Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2) (Paperback)

by Robert A. Caro (Author) "ON JUNE 28, 1941, Lyndon Johnson seemed to have victory-yet another victory-in his grasp..." (more)
Key Phrases: labor leader racketeers, flying windmill, poll list, Lyndon Johnson, Coke Stevenson, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The second installment in a projected four-volume biography of LBJ that opened with The Path to Power, Means of Ascent shines a harsh light on the early political years of one of America's most paradoxical presidents. The man who would later ram civil rights legislation through a reluctant Congress, and then be brought down by Vietnam, came out of a political swamp--Caro gives a graphic picture of the Texas democratic political machine at its most corrupt. The climax of the book is LBJ's election to the Senate in 1948, an election he won by 87 dubious votes out of almost a million. That vote arguably changed history. This book won the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

Review
"Thrilling. Caro burns into the reader's imagination the story of the [1948 Senate] election. Never has it been told so dramatically, with breathtaking detail piled on incredible development . . .In The Path to Power, Volume I of his monumental biography, Robert A. Caro ignited a blowtorch whose bright flame illuminated Johnson's early career. In Means of Ascent he intensifies the flame to a brilliant blue point." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

"Brilliant. No brief review does justice to the drama of the story Caro is telling, which is nothing less than how present-day politics was born." --Henry F. Graff, Professor of History, Columbia University

"Riveting . . . Explosive . . . Readers are in for a white-knuckle, hair-raising tale that could have ended in any of a dozen ways, with L.B.J. in the White House the longest shot of all. This is good history. Caro's treatment achieves poetic intensity." --Paul Gray, Time

"Caro has a unique place among American political biographers. He has become, in many ways, the standard by which his fellows are measured. Caro's diligence [and] ambition are phenomenal . . . A remarkable story . . . Epic." --Mark Feeney, Boston Sunday Globe

"Immensely engaging . . . Caro is an indefatigable investigative reporter and a skillful historian who can make the most abstract material come vibrantly to life. [He has a] marvelous ability to tell a story . . . His analysis of how power is used---to build highways and dams, to win elections, to get rich---is masterly." --Ronald Steel, New York Times Book Review

"Caro has changed the art of political biography." --Nicholas von Hoffman

"A spellbinding, hypnotic journey into the political life and times of Lyndon Johnson. Riveting drama." --Jim Finley, Los Angeles Times

"The most compelling study of American political power and corruption since Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men.... It is nothing less than a political epic, the definitive account of a watershed election, rich with all of the intrigue and drama that have become the stuff of legend. [It has] the suspense of a political thriller." --Steve Neal, Fort Worth Star Telegram

"His research is dazzlingly exhaustive, his gripping story is enhanced by excellent writing, and his findings [seem] largely irrefutable. No one has done a better job of researching [the 1948 race] than Mr. Caro. He has produced a portrait not only of Lyndon Johnson, but also of the politics and values of mid-century America." --Philip Seib, Dallas Morning News

"A great book, and I believe the completed biography will be the great book about American politics in the twentieth century. The story of the '48 election is remarkable, unique. If it weren't a cliche, I'd say it has Tolstoyan epic grandeur." --Robert K. Massie

"A spellbinding political thriller...riveting." --Arthur Salm, San Diego Tribune

"No one understands Lyndon Baines Johnson without reading Robert A. Caro." --James F. Vesely, Sacramento Union

"We who are alive today are privileged to be present at the creation of what, when it is completed, may rank as the most riveting and disturbing American political biography of this century . . . Magnificently written." --Theodore M. O'Leary, Kansas City Star

-- Review

an immensely engrossing and deeply disturbing tale . . . Mr. Caro is an indefatigable investigative reporter and a skillful historian who can make the most abstract material . . . come vibrantly to life. -- New York Times Book Review, Ronald Steel

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 6, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067973371X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679733713
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #123,637 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and revealing, April 30, 2005

By	M. T. Vancampen (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I loved "The Path to Power" but I held off on reading this volume because I could not understand why Caro would devote an entire volume to seven years in LBJ's life. After I read this book, I have no doubt that this decision was a good one. These years--particularly the 1948 Democratic Senatorial Primary--were some of the most historically significant events on the last hundred years. It was this election that perhaps more than any other lay the foundation for politics as we know it. Without the eventual win in this election, Caro argues that LBJ's political career would have been finished. If that were true, he never would have gone on to be president. And if that did not happen, one most ask would Vietnam or "The Great Society" ever have happened quite the way they did. Caro is very convincing in arguing that this dramatic election is one of the most important in U.S. History.

Aside from the significance of the year, I would like to emphasize what a truly exciting read this volume is. I was utterly enthralled to read about what unfolded next in the battle for the democratic candidacy for Texas' senatorial seat. This in spite of the fact that everyone reading the book already knows the outcome. Many have said that this is a hatchet job on LBJ. While this is not a positive portrait of LBJ as a moral figure, it praises him highly as a calculating politician--possibly one of the greatest of all times. The other thing to remember is that Caro is highlighting an election in 1940s Texas, which has always been notorious for corruption in politics (witness the cartoonish and stranger-than-fiction Pappy O'Daniel). The difference in this case was that Coke Stevenson was not as willing to accept that corruption as LBJ was. It is also a lament for the loss of politicians like Stevenson, who one feels Caro holds in much higher regard than LBJ, as will most readers--despite political leanings--once they complete this volume.

This volume is--hands down--one of the most exciting books I have read in a long time. I found it fascinating and could not put it down. I look forward to moving on to the third volume (The Master of the Senate) but I fear how long I will have to wait for the next volume after that.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding..., April 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2) (Hardcover)

I love this series. I perused this site to see if anyone knew when the third volume would be out. No one did, so I e-mailed Randon House. Their response: "Robert A. Caro is hard at work on the last part of Volume Three of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, in which he shows how Johnson mastered the United States Senate as no one else has before or since. You know the amount of research Caro does, how he leaves no stone or paper unturned in his insistence on getting every fact and detail absolutely correct in his life of LBJ and his history of America in the 20th century. And you know what a great writer he is. Such research and writing take time, and we have not as yet set a publication date."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping intensity of the best detective novel, December 19, 1999

By A Customer

Robert Caro portrays Johnson as a compulsive liar with a need to prevaricate and steal that could make a politician cringe. I believe that the domestic program of Lyndon Johnson, civil rights legislation in particular, makes him one of the great US Presidents - even after reading this book. Given the disparity in these views of Johnson, it is remarkable that I found "Ascent to Power" compelling reading.

Caro's book is extensively researched and written with a gripping intensity worthy of the best detective novel. His work gave me an insight that went beyond politics to that of human nature, the drive to power and impact that one individual could have on the course of the 20th century.

My greatest regret - Volume 3 in this biography is years behind schedule. Robert, stop the foolin' around and finish that book!