules and outright threats of financial and career destruction. Many Senators from the Midwest and Southern States get most of their financial support from conservative wealthy oligarchs who own media and job-creating businesses. So. It is true how much wealthy oligarchs and organizations utterly own Senators, then, in Lyndon Johnson’s lifetime, and now, whatever an elected legislator’s personal goals and beliefs.
But sometimes a legislator, with political smarts and charisma, with an incredible force of personality, and finally, power, in time, overwhelms the special interests and the reactionary mouthbreather tribes in Congress with breathtaking strategic plots which overturn all norms! For awhile. In Lyndon Johnson’s case - twelve years.
Lyndon Johnson was a f*kcing political genius because he ALWAYS put ambition for power first over principles and beliefs. How he finally got the job of Majority Leader and kept it is eye-opening, and awesomely disgusting as well as impressive. He was a very conservative Democrat. He suppressed what few liberal values he had in order to gain the support of the Southern powerbrokers controlling the Senate and begged on his knees those wealthy men with fat purses to give him money and resources, no matter what. I think he’d have drowned babies in order to gain favors without a qualm in order to get power. But he did feel civil rights legislation should be passed as long as he did not lose control over the Senate, once he became Majority leader. He had to keep his liberal friends while convincing his liberal enemies to work with the Southerners. Frankly, Johnson was a fantastic Majority Leader. However, to be that guy that he was, made of him a horrible human being on several levels. Grudgingly, I can see why he was a hard narcissistic man in Congress (and at home, for the matter). It was a hard job to force Senators with different passions, goals and beliefs from fifty states to compromise and sometimes to do things which meant not getting re-elected. Make no mistake - many of those powerful Southern Senators HATED Black people with every fiber of their being, and they won their elections from a majority of people who felt the same. It wasn’t only about money, power and exploitation. Segregation made living with Black people personally bearable for them. Desegregation was mentally impossible, simply unthinkable for them. Many White Southerners cheered the murders of Black children - no exaggeration. The confounding part was these same hater men were decent, even nice, churchgoing, likeable, lovable, in other, even most, other areas of their lives.
Other case histories of important legislation, such as getting electricity to poor neighborhoods, is also discussed. It is fascinating stuff! Part of why Congress dragged its feet on helping electricity-producing installations being built was rich men wanted to privatize electrical production and gouge the customers for what was assumed would be fantastic profits from those few who would pay - and many members of Congress wanted this as well. The poor would simply live without electricity. Others, liberals of course, wanted to make electrical production into public/government-owned businesses in order to make electricity affordable for the masses.
You know, the usual seesaw of power-seeking soul-destroying selfishness and benighted altruism. Trust me on this, economics, statistics (other than popularity polls) and the economy are the last thing these members have on their todos.
I thought Lyndon Johnson was mostly a good guy before I read this biography, which was my impression of him when I was a teenager, excepting his incomprehensible continuation of the Vietnam War. I don’t know anymore about what I think of him after finishing it. He was without question a Koch Industries supporter, and he was totally 100% behind grabbing oil resources and promoting oil production for his wealthy oilmen friends no matter how extravagantly rich the businesses deals were for his friends or how much his oil buddies gouged the public or despoiled the environment. Also, he held back a lot of progressive and liberal legislation, supposedly because he felt the bills were too disruptive, or damaging to his relationships with conservative Southerners or that passage of a bill into law would stop his hopes for a successful presidential campaign in a few years.
However, I wonder now if ANY nice or fair-minded person, or anyone wanting justice and democratic values at the top of their values list, the number one and two criteria ruling their heart, could do what politicians appear to do. Pragmatism is absolutely the necessary top skill required in politicians’ skill sets if they hope to succeed. It appears legislation can’t be passed without massive compromises, like trading oil-drilling concessions in return for increasing taxes on the rich, if the taxes are collected only on days without an ‘s’ . Cosplay is everyday posturing for these guys - today Superman, tomorrow Magneto, next week the Hulk.
Robert Caro, using intricately researched documentation and in-depth interviews, has been writing a, so far, planned five-book series about the life of Lyndon Johnson. This is the only one I have read of the four completed and published volumes. It is incredibly informative about American politics and how Congress REALLY functions. (Hints: Knowledge of Procedures, Rituals and Power connections is more important than policy or ideals. Hierarchical respect is more important than personal morals. Disobedience or trying to overturn the Senate system means shunning and all loss of power or committee memberships, no access to friends, offices or resources.)
There are “Debts, Sources, Notes and Index” sections, along with photos of Lyndon Johnson, his Senate offices and some of his staff.
February 1, 2021
Caro's Years of Lyndon Johnson books are an education in politics, and Master of the Senate is itself a one-volume master class. Maybe like I once did you might think that there's no way you could get all that interested in Lyndon Johnson, but trust me—Caro will get you interested. I regret having waited so long to read these. They really are worthy of their reputation.
Starting with the history of that august upper chamber, Caro, with his great prose and storytelling power, steps through these formidable Johnson years—his time in the U.S. Senate, rising to the height of his congressional power as that body's Majority Leader, transforming both the position and the institution. The full context and background that Caro gives the reader helps to make the episodes in the Senate more intelligible, less arcane. And Caro, as in his other Johnson books, does such a great job complicating the men and events: guys like Johnson and Russell, Humphrey and Eisenhower, their motivations and actions are not undiluted; there is both good and ill in them. In some cases more ill than good, yes, but Caro understands I think that these people were real people, capable of high and low ends, and that even from shoddy vessels can come great good. From Lyndon Johnson, for all of his cunning and ruthlessness, came not just the will but the power to accomplish what the Humphrey's and other white knights couldn't.
Another lesson I drew from the book is that politicians, for all of their lofty rhetoric and moralizing, are often just full of it. The treatment of Leland Olds is one of the ugliest episodes of the book, and it is motivated, financed, and executed by the love of money and power. We like to think our guys are clean and unsullied by baser considerations, but that's probably less the case than we think, and we'd do well to be more measured, more realistic in forming our personal political opinions and expectations.
Master of the Senate is a long but great book. Both Caro and Johnson rise together here, and it is something to see.
Bonus fact: Southern Senator Richard Russell's hometown of Winder, Georgia, mentioned quite a lot throughout this book, is only ten minutes from where I live.
Starting with the history of that august upper chamber, Caro, with his great prose and storytelling power, steps through these formidable Johnson years—his time in the U.S. Senate, rising to the height of his congressional power as that body's Majority Leader, transforming both the position and the institution. The full context and background that Caro gives the reader helps to make the episodes in the Senate more intelligible, less arcane. And Caro, as in his other Johnson books, does such a great job complicating the men and events: guys like Johnson and Russell, Humphrey and Eisenhower, their motivations and actions are not undiluted; there is both good and ill in them. In some cases more ill than good, yes, but Caro understands I think that these people were real people, capable of high and low ends, and that even from shoddy vessels can come great good. From Lyndon Johnson, for all of his cunning and ruthlessness, came not just the will but the power to accomplish what the Humphrey's and other white knights couldn't.
Another lesson I drew from the book is that politicians, for all of their lofty rhetoric and moralizing, are often just full of it. The treatment of Leland Olds is one of the ugliest episodes of the book, and it is motivated, financed, and executed by the love of money and power. We like to think our guys are clean and unsullied by baser considerations, but that's probably less the case than we think, and we'd do well to be more measured, more realistic in forming our personal political opinions and expectations.
Master of the Senate is a long but great book. Both Caro and Johnson rise together here, and it is something to see.
Bonus fact: Southern Senator Richard Russell's hometown of Winder, Georgia, mentioned quite a lot throughout this book, is only ten minutes from where I live.
October 12, 2007
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 fecklessness of the Republicans and the deep divisions between the conservative (southern & western) democrats and the northeastrern liberal democrats is amazingly informative and insightful. So much of the modern political landscape we are so familiar with today stems from the moments recounted in this book, including the black vote being 90% democrat and the 30+ year republican lock on the (white) southern states.
A great book if you're interested in American politics and the dynamics of power in the federal government. Also, the book is stand alone. You don't have to read the previous two volumes of the Lyndon Johnson series to appreciate it.
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 fecklessness of the Republicans and the deep divisions between the conservative (southern & western) democrats and the northeastrern liberal democrats is amazingly informative and insightful. So much of the modern political landscape we are so familiar with today stems from the moments recounted in this book, including the black vote being 90% democrat and the 30+ year republican lock on the (white) southern states.
A great book if you're interested in American politics and the dynamics of power in the federal government. Also, the book is stand alone. You don't have to read the previous two volumes of the Lyndon Johnson series to appreciate it.
February 22, 2020
Just as Caro began the first volume of Lyndon Johnson's biography telling the entire history of the Texas hill country where he grew up, he sets the stage for Johnson's Senate years by giving a brief, thorough history of the U.S. Senate, starting all the way in the 18th century.
Caro writes long. He does not stint on details. He almost reminds me of a non-fiction version of Stephen King. (If you've ever read a big, bloated Stephen King novel where King suddenly goes off on a chapter-long tangent to give us the life history of some minor character who's about to die in the next scene, you know what I mean.) Except Caro's tangents are not bloat. They're meaningful. Because the heart of this book, volume three of his (so-far) four-volume epicography of LBJ, is all about the Senate battle over the 1957 Civil Rights Act. A bill that most people hardly remember today because it was relatively inconsequential compared to the ones that followed. And yet, it was also enormously consequential, because it made the ones that followed possible. But to understand that, you have to understand why it was so significant, and to understand that, you have to understand esoteric details both about the functioning of the Senate, and the political situation that existed in the U.S. at the time. You have to understand Senate parliamentary procedures, and how Johnson completely transformed the Senate, and all the maneuvering he had to do to get there. You have to understand the multi-factional divisions between liberal Republicans (there was such a thing, back then), pro-civil rights Democrats, and the block of Southern Democrats that effectively ruled the Senate, despite their numerical minority, because of their mastery of Senate proceedings. And you have to understand LBJ - that complicated, magnificent bastard, who never let principles get in the way of ambition, who could be as amoral a politician as any who ever set foot in Washington, who was a bullying, blustering, crooked, double-dealing scoundrel, as cruel as he was ruthless, and yet who deep down, actually possessed a genuine streak of compassion for the poor and the disenfranchised, and whose long-buried convictions every so often, when it was politically convenient, would manifest in feats of political genius that allowed him to do the right thing for the wrong reasons.
The previous volume, Means of Ascent, told the story of Johnson's 1948 campaign for the U.S. Senate. That book, like this one, focused on a relatively obscure (today) political battle and turned it into an epic contest with all its implications detailed. Johnson won that extraordinarily dirty battle with Coke Stevenson (it would probably not be an exaggeration to say he literally stole the election), and came to the Senate as a freshman Senator from Texas. Where he ran headfirst into the Senate's seniority system, and all the ways in which the Senate was dysfunctional. By the end of his time there, Johnson will have changed everything - and as is characteristic of him, he will have done so using ruthless, unscrupulous means, elevating his own interests at the expense of the American people and his own constituents, and yet, by doing so he will also have made it possible to actually get things done that could never have been done before... like passing a civil rights act.
The U.S. Senate
As every American schoolchild knows, the United States Congress is divided into two halves: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congressmen are apportioned according to population, and (re)elected every two years, while every state gets two Senators, elected for six years. While most people know the primary reason for this compromise (larger states wanted proportional representation, smaller states feared being made irrelevant and powerless), there was another reason the Founding Fathers felt a need for a smaller and more stable legislative body. The Senate was to be a firewall against popular sentiment; the Founders feared demagogues and populism. Congressmen might push for whatever was inflaming their constituents at the moment; the Senate was supposed to be a place for lengthy deliberation, where passions could be damped.
And it served this purpose, for better and for worse. Caro traces the history of the Senate from its early days, through the glory years of the "Immortal Trio": John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay, and then through the Civil War.
Having given all this history, Caro is able to explain in detail how Southern Democrats came to dominate the Senate post-Reconstruction. Today, few people pay much attention to the esoteric rules of Senate procedure. I'm not sure if Senators do. But in the early 20th century, these parliamentary procedures were crucial to controlling the flow of Senate legislation. Caro's detailed explanations are far more interesting than you might think, when he actually puts nitpicky terms like "pairing" and "cloture" into context. The rules of Senate proceedings are far more complex and crafty than anyone who hasn't learned them can possibly imagine. And the Southern Democrats, representing the eleven states of the Confederate South, were masters of Senate parliamentary procedure. Over and over again, they balked their Northern rivals, who rarely studied parliamentary procedure in such depth and often had no idea how badly they were being outmaneuvered. Sometimes they were shocked and dismayed to find out that they'd accidentally nerfed their own bills; other times they'd learn they'd given up a vote on a bill by misunderstanding the technical difference between the Senate President "opening" or "resuming" a session. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Southerners were able to ensure that the one thing they absolutely didn't want could never happen: civil rights.
The Senate had also evolved a seniority system which, by Lyndon Johnson's time, had become as rigid and seemingly immutable as the Vatican. Senators were put on committees strictly according to their seniority, not interest or ability or even political leverage, so the only way to become head of a powerful and influential committee was to have been there the longest, and be the party in power. Freshmen Senators were literally expected to barely speak at all during their first term; a newly-elected firebrand who showed up and immediately started giving speeches and introducing bills on the Senate floor would soon find himself shunned and sidelined, politically and socially, by his colleagues.
The result of this, by the middle of the 20th century, was a moribund, static body in which very little was actually accomplished, and there were politicians and pundits seriously proposing that the Senate be abolished as a relic of an earlier age.
Then LBJ came along.
Slowly, gradually, bit by bit, he did what he had always done, even back in his college days. He figured out ways to change the rules. He recognized where real power lay, and positioned himself to grab hold of it. He used the rules, abused them, broke them and twisted them, brokered deals and broke promises, made allies, betrayed them, and over a period of years, remade the Senate in his image.
Leland Olds
One of the early victims of Johnson's scheming was Leland Olds, and Caro takes yet another obscure figure out of American history and gives us his entire biography just to fit him into the LBJ story.
Leland Olds had been appointed by FDR to the Federal Power Commission in 1939. He was a highly principled and religious man who actually believed he had a duty to the American public. He used the FPC to enforce the Natural Gas Act of 1938, which did not go over well with Texas oilmen, who were now investing heavily in natural gas. Johnson was beholden to the Texas oil industry, so when Olds's reconfirmation hearing occurred in 1949, it was supposed to be routine, almost a formality.
It wasn't. Johnson put all his craft on display. Playing both sides of the fence, presenting himself to Olds as his friend and ally, presenting himself to the media as an impartial, fair-minded subcommittee chairman, he set Olds up, arranging to have old writings from his younger, more radical days dug up, writings which had already been discussed in previous confirmation hearings. But this time Olds was presented as a communist, a dangerous, business-hating, anti-American radical. Johnson cleverly managed to derail or blunt every opportunity Olds and his allies would have had to defend himself. Olds lost his position and was barely able to stay employed. Leland Olds would not be the first or last person Johnson smilingly stabbed in the back, but it would long be remembered by Senate liberals, who grew to despise him.
Eye on the Presidency
By the time Johnson became Senate Majority Leader, he owned the Senate. He literally took over offices and gave himself a palatial executive suite to rival the President's. He controlled which bills would or wouldn't get introduced, and literally told other Senators how to vote. He was feared, hated, and admired, and by 1957, the Senate was his bitch.
But that wasn't enough for him, because he had always had his eye on the Presidency.
Johnson had long been a professional "favorite son." He would attach himself to a powerful older man and become his loyal toady. A manipulative master of brown-nosing, Johnson came to the Senate and went along to get along, quietly doing very little while becoming the favored protege of Senator Richard Russell.
Dick Russell, former Governor of Georgia, was the most powerful man in the Senate. He was key to Johnson's ambitions, and Caro spends an entire chapter giving us a biography of Russell. Russell was a gentleman of the Old South, a statesmanlike figure revered by his fellow Southerners and respected by everyone else.
Russel was also adamantly opposed to Civil Rights. He was a "genteel" Southerner, not a race-baiting hatemonger like some of his contemporaries. He spoke eloquently about the "harmonious" relationship of races in the South, denying any animosity, claiming that Northern depictions of Southerners as lynching, cross-burning savages was just Reconstruction-era slander. Even while lynching and cross-burning was very much happening. Russell didn't use the n-word. Russell spoke of states rights and heritage.
Dick Russell wasn't about to let Negroes vote, or attend schools with white children, or swim in white swimming pools.
Lyndon Johnson was Russell's devoted "favorite son," and he spoke as a Southerner. His entire political career had been a masterful job of convincing liberals he was a liberal, and conservatives he was a conservative. To his fellow Southerners, Johnson spoke of "We of the South." He convinced the Southerners he was one of them. He was against civil rights. And his voting record certainly reflected that.
There was just one problem: Johnson wanted to be President. And the rest of the country was becoming increasingly fed up with the South. No Southerner, especially a Southerner with an anti-civil rights record, had a hope of being elected to the White House.
Russell saw in Johnson someone who could be elected President, and Russell very much wanted to see a Southerner elected President.
Thus began some of the most masterful, underhanded, ignoble, and glorious political maneuverings in Johnson's entire career.
(I can't even fit my review in Goodreads' word count! Cont. in comments.)
Caro writes long. He does not stint on details. He almost reminds me of a non-fiction version of Stephen King. (If you've ever read a big, bloated Stephen King novel where King suddenly goes off on a chapter-long tangent to give us the life history of some minor character who's about to die in the next scene, you know what I mean.) Except Caro's tangents are not bloat. They're meaningful. Because the heart of this book, volume three of his (so-far) four-volume epicography of LBJ, is all about the Senate battle over the 1957 Civil Rights Act. A bill that most people hardly remember today because it was relatively inconsequential compared to the ones that followed. And yet, it was also enormously consequential, because it made the ones that followed possible. But to understand that, you have to understand why it was so significant, and to understand that, you have to understand esoteric details both about the functioning of the Senate, and the political situation that existed in the U.S. at the time. You have to understand Senate parliamentary procedures, and how Johnson completely transformed the Senate, and all the maneuvering he had to do to get there. You have to understand the multi-factional divisions between liberal Republicans (there was such a thing, back then), pro-civil rights Democrats, and the block of Southern Democrats that effectively ruled the Senate, despite their numerical minority, because of their mastery of Senate proceedings. And you have to understand LBJ - that complicated, magnificent bastard, who never let principles get in the way of ambition, who could be as amoral a politician as any who ever set foot in Washington, who was a bullying, blustering, crooked, double-dealing scoundrel, as cruel as he was ruthless, and yet who deep down, actually possessed a genuine streak of compassion for the poor and the disenfranchised, and whose long-buried convictions every so often, when it was politically convenient, would manifest in feats of political genius that allowed him to do the right thing for the wrong reasons.
The previous volume, Means of Ascent, told the story of Johnson's 1948 campaign for the U.S. Senate. That book, like this one, focused on a relatively obscure (today) political battle and turned it into an epic contest with all its implications detailed. Johnson won that extraordinarily dirty battle with Coke Stevenson (it would probably not be an exaggeration to say he literally stole the election), and came to the Senate as a freshman Senator from Texas. Where he ran headfirst into the Senate's seniority system, and all the ways in which the Senate was dysfunctional. By the end of his time there, Johnson will have changed everything - and as is characteristic of him, he will have done so using ruthless, unscrupulous means, elevating his own interests at the expense of the American people and his own constituents, and yet, by doing so he will also have made it possible to actually get things done that could never have been done before... like passing a civil rights act.
The U.S. Senate
As every American schoolchild knows, the United States Congress is divided into two halves: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congressmen are apportioned according to population, and (re)elected every two years, while every state gets two Senators, elected for six years. While most people know the primary reason for this compromise (larger states wanted proportional representation, smaller states feared being made irrelevant and powerless), there was another reason the Founding Fathers felt a need for a smaller and more stable legislative body. The Senate was to be a firewall against popular sentiment; the Founders feared demagogues and populism. Congressmen might push for whatever was inflaming their constituents at the moment; the Senate was supposed to be a place for lengthy deliberation, where passions could be damped.
And it served this purpose, for better and for worse. Caro traces the history of the Senate from its early days, through the glory years of the "Immortal Trio": John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay, and then through the Civil War.
Having given all this history, Caro is able to explain in detail how Southern Democrats came to dominate the Senate post-Reconstruction. Today, few people pay much attention to the esoteric rules of Senate procedure. I'm not sure if Senators do. But in the early 20th century, these parliamentary procedures were crucial to controlling the flow of Senate legislation. Caro's detailed explanations are far more interesting than you might think, when he actually puts nitpicky terms like "pairing" and "cloture" into context. The rules of Senate proceedings are far more complex and crafty than anyone who hasn't learned them can possibly imagine. And the Southern Democrats, representing the eleven states of the Confederate South, were masters of Senate parliamentary procedure. Over and over again, they balked their Northern rivals, who rarely studied parliamentary procedure in such depth and often had no idea how badly they were being outmaneuvered. Sometimes they were shocked and dismayed to find out that they'd accidentally nerfed their own bills; other times they'd learn they'd given up a vote on a bill by misunderstanding the technical difference between the Senate President "opening" or "resuming" a session. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Southerners were able to ensure that the one thing they absolutely didn't want could never happen: civil rights.
The Senate had also evolved a seniority system which, by Lyndon Johnson's time, had become as rigid and seemingly immutable as the Vatican. Senators were put on committees strictly according to their seniority, not interest or ability or even political leverage, so the only way to become head of a powerful and influential committee was to have been there the longest, and be the party in power. Freshmen Senators were literally expected to barely speak at all during their first term; a newly-elected firebrand who showed up and immediately started giving speeches and introducing bills on the Senate floor would soon find himself shunned and sidelined, politically and socially, by his colleagues.
The result of this, by the middle of the 20th century, was a moribund, static body in which very little was actually accomplished, and there were politicians and pundits seriously proposing that the Senate be abolished as a relic of an earlier age.
Then LBJ came along.
Slowly, gradually, bit by bit, he did what he had always done, even back in his college days. He figured out ways to change the rules. He recognized where real power lay, and positioned himself to grab hold of it. He used the rules, abused them, broke them and twisted them, brokered deals and broke promises, made allies, betrayed them, and over a period of years, remade the Senate in his image.
Leland Olds
One of the early victims of Johnson's scheming was Leland Olds, and Caro takes yet another obscure figure out of American history and gives us his entire biography just to fit him into the LBJ story.
Leland Olds had been appointed by FDR to the Federal Power Commission in 1939. He was a highly principled and religious man who actually believed he had a duty to the American public. He used the FPC to enforce the Natural Gas Act of 1938, which did not go over well with Texas oilmen, who were now investing heavily in natural gas. Johnson was beholden to the Texas oil industry, so when Olds's reconfirmation hearing occurred in 1949, it was supposed to be routine, almost a formality.
It wasn't. Johnson put all his craft on display. Playing both sides of the fence, presenting himself to Olds as his friend and ally, presenting himself to the media as an impartial, fair-minded subcommittee chairman, he set Olds up, arranging to have old writings from his younger, more radical days dug up, writings which had already been discussed in previous confirmation hearings. But this time Olds was presented as a communist, a dangerous, business-hating, anti-American radical. Johnson cleverly managed to derail or blunt every opportunity Olds and his allies would have had to defend himself. Olds lost his position and was barely able to stay employed. Leland Olds would not be the first or last person Johnson smilingly stabbed in the back, but it would long be remembered by Senate liberals, who grew to despise him.
Eye on the Presidency
By the time Johnson became Senate Majority Leader, he owned the Senate. He literally took over offices and gave himself a palatial executive suite to rival the President's. He controlled which bills would or wouldn't get introduced, and literally told other Senators how to vote. He was feared, hated, and admired, and by 1957, the Senate was his bitch.
But that wasn't enough for him, because he had always had his eye on the Presidency.
Johnson had long been a professional "favorite son." He would attach himself to a powerful older man and become his loyal toady. A manipulative master of brown-nosing, Johnson came to the Senate and went along to get along, quietly doing very little while becoming the favored protege of Senator Richard Russell.
Dick Russell, former Governor of Georgia, was the most powerful man in the Senate. He was key to Johnson's ambitions, and Caro spends an entire chapter giving us a biography of Russell. Russell was a gentleman of the Old South, a statesmanlike figure revered by his fellow Southerners and respected by everyone else.
Russel was also adamantly opposed to Civil Rights. He was a "genteel" Southerner, not a race-baiting hatemonger like some of his contemporaries. He spoke eloquently about the "harmonious" relationship of races in the South, denying any animosity, claiming that Northern depictions of Southerners as lynching, cross-burning savages was just Reconstruction-era slander. Even while lynching and cross-burning was very much happening. Russell didn't use the n-word. Russell spoke of states rights and heritage.
Dick Russell wasn't about to let Negroes vote, or attend schools with white children, or swim in white swimming pools.
Lyndon Johnson was Russell's devoted "favorite son," and he spoke as a Southerner. His entire political career had been a masterful job of convincing liberals he was a liberal, and conservatives he was a conservative. To his fellow Southerners, Johnson spoke of "We of the South." He convinced the Southerners he was one of them. He was against civil rights. And his voting record certainly reflected that.
There was just one problem: Johnson wanted to be President. And the rest of the country was becoming increasingly fed up with the South. No Southerner, especially a Southerner with an anti-civil rights record, had a hope of being elected to the White House.
Russell saw in Johnson someone who could be elected President, and Russell very much wanted to see a Southerner elected President.
Thus began some of the most masterful, underhanded, ignoble, and glorious political maneuverings in Johnson's entire career.
(I can't even fit my review in Goodreads' word count! Cont. in comments.)
December 10, 2015
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 how he did it, what horse-trades he had to make, what motions he would use to speed up or slow down the vote, how he would organize the investigative committees to proselytize for his cause. Caro discovers how Johnson hired his staff from executive departments, how he acquired extra office space, how he was able to threaten or cajole other members into supporting him. And all this doesn't come across as irrelevant detail because Caro is able to show how important it all is, not just for Johnson but for the country, and to simultaneously show the kind of intelligence and drive it took to pull it all off.
Surprisingly, with a book of this heft, it is not exactly comprehensive. Out of the ten years covering four or five are treated in no more than a few pages. It is really a series of case studies that focus on particular aspects of the Senate in the 1950s: the subcommittee investigative hearings on Korean war preparedness, the vote on the confirmation of Federal Power Commissioner Leland Olds, and the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Each of these dramatizes a different part of the Senate's operation, and makes the reader understand exactly what the Senate does and how it does it like no other book can.
I have to say that Caro could be a little repetitive when emphasizing a dramatic point (yes, by the third volume I know Johnson was very ambitious), but its worth it.
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 how he did it, what horse-trades he had to make, what motions he would use to speed up or slow down the vote, how he would organize the investigative committees to proselytize for his cause. Caro discovers how Johnson hired his staff from executive departments, how he acquired extra office space, how he was able to threaten or cajole other members into supporting him. And all this doesn't come across as irrelevant detail because Caro is able to show how important it all is, not just for Johnson but for the country, and to simultaneously show the kind of intelligence and drive it took to pull it all off.
Surprisingly, with a book of this heft, it is not exactly comprehensive. Out of the ten years covering four or five are treated in no more than a few pages. It is really a series of case studies that focus on particular aspects of the Senate in the 1950s: the subcommittee investigative hearings on Korean war preparedness, the vote on the confirmation of Federal Power Commissioner Leland Olds, and the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Each of these dramatizes a different part of the Senate's operation, and makes the reader understand exactly what the Senate does and how it does it like no other book can.
I have to say that Caro could be a little repetitive when emphasizing a dramatic point (yes, by the third volume I know Johnson was very ambitious), but its worth it.
April 20, 2010
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 the Senate" was the fact that the depth of the research propelled the historical drama forward rather than reducing it to an endless, mindless recitation of people, places, things and dates. Highly recommended. Think of me towering over you LBJ-style, threatening YOUR chairmanship of some important committee and bullying you into reading it...even though it is long.
Read
January 29, 2024I’m on volume 3 of this motherfucker. I’ve already waded through two 1000-page volumes, and the fact that I’m still committed (sunk-cost fallacies aside) should tell you everything. This isn’t just history, this isn’t just biography, this is a goddamn motherfucking soap opera, and I mean that as a high compliment. Lyndon Johnson was, long before Lil Peep, everyone’s everything, and is all the more fascinating for it, and the more of an absolute bastard he is, the more fascinating he is.
March 4, 2022
I could write a book about this book, but I'm not going to.
After the Civil War, the Republican Party was the progressive and catered to the black vote. In the first 92 years after the War, Southern Democrats successfully blocked any and all national Civil Rights legislation.
This changed in 1957.
Today, the Democratic Party is perceived as the more progressive party that caters to the minotiry vote.
If you want to understand how this occurred. How a Southern racist Democrat became THE key president in the Civil Rights movement, this book is a must read.
After the Civil War, the Republican Party was the progressive and catered to the black vote. In the first 92 years after the War, Southern Democrats successfully blocked any and all national Civil Rights legislation.
This changed in 1957.
Today, the Democratic Party is perceived as the more progressive party that caters to the minotiry vote.
If you want to understand how this occurred. How a Southern racist Democrat became THE key president in the Civil Rights movement, this book is a must read.
May 16, 2023
Utterly masterful. A national treasure.
December 6, 2020
The third of Robert Caro's voluminous Lyndon Johnson chronicles, cMaster of the Senate covers his years as Senate Majority Leader in the '50s. For the first time, I occasionally found Caro's orotund, digressive prose a bit tedious, especially in the endless prologue on the history of the Senate. Nonetheless, the meat of the book makes it well worth plowing through the slower passages, as Caro captures Johnson's evolution both as politician and man. Caro spends a lot of time chronicling Johnson's boorishness (from crude language to harsh treatment of his staff to letting Jumbo out too often for comfort) and ideological slipperiness (his Red-baiting of Leland Olds and reluctance to engage Joe McCarthy), but it serves a purpose. His experience in the Senate (coupled with a heart attack and growing closeness with his wife) certainly didn't curb his ambition, but made him much better at handling people and, more importantly, being receptive to ideas not his own. Hence, Johnson goes from a stalwart segregationist to someone who spearheads the Civil Rights Act of 1957, over the objection of his mentor Richard Russell (portrayed as the courtly standard bearer of segregation). Caro charts Johnson's conflicted racial views, which mixed ingrained Southern prejudices and paternalism with sincere compassion for the disadvantaged, along with simple pragmatism towards a smoldering, unavoidable issue. Ultimately we see Johnson harnessing his ambition and power to a worthy cause, a harbinger of greater things to come.
January 20, 2009
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 Rights legislation as the main example of how Johnson used his power to accomplish his goal, which ultimately, was purely personal and power-based.
I loved getting a behind-the-scenes look at how the Senate is run. It's amazing how these people find a way to work together or get anything accomplished given their egos and personal goals and constituency expectations. The Economist ran an article recently about how dynastic the Senate has been historically and it truly seems that nothing has changed in that regard. I'm interested in reading more about the workings of this group, both historically and now.
I loved getting a behind-the-scenes look at how the Senate is run. It's amazing how these people find a way to work together or get anything accomplished given their egos and personal goals and constituency expectations. The Economist ran an article recently about how dynastic the Senate has been historically and it truly seems that nothing has changed in that regard. I'm interested in reading more about the workings of this group, both historically and now.
November 25, 2017
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...
“Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson” is the Pulitzer Prize-winning third volume in Robert Caro’s series covering the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Caro is a former investigative reporter and the author of another Pulitzer Prize-winning biography: “The Power Broker” reviewing the life of Robert Moses. He is currently working on the fifth (and presumably final) volume in his LBJ series.
Published in 2002, “Master of the Senate” covers Johnson’s life from 1949 through 1960 – the dozen years he spent in the U.S. Senate. With 1,040 pages, this is the longest of the four volumes which have been published to date. And while books in this series are designed to stand on their own (for anyone interested in just one part of LBJ’s life) this volume is most compelling for readers tackling the entire series.
Fans of Caro’s series will quickly recognize his writing style: it is articulate but often long-winded. Sentences are frequently complex but incorporate profound observations. And like preceding volumes, “Master of the Senate” is supported by painstaking research and an ability to dive deeply and thoughtfully into a topic. But while the primary story line itself is inherently fascinating, protracted digressions and diversions are common.
This third volume begins with a lengthy but often engrossing history of the United States Senate. The first half of this introductory section is so stirring and descriptive that I read it twice to ensure I didn’t miss anything. But as informative as this 100+ page preamble proves, it eventually overstays its welcome and needlessly delays LBJ’s appearance in the narrative.
Once the biography turns to Johnson, it rarely lets go. The narrative focuses almost exclusively on LBJ’s political life and the public world in which he operated. This volume chronicles his crusade to accumulate and exert power – from his earliest days in the Senate up to his nomination as his party’s 1960 vice presidential nominee. Not covered here (reserved for the next volume) is LBJ’s attempt to obtain the 1960 presidential nomination which was ultimately secured by John F. Kennedy.
Caro is at its best while revealing LBJ’s shrewd efforts to quickly gain credibility, power and influence in the Senate. Nearly one-third of the book is devoted to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the political maneuvering which ensured its passage. And where the narrative in previous volumes is often hostile toward LBJ, Caro employs a noticeably softer touch here in light of Johnson’s extraordinary “pivot” on civil rights.
Like earlier volumes, Caro provides mini-biographies of important supporting characters of the era. Chapters on Richard Russell and Leland Olds are excellent…though Caro could have been far more efficient with his review of LBJ’s political evisceration of Olds. Surprisingly absorbing is the later chapter describing how Johnson spent the weeks following his 1955 heart attack.
But some of the very best chapters in this biography are those devoted to the difficulties faced by African-Americans in the early-to-mid 20th century South and LBJ’s public and private attitudes toward minority rights. “The Compassion of Lyndon Johnson” is undoubtedly one of the best chapters from any book I’ve read recently.
Almost as captivating is Caro’s examination of Johnson’s effort to gain the 1956 Democratic presidential nomination. This canny review includes a lengthy and detailed chapter on the Chicago convention which will appeal to almost any reader. Not surprisingly, however, the chapter would have been equally effective (and more accessible) at half its length.
Typical of Caro’s volumes is that much of LBJ’s personal life is sacrificed in order to focus more fully on his political life. Readers interested in understanding LBJ’s marriage to Lady Bird, his relationship with his children, or the disposition of his alleged dalliances will not come away significantly enlightened.
More irksome for many readers, however, is Caro’s penchant for literary loquacity. Nearly every topic he reviews – from those aimed squarely at LBJ’s life to the numerous tangents he incorporates to supply context and supporting detail – could have been covered with far more efficiency while proving no less revealing. As good as this book is, its unnecessary heft undoubtedly intimidates many potential readers.
Overall, Robert Caro’s “Master of the Senate” proves to be far more than a biography focusing on LBJ’s years in the Senate: it is essentially a political history of the United States during the 1950s and a fascinating primer on the acquisition and use of political power. At its worst it is insightful but tediously turgid; at its best it is good – astoundingly good.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
“Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson” is the Pulitzer Prize-winning third volume in Robert Caro’s series covering the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Caro is a former investigative reporter and the author of another Pulitzer Prize-winning biography: “The Power Broker” reviewing the life of Robert Moses. He is currently working on the fifth (and presumably final) volume in his LBJ series.
Published in 2002, “Master of the Senate” covers Johnson’s life from 1949 through 1960 – the dozen years he spent in the U.S. Senate. With 1,040 pages, this is the longest of the four volumes which have been published to date. And while books in this series are designed to stand on their own (for anyone interested in just one part of LBJ’s life) this volume is most compelling for readers tackling the entire series.
Fans of Caro’s series will quickly recognize his writing style: it is articulate but often long-winded. Sentences are frequently complex but incorporate profound observations. And like preceding volumes, “Master of the Senate” is supported by painstaking research and an ability to dive deeply and thoughtfully into a topic. But while the primary story line itself is inherently fascinating, protracted digressions and diversions are common.
This third volume begins with a lengthy but often engrossing history of the United States Senate. The first half of this introductory section is so stirring and descriptive that I read it twice to ensure I didn’t miss anything. But as informative as this 100+ page preamble proves, it eventually overstays its welcome and needlessly delays LBJ’s appearance in the narrative.
Once the biography turns to Johnson, it rarely lets go. The narrative focuses almost exclusively on LBJ’s political life and the public world in which he operated. This volume chronicles his crusade to accumulate and exert power – from his earliest days in the Senate up to his nomination as his party’s 1960 vice presidential nominee. Not covered here (reserved for the next volume) is LBJ’s attempt to obtain the 1960 presidential nomination which was ultimately secured by John F. Kennedy.
Caro is at its best while revealing LBJ’s shrewd efforts to quickly gain credibility, power and influence in the Senate. Nearly one-third of the book is devoted to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the political maneuvering which ensured its passage. And where the narrative in previous volumes is often hostile toward LBJ, Caro employs a noticeably softer touch here in light of Johnson’s extraordinary “pivot” on civil rights.
Like earlier volumes, Caro provides mini-biographies of important supporting characters of the era. Chapters on Richard Russell and Leland Olds are excellent…though Caro could have been far more efficient with his review of LBJ’s political evisceration of Olds. Surprisingly absorbing is the later chapter describing how Johnson spent the weeks following his 1955 heart attack.
But some of the very best chapters in this biography are those devoted to the difficulties faced by African-Americans in the early-to-mid 20th century South and LBJ’s public and private attitudes toward minority rights. “The Compassion of Lyndon Johnson” is undoubtedly one of the best chapters from any book I’ve read recently.
Almost as captivating is Caro’s examination of Johnson’s effort to gain the 1956 Democratic presidential nomination. This canny review includes a lengthy and detailed chapter on the Chicago convention which will appeal to almost any reader. Not surprisingly, however, the chapter would have been equally effective (and more accessible) at half its length.
Typical of Caro’s volumes is that much of LBJ’s personal life is sacrificed in order to focus more fully on his political life. Readers interested in understanding LBJ’s marriage to Lady Bird, his relationship with his children, or the disposition of his alleged dalliances will not come away significantly enlightened.
More irksome for many readers, however, is Caro’s penchant for literary loquacity. Nearly every topic he reviews – from those aimed squarely at LBJ’s life to the numerous tangents he incorporates to supply context and supporting detail – could have been covered with far more efficiency while proving no less revealing. As good as this book is, its unnecessary heft undoubtedly intimidates many potential readers.
Overall, Robert Caro’s “Master of the Senate” proves to be far more than a biography focusing on LBJ’s years in the Senate: it is essentially a political history of the United States during the 1950s and a fascinating primer on the acquisition and use of political power. At its worst it is insightful but tediously turgid; at its best it is good – astoundingly good.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
October 28, 2023
This was a paradoxically difficult book to read. While the bureaucratic intrigues and maneuvers were a well-paced and immersive narrative, reading about LBJ's life and how he "won" in politics increasingly leaves me cynical and with a bad taste in my mouth about DC.
The benefit of reading biographies is they add strands of color to historical narratives. Seeing how LBJ intersected with what I knew of the histories of FDR's legacy in public power, Eisenhower, civil rights, and the fillibuster, added another dimension of understanding to popularly held versions of those stories.
Ultimately, LBJ's story captures a tension that we still discuss today: is it better to be idealistic or is it better to be effective? Many of LBJ's liberal counterparts spent decades fighting for civil liberties and never won. LBJ, a man of ruthless ambition and truly no moral direction, was the one who bent the south to his will and passed the first civil rights bill (albeit a weakened one, that took another decade to remedy). But my hope stems from the belief that we are not bound by past stories and that it is possible to be effective, clear-eyed about the compromises needed to make change, and still hold convictions of what is right and worthy of our efforts.
The benefit of reading biographies is they add strands of color to historical narratives. Seeing how LBJ intersected with what I knew of the histories of FDR's legacy in public power, Eisenhower, civil rights, and the fillibuster, added another dimension of understanding to popularly held versions of those stories.
Ultimately, LBJ's story captures a tension that we still discuss today: is it better to be idealistic or is it better to be effective? Many of LBJ's liberal counterparts spent decades fighting for civil liberties and never won. LBJ, a man of ruthless ambition and truly no moral direction, was the one who bent the south to his will and passed the first civil rights bill (albeit a weakened one, that took another decade to remedy). But my hope stems from the belief that we are not bound by past stories and that it is possible to be effective, clear-eyed about the compromises needed to make change, and still hold convictions of what is right and worthy of our efforts.
August 18, 2015
The third volume of Robert Caro's epic biography of Lyndon Johnson covers what would prove to be the pivotal years in his ascent to the presidency -- his years in the United States Senate. Here he sets out to achieve three goals: to show how Johnson exercised power, to chronicle how Johnson positioned himself to run for the presidency, and to explain the conundrum of Johnson's personality. In the first two goals Caro's book is an unqualified success, as Caro explains how Johnson transformed the post of Senate Majority Leader into a position of power for the first time and used the higher profile the office provided to run for the White House. It is the third goal that is the most challenging, however, and here Caro's success is more qualified. He goes far in reconciling the conflict between a man who demonstrated such cruelty in his personal life and use of political power yet whose compassion for the poor and disadvantaged brought about a fundamental transformation of the nation, yet perhaps in the end the conundrum that makes Lyndon Johnson so fascinating is ultimately irreconcilable. For anyone seeking to understand that conundrum, however, Caro's book is indispensable, and is must-reading for anyone interested in his fascinating, complex, and historic subject.
September 13, 2008
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 goals were admirable and he accomplished great things (Voting Rights Act of 1965) but his foreign policy left much to be desired. That is perhaps a tad understated.
June 22, 2022
"Master of the Senate" may be the greatest political biography of all time. I know those are strong words but it's really hard to argue against it. Years ago, when I began my literary journey to read at least one political biography on every president, I began with the fourth book in this series, "The Passage of Power." That book was so revelatory that it kickstarted a passion that is still going strong all these years later.
While all of those books are wonderful, "Master of the Senate" may be Caro's masterpiece. The way it explores the history of the Senate, the psychology of Johnson and the strengths that will lead him to becoming president and the weaknesses that would ultimately bring him down. It's all there.
Johnson was so effective in the Senate because he was a fantastic liar and bullshitter. He was a master manipulator that could trick powerful men into supporting him and doing what he wanted. This is why he was so good in the Senate. That's what the Senate's about.
But this is also why he was destined to have a failed presidency, once he got involved in Vietnam. War doesn't care what you say. You can't bargain, reason, or trick it. The facts on the ground are the facts and the more you try to hide them or deny them, the more they will ultimately bite you in the ass.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
While all of those books are wonderful, "Master of the Senate" may be Caro's masterpiece. The way it explores the history of the Senate, the psychology of Johnson and the strengths that will lead him to becoming president and the weaknesses that would ultimately bring him down. It's all there.
Johnson was so effective in the Senate because he was a fantastic liar and bullshitter. He was a master manipulator that could trick powerful men into supporting him and doing what he wanted. This is why he was so good in the Senate. That's what the Senate's about.
But this is also why he was destined to have a failed presidency, once he got involved in Vietnam. War doesn't care what you say. You can't bargain, reason, or trick it. The facts on the ground are the facts and the more you try to hide them or deny them, the more they will ultimately bite you in the ass.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
July 8, 2013
As one who has come late to the magisterial multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, I continue to be amazed at Robert Caro’s skill in walking the tightrope of scholarly research and lively presentation. After recently reading volumes one and two, I had come to know the man from Texas, and now in volume three I’ve seen LBJ truly in his element, trading favors and exploiting arcane rules to turn the Senate on its complacent ear. Yet even as I call LBJ “the man from Texas,” I know where he preferred to be. Not on the sleepy Pedernales, as much as he could wax eloquent about it, but in the heart of Washington, exercising power.
Master of the Senate covers Johnson’s rise from raw new Senator to dominance of that body, taking us through many side roads, including Johnson’s first heart attack and his ill-conceived run for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1956. Caro’s central thesis: LBJ was a ruthless man who would do anything to gain power. He also cared about the poor and minorities, but when there was conflict between these two motivations, the rush to power would win every time.
HOW HE ACQUIRED POWER...
When he arrived in the Senate in early 1949, Johnson adopted a tactic which had served him well in the past. He chose a mentor who could open doors for him, and – as in his relationship with Sam Rayburn in the House – he chose well. Georgia’s Richard Russell dominated the Southern caucus, whose conservative members exercised exceptional control in the Democratic Party through committee chairmanships, other benefits of seniority, and the filibuster. Russell was determined to maintain the status quo in the South, to preserve a way of life characterized above all by separation of the races.
For his entire Senate career, Johnson was beholden to the Southern caucus and to the support of Russell. Johnson repeatedly had to demonstrate his solidarity with the Southern caucus, but there was another group to whom he was beholden: the moneyed oil and energy moguls of Texas. To show them he was loyal, he took on a subcommittee chairmanship to look into the renomination of Leland Olds as chairman of the Federal Power Commission. Olds was a particularly effective bureaucrat who drew the enmity of the energy entrepreneurs because the FPC was a New Deal program to reduce private control over natural resources. Olds was a genius at figuring out the tangled financial arrangements of the giant companies, and they wanted him out. Johnson accomplished just that by falsely tying Olds to Communism, manipulating the hearings to effectively destroy the man. Thus Johnson had his conservative bona fides. [Olds was devastated. Johnson assured him it was “just politics.” Personally, I just felt sick.]
HOW HE USED IT...
In the next few years, Johnson became the man whom Russell believed could be the first Southern President, and he worked to position him, helping him to become first Minority Leader, then Majority Leader. Johnson proved masterly at moving legislation through a body which had become known for its torpor. But then Johnson recognized that he would have to become more acceptable to increasingly restive liberal Democrats.
Every year, Senators like Paul Douglas and Herbert Lehman attempted civil rights legislation to address terrible inequities of the Jim Crow states – and they could never overcome the Southern filibuster. In 1957, Johnson maneuvered a severely compromised version of the bill that Russell and his compatriots would not filibuster. It was a watered-down voting rights bill that lacked teeth (and, perhaps more seriously, was not enforced by the Eisenhower Justice Department). But it was the first civil rights legislation in modern times, and it was Johnson’s “masterpiece,” as the headlines trumpeted. It was the break-through, and Caro turns the story of its passing into a near thriller – 150 pages of twists, turns, dead ends, opportunities, and finally triumph. LBJ was now newsmagazine fodder.
Caro makes a strong case that Johnson really had a compassionate heart, that his old connections to poor Mexicans touched him. And until he had real power, he couldn’t exercise compassion.
I am astonished at how much I have written in this review – and how much I have omitted. If you’re thinking of reading this in hard copy, it weighs 4 ½ pounds. You’ll be glad you hefted it.
Master of the Senate covers Johnson’s rise from raw new Senator to dominance of that body, taking us through many side roads, including Johnson’s first heart attack and his ill-conceived run for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1956. Caro’s central thesis: LBJ was a ruthless man who would do anything to gain power. He also cared about the poor and minorities, but when there was conflict between these two motivations, the rush to power would win every time.
HOW HE ACQUIRED POWER...
When he arrived in the Senate in early 1949, Johnson adopted a tactic which had served him well in the past. He chose a mentor who could open doors for him, and – as in his relationship with Sam Rayburn in the House – he chose well. Georgia’s Richard Russell dominated the Southern caucus, whose conservative members exercised exceptional control in the Democratic Party through committee chairmanships, other benefits of seniority, and the filibuster. Russell was determined to maintain the status quo in the South, to preserve a way of life characterized above all by separation of the races.
For his entire Senate career, Johnson was beholden to the Southern caucus and to the support of Russell. Johnson repeatedly had to demonstrate his solidarity with the Southern caucus, but there was another group to whom he was beholden: the moneyed oil and energy moguls of Texas. To show them he was loyal, he took on a subcommittee chairmanship to look into the renomination of Leland Olds as chairman of the Federal Power Commission. Olds was a particularly effective bureaucrat who drew the enmity of the energy entrepreneurs because the FPC was a New Deal program to reduce private control over natural resources. Olds was a genius at figuring out the tangled financial arrangements of the giant companies, and they wanted him out. Johnson accomplished just that by falsely tying Olds to Communism, manipulating the hearings to effectively destroy the man. Thus Johnson had his conservative bona fides. [Olds was devastated. Johnson assured him it was “just politics.” Personally, I just felt sick.]
HOW HE USED IT...
In the next few years, Johnson became the man whom Russell believed could be the first Southern President, and he worked to position him, helping him to become first Minority Leader, then Majority Leader. Johnson proved masterly at moving legislation through a body which had become known for its torpor. But then Johnson recognized that he would have to become more acceptable to increasingly restive liberal Democrats.
Every year, Senators like Paul Douglas and Herbert Lehman attempted civil rights legislation to address terrible inequities of the Jim Crow states – and they could never overcome the Southern filibuster. In 1957, Johnson maneuvered a severely compromised version of the bill that Russell and his compatriots would not filibuster. It was a watered-down voting rights bill that lacked teeth (and, perhaps more seriously, was not enforced by the Eisenhower Justice Department). But it was the first civil rights legislation in modern times, and it was Johnson’s “masterpiece,” as the headlines trumpeted. It was the break-through, and Caro turns the story of its passing into a near thriller – 150 pages of twists, turns, dead ends, opportunities, and finally triumph. LBJ was now newsmagazine fodder.
Caro makes a strong case that Johnson really had a compassionate heart, that his old connections to poor Mexicans touched him. And until he had real power, he couldn’t exercise compassion.
I am astonished at how much I have written in this review – and how much I have omitted. If you’re thinking of reading this in hard copy, it weighs 4 ½ pounds. You’ll be glad you hefted it.
August 27, 2012
After 3 volumes and 3000+ pages (probably 4000+ counting all the notes, which are well worth reading), I can't think of a better term to describe this bio of LBJ than "page-turner." Actually, I can think of lots of better terms: compelling, gripping, exhaustively detailed, amazingly well researched and documented, vivid, compassionate, fair, unblinking, dogged, and probably the greatest analysis of political power in 20th century America that will ever be written.
Quite simply, I love this book, with a love that I normally feel only for fiction. I initially picked up the first volume 3 years ago because I wanted to understand how LBJ could have been responsible for some of the greatest good things that happened in my lifetime, but also some of the greatest bad things. For the first 2500 pages, all I found was awfulness. It's a real tribute to Robert Caro's gifts as a writer that he made me want to keep reading about someone who, with every page, seemed more and more loathsome. It's only towards the end of the 3rd volume (around about 1956) that I began to see a glimmer, not of goodness exactly, but of compassion, empathy, and standing up for what was right.
I checked the first three volumes out of the library, and was going to do the same with the fourth. But then I read Caro's acknowledgements at the end of "Master of the Senate," in which he praised his publisher and editor and book designer and any number of other people at Knopf. And I realized that I wanted to acknowledge all the people responsible for this fantastic work myself, by paying them for their work. My $35, while meager recompense for the joy that this work has given me, is (I hope) a signal to the bookstore and publisher that there is still a market for serious, wide-ranging books that take decades to write.
Quite simply, I love this book, with a love that I normally feel only for fiction. I initially picked up the first volume 3 years ago because I wanted to understand how LBJ could have been responsible for some of the greatest good things that happened in my lifetime, but also some of the greatest bad things. For the first 2500 pages, all I found was awfulness. It's a real tribute to Robert Caro's gifts as a writer that he made me want to keep reading about someone who, with every page, seemed more and more loathsome. It's only towards the end of the 3rd volume (around about 1956) that I began to see a glimmer, not of goodness exactly, but of compassion, empathy, and standing up for what was right.
I checked the first three volumes out of the library, and was going to do the same with the fourth. But then I read Caro's acknowledgements at the end of "Master of the Senate," in which he praised his publisher and editor and book designer and any number of other people at Knopf. And I realized that I wanted to acknowledge all the people responsible for this fantastic work myself, by paying them for their work. My $35, while meager recompense for the joy that this work has given me, is (I hope) a signal to the bookstore and publisher that there is still a market for serious, wide-ranging books that take decades to write.
June 24, 2020
Caro did an interview with Conan O'Brien and I was surprised by the fondness Caro spoke about LBJ. Now that I got through the end of the 3rd book, and the story of the 1957 Civil Rights bill, I can start to see that. He's still a sociopath, but you have to admit to his remarkable political skills. Caro talks about how when there was alignment between his own ambitions for power and the good of the country, LBJ could make seemingly impossible things happen.
I loved reading about the world of the Senate in the 1950's, and the story of how LBJ cleverly amassed power. The story of Richard Russell and South was fascinating - how they built their own power structure in the Senate and the arguments they used against Civil Rights, making themselves seem like a victim and a disadvantaged minority.
The book was tedious in parts - there were times when I considered giving up. Particularly in the beginning with the long winded background of Senate history, seems like that could have been more concise.
I still can't look at LBJ with the same fondness as Caro. To me he is still a sociopath who only cared about himself, and has a long record of lying, cheating, and generally treating people terribly.
Also, this is more of a question, as I might have missed something - but I am skeptical that LBJ is as much of a hero with the 1957 bill as Caro makes him. The liberal Democrats and the Republicans seemed to think they could somehow overcome a Southern filibuster and get a stronger bill passed. What if LBJ just stood more strongly with the liberal Democrats? Was there really no possibility of getting a stronger bill passed?
I loved reading about the world of the Senate in the 1950's, and the story of how LBJ cleverly amassed power. The story of Richard Russell and South was fascinating - how they built their own power structure in the Senate and the arguments they used against Civil Rights, making themselves seem like a victim and a disadvantaged minority.
The book was tedious in parts - there were times when I considered giving up. Particularly in the beginning with the long winded background of Senate history, seems like that could have been more concise.
I still can't look at LBJ with the same fondness as Caro. To me he is still a sociopath who only cared about himself, and has a long record of lying, cheating, and generally treating people terribly.
Also, this is more of a question, as I might have missed something - but I am skeptical that LBJ is as much of a hero with the 1957 bill as Caro makes him. The liberal Democrats and the Republicans seemed to think they could somehow overcome a Southern filibuster and get a stronger bill passed. What if LBJ just stood more strongly with the liberal Democrats? Was there really no possibility of getting a stronger bill passed?
November 4, 2022
A lot could be said about this masterpiece - that it is incredibly well-written, with some passages, again, reading more like a fiction book than a biography, that it provides a better study of political and legislative power than any textbooks, or that it manages to balance portrayals of very complex personalities that inhibited an abundance of both bigotry and statesmanship.
This is, I believe, the pinnacle of Caro's study of Lyndon Johnson's life and career - the way he managed to "make the Senate work" through concentration of power in the hands of the Majority Leader, as well as through his understanding of personalities of individual senators and wider public space within the 1950s United States, in which he found areas of compromise and cooperation. It is a fascinating tale and made even better by Caro's lengthier portrayals of structural factors within the Senate at the beginning of the book and later in the civil rights movement, which makes one really appreciate what he was able to accomplish.
Johnson's rise to power is documented through his recognition of the ways to accumulate power within the Senate - primarily through a special subcommittee that made him as a freshman senator relatively famous and then cozying up to people with authority like Senator Richard Russell, but also through understanding and control of Senate parliamentary rules such as the unanimous consent that he perfected into a potent weapon of control. But it was in the first place his ability to "read men", to see the most important thing - what they are not telling - in order to exploit for his benefit, and the benefit of the legislation he was trying to pass.
What Caro really manages to accomplish almost uniquely is the presentation of the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of Lyndon Johnson's career and personality - his destruction of the career of Leland Olds to the benefit of his financial backers is contrasted with his work to pass not just the first civil rights bill in almost 90 years, but also numerous social security and liberal laws, more in line with his old New Deal-self, than with his more reactionary persona when ran for Senate in 1948. His incredible pragmatism and recognition of fact and reality in the Senate is contrasted with his inability to see the political reality at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, where he was not able to do what he did so well in the Senate - match counting of votes with timing of an initiative.
The book is, however, definitely not flawless - some parts are way too short for the content they deal with - for instance Johnson's accumulation of power on the institutional level or his last three years in the Senate (which are given about 40 pages) could be dealt with more precisely. But that does not diminish the awesome experience of reading it.
The core of this book is in Johnson's effort to use a reconciliation within the divided Democratic party to his personal advantage - to "clean" himself of the label of a "Southern candidate" in order to be able to run for President as soon as he can, through the battle for civil rights and liberal social legislation. While the battles definitely show the despicability of Johnson's personality and lack of scruples, it is undoubtedly thanks to his initiative that the Senate was able to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 - because despite the fact that the liberals had the numbers to pass the bill in theory, it would have been filibustered. So his treatment of Paul Douglas or Herbert Lehman, those liberal giants, is shameful, but it is the control of power within the Senate, through the cooperation with Southern comittee chairmen, that made the advances possible.
There are a lot of amazing quotes that make one reconsider one's own thinking about political and legislative power, but one in particular stands out and greatly summarizes a lot of the book:
“Power corrupts—that has been said and written so often that it has become a cliché. But what is never said, but is just as true, is that power reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, he must conceal those traits that might make others reluctant to give it to him, that might even make them refuse to give it to him. Once the man has power, it is no longer necessary for him to hide those traits.”
This was always true with Lyndon Johnson - for the good and the bad.
This is, I believe, the pinnacle of Caro's study of Lyndon Johnson's life and career - the way he managed to "make the Senate work" through concentration of power in the hands of the Majority Leader, as well as through his understanding of personalities of individual senators and wider public space within the 1950s United States, in which he found areas of compromise and cooperation. It is a fascinating tale and made even better by Caro's lengthier portrayals of structural factors within the Senate at the beginning of the book and later in the civil rights movement, which makes one really appreciate what he was able to accomplish.
Johnson's rise to power is documented through his recognition of the ways to accumulate power within the Senate - primarily through a special subcommittee that made him as a freshman senator relatively famous and then cozying up to people with authority like Senator Richard Russell, but also through understanding and control of Senate parliamentary rules such as the unanimous consent that he perfected into a potent weapon of control. But it was in the first place his ability to "read men", to see the most important thing - what they are not telling - in order to exploit for his benefit, and the benefit of the legislation he was trying to pass.
What Caro really manages to accomplish almost uniquely is the presentation of the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of Lyndon Johnson's career and personality - his destruction of the career of Leland Olds to the benefit of his financial backers is contrasted with his work to pass not just the first civil rights bill in almost 90 years, but also numerous social security and liberal laws, more in line with his old New Deal-self, than with his more reactionary persona when ran for Senate in 1948. His incredible pragmatism and recognition of fact and reality in the Senate is contrasted with his inability to see the political reality at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, where he was not able to do what he did so well in the Senate - match counting of votes with timing of an initiative.
The book is, however, definitely not flawless - some parts are way too short for the content they deal with - for instance Johnson's accumulation of power on the institutional level or his last three years in the Senate (which are given about 40 pages) could be dealt with more precisely. But that does not diminish the awesome experience of reading it.
The core of this book is in Johnson's effort to use a reconciliation within the divided Democratic party to his personal advantage - to "clean" himself of the label of a "Southern candidate" in order to be able to run for President as soon as he can, through the battle for civil rights and liberal social legislation. While the battles definitely show the despicability of Johnson's personality and lack of scruples, it is undoubtedly thanks to his initiative that the Senate was able to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 - because despite the fact that the liberals had the numbers to pass the bill in theory, it would have been filibustered. So his treatment of Paul Douglas or Herbert Lehman, those liberal giants, is shameful, but it is the control of power within the Senate, through the cooperation with Southern comittee chairmen, that made the advances possible.
There are a lot of amazing quotes that make one reconsider one's own thinking about political and legislative power, but one in particular stands out and greatly summarizes a lot of the book:
“Power corrupts—that has been said and written so often that it has become a cliché. But what is never said, but is just as true, is that power reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, he must conceal those traits that might make others reluctant to give it to him, that might even make them refuse to give it to him. Once the man has power, it is no longer necessary for him to hide those traits.”
This was always true with Lyndon Johnson - for the good and the bad.
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