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The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I Kindle Edition
| Robert A. Caro (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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The Path to Power, Book One, reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and urge to power that set LBJ apart. Chronicling the startling early emergence of Johnson’s political genius, it follows him from his Texas boyhood through the years of the Depression in the Texas hill Country to the triumph of his congressional debut in New Deal Washington, to his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, of the national power for which he hungered.
We see in him, from earliest childhood, a fierce, unquenchable necessity to be first, to win, to dominate—coupled with a limitless capacity for hard, unceasing labor in the service of his own ambition. Caro shows us the big, gangling, awkward young Lyndon—raised in one of the country’s most desperately poor and isolated areas, his education mediocre at best, his pride stung by his father’s slide into failure and financial ruin—lunging for success, moving inexorably toward that ultimate “impossible” goal that he sets for himself years before any friend or enemy suspects what it may be.
We watch him, while still at college, instinctively (and ruthlessly) creating the beginnings of the political machine that was to serve him for three decades. We see him employing his extraordinary ability to mesmerize and manipulate powerful older men, to mesmerize (and sometimes almost enslave) useful subordinates. We see him carrying out, before his thirtieth year, his first great political inspiration: tapping-and becoming the political conduit for-the money and influence of the new oil men and contractors who were to grow with him to immense power. We follow, close up, the radical fluctuations of his relationships with the formidable “Mr. Sam” Raybum (who loved him like a son and whom he betrayed) and with FDR himself. And we follow the dramas of his emotional life-the intensities and complications of his relationships with his family, his contemporaries, his girls; his wooing and winning of the shy Lady Bird; his secret love affair, over many years, with the mistress of one of his most ardent and generous supporters . . .
Johnson driving his people to the point of exhausted tears, equally merciless with himself . . . Johnson bullying, cajoling, lying, yet inspiring an amazing loyalty . . . Johnson maneuvering to dethrone the unassailable old Jack Garner (then Vice President of the United States) as the New Deal’s “connection” in Texas, and seize the power himself . . . Johnson raging . . . Johnson hugging . . . Johnson bringing light and, indeed, life to the worn Hill Country farmers and their old-at-thirty wives via the district’s first electric lines.
We see him at once unscrupulous, admirable, treacherous, devoted. And we see the country that bred him: the harshness and “nauseating loneliness” of the rural life; the tragic panorama of the Depression; the sudden glow of hope at the dawn of the Age of Roosevelt. And always, in the foreground, on the move, LBJ.
Here is Lyndon Johnson—his Texas, his Washington, his America—in a book that brings us as close as we have ever been to a true perception of political genius and the American political process.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage
- Publication dateNovember 23, 2011
- File size20282 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Proof that we live in a great age of biography . . . [a book] of radiant excellence . . . Caro's evocation of the Texas Hill Country, his elaboration of Johnson's unsleeping ambition, his understanding of how politics actually works are---let it be said flat out---at the summit of American historical writing." --Washington Post
"A monumental political saga . . . powerful and stirring. It's an overwhelming experience to read The Path to Power." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times
"Not only a historical but a literary event. An epic biography . . . A sweeping, richly detailed portrait . . . vivid [with] Caro's astonishing concern for the humanity of his characters. An awesome achievement." --Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
"Stands at the pinnacle of the biographical art." --Donald R. Morris, Houston Post
"The major biography of recent years. Brilliant . . . Magisterial . . . Caro has given us an American life of compelling fascination. A benchmark beside which other biographies will be measured for some time to come." --Alden Whitman, Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"An ineradicable likeness of an American giant. Caro has brought to life a young man so believable and unforgettable that we can hear his heartbeat and touch him." --Henry F. Graff, Professor of History, Columbia University
" Epic. A brief review cannot convey the depth, range and detail of this fascinating story. Caro is a meticulous historian. A monument of interpretive biography." --Michael R. Beschloss, Chicago Sun-Times Book Week
"Splendid and moving. At this rate Caro's work will eventually acquire Gibbon-like dimensions, and Gibbon-like passion. . . . Caro is a phenomenon . . . an artful writer, with a remarkable power to evoke and characterize politicians, landsc...
Amazon.com Review
From the Inside Flap
Means of Ascent, Book Two of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, was a number one national best seller and, like The Path to Power, received the National Book Critics Circle Award.
"From the Trade Paperback edition.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.From the Publisher
From the Back Cover
"Proof that we live in a great age of biography . . . [a book] of radiant excellence . . . Caro's evocation of the Texas Hill Country, his elaboration of Johnson's unsleeping ambition, his understanding of how politics actually works are---let it be said flat out---at the summit of American historical writing." --Washington Post
"A monumental political saga . . . powerful and stirring. It's an overwhelming experience to read The Path to Power." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times
"Not only a historical but a literary event. An epic biography . . . A sweeping, richly detailed portrait . . . vivid [with] Caro's astonishing concern for the humanity of his characters. An awesome achievement." --Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
"Stands at the pinnacle of the biographical art." --Donald R. Morris, Houston Post
"The major biography of recent years. Brilliant . . . Magisterial . . . Caro has given us an American life of compelling fascination. A benchmark beside which other biographies will be measured for some time to come." --Alden Whitman, Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"An ineradicable likeness of an American giant. Caro has brought to life a young man so believable and unforgettable that we can hear his heartbeat and touch him." --Henry F. Graff, Professor of History, Columbia University
" Epic. A brief review cannot convey the depth, range and detail of this fascinating story. Caro is a meticulous historian. A monument of interpretive biography." --Michael R. Beschloss, Chicago Sun-Times Book Week
"Splendid and moving. At this rate Caro's work will eventually acquire Gibbon-like dimensions, and Gibbon-like passion. . . . Caro is a phenomenon . . . an artful writer, with a remarkable power to evoke and characterize politicians, landscapes, relationships. This massive book is almost continually exciting." --Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times
"By every measure---depth of research, brilliance of conception, the seamless flow of the prose---it is a masterpiece of biography." --Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Extraordinary. A powerful, absorbing, at times awe-inspiring, and often deeply alarming story. A vivid picture of the emergence of one of this century's authentically great politicians." --Alan Brinkley, Boston Sunday Globe
"The book races at Johnson's own whirlwind pace. A tour de force that blends relentless detective work, polemical vigor and artful storytelling into the most compelling narrative of American political life since All the King's Men." --Henry Mayer, San Francisco Chronicle
"A landmark in American political biography. The definitive life of LBJ. Caro has written a Johnson biography that is richer and fuller and may well be one of the freshest and most revealing studies ever written about a major historical figure." --Steve Neal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"A masterful narrative on a grand scale, a fascinating portrait of LBJ's activities set against a fully drawn canvas of life in the Texas hill country. By far the most significant Johnson book to appear." --Library Journal
"No mere political biography. Caro is on the way to becoming our finest fine-tooth-comb historian." --Jack Goodman, Salt Lake Tribune
"Magnificent. For understanding our recent past and the men and policies that brought the country to its present condition and aimed us toward whatever our future is to be, it's an immensely important work." --Bryan Woolley, Dallas Times Herald
"This is a watershed book. Caro writes with sweek and passion. From the first sentence I was hooked. All other biographies of Johnson pale in comparison." -- Joseph P. Lash
"Engrossing and revealing. This fascinating, immensely long and highly readable book is the fullest account we have--and are ever likely to have--of the early years of LBJ." --David Herbert Donald, front page, NY Times Book Review
"A superb and unique biography...Meticulous in research, grand in scale, this is a major work that will remain a tower of its kind."-- Barbara Tuchman
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B002GKGB0U
- Publisher : Vintage (November 23, 2011)
- Publication date : November 23, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 20282 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 1559 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #139,945 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #112 in History of Anthropology
- #114 in Biographies of US Presidents
- #172 in Federal Government
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his celebrated 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.
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, the National Book Award, 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"), two National Book Critics Circle Awards, the H.L. Mencken Award, 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.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Larry D. Moore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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At this time in the book the concentration will be on the two primary Democratic races in which LBJ was a huge underdog and we will see the makings of the ultimate politician as he will use all his political acumen and political favors to campaign using the Texas tactics of buying votes and in the end using the new flying contraption called a helicopter to cover vast distances on an exhausting daily basis. Never in the history of Senatorial has campaigning taken on 14 to 16 hour days with constantly pushing to cover ground that his main opponent Coke Stevens could not possibly do.
But the fact does remain that even though LBJ had the money, the ambition and the crooked politicians in hand he still remained behind when the votes were counted. Coke Stevens was an institution and it was not until Johnson had to pull out all the stops and had votes counted for LBJ which were not actual votes.
Caro shows a truly fantastic story containing two primaries where LBJ had worked the corrupt Texas political system to save his political life. It did not end until the last primary had gone to court. In this depiction of LBJ we see a highly energetic man that will do anything to win, and in doing so we see a man who in doing so sharpened his back room political skills which would be seen later when he led the Senate to some of the greatest left wing legislation
ever seen.
It should be noted that LBJ used the helicopter to fight for his political life when 20 years later as President it was the helicopter which would become the symbol for the Vietnam War in which quite frankly put an end to his political life. The irony of it all!!
What I found to be truly amazing about this book, is that, while reading it, you are never aware of the author. It is almost as though this prose was spontaneously originated by the walls throughout Texas and Washington’s Capitol building that were silent, objective witnesses to the events which shaped LBJ’s personality and relentless ambition. It is common knowledge that Caro devoted his life to researching LBJ’s environs in preparation of writing this book, moving to the Texas hill country and talking with virtually every person who grew up with, went to school with, or worked with Johnson, but whatever subjective conclusions the author may have arrived at whilst processing this research are not at all evident.
Hardly a hagiography, this biography reveals LBJ, warts and all, without judgement. I would not go as far to say that Caro is uncritical; however, he clearly has no agenda other than to reveal the events, both historical and anecdotal, that occurred during LBJ’s formative years and LBJ’s reaction to them.
As a result, the reader feels as though he/she/they is participating in the development of a complex, flawed,admirable and detestable character. This is why I so looked forward to plowing through the pages of this book until I finished reading it and why I look forward to reading the next volume, even though I already know what happens next...
Top reviews from other countries
[What follows is my original review from July 2019, since amended below]
However, I am annoyed. The edition on sale here is the Pimlico edition, the paperback. Barely 37 pages in a whole section of book just fell apart and came away from the binding. Now pages jut out, get bent, torn when you put it down, slip out and fall away etc etc. I value my books, take care of them and often re-read them or refer to them for reference again and again. A pressing that disintegrates within the first chapter is not going to stand up to repeat readings. A book (indeed series) this masterful deserves a good binding, a proud place on everyone’s shelf and to be read again and again and again - but the edition is not up to scratch. Get a hardback edition, if possible.
[Original review ends]
EDIT 08/10/20: Since I wrote this review, there appears to have been a new paperback edition of all current volumes of Caro’s LBJ, by Bodley Head. I’ve since read book two in the Bodley Head paperback and it is much better and have had no trouble, and so would recommend the Bodley Head versions if you wish to get them in paperback. I have amended my review accordingly but my thoughts on the Pimlico version remain the same, ie Avoid like the plague. Pimlico: Bad - Bodley Head: Good.
So the book itself is a well-deserved 5 star read but loses 1 star for the paperback format.
The picture that emerges is rich, complex and detailed. Johnson got things done - he brought electricity to the Texas Hill Country (against the odds - people named their children after him - he had transformed their lives); and he seems through a later invention to have pretty much turned the 1940 Congressional elections in favour of the Democrats. But there's always a dark side - he has no clearly discernible principles (he seems like a model liberal to FDR but to hate the New Deal to his Texas big business backers - for whom he wins government contracts, and from whom he funds his campaigns). He will do whatever it takes to win power.
The years of research that inform this first volume of the biography are clear on every page. It's impossible really to question Caro's narrative or most of his judgements (he seems harsher on Johnson here than in Volume 4 - by which time he seems to have decided that Johnson did have some political beliefs - they were just extremely well hidden until he became President, for the most part). Only one aspect of Johnson's life I'd have liked to know more about - his increasingly frequent hospitalisations seem to be linked to brief depressive episodes. They aren't, however, quite treated as that - Caro makes clear that they are partly psychological - but doesn't delve into just what's going on at these times in Johnson's internal world.
It's a great read, though, and I'd very strongly recommend it to others.
Robert Caro sets the stage,to tell the story of a politician whose ruthlessly brutal and pragmatic ambition,took him to great heights at early age,but earned him the scorn,hatred and distrust from his peers. The first part of this epic biography starts out in the barren,poverty stricken Hill Country,in Texas. The author paints a vivid picture of the hard life the Johnson family had,living in a part of the United States which was 20 years behind the rest of the country. Raised on a bleak,isolated Texas Farm, Lyndon B John,wanted nothing more then to break of this poverty and make something of himself. His father's former position as a Texas State Legislator,inspired his entrance into politics, but ultimately his father's failures drove him relentlessly,towards success,to avoid the poor,back breaking life,he experienced at an early age.
To reach the great heights he desired to reach,LBJ lied,cheated and back-stabbed anyone who was in his way achieving his goals.Which is a tactic that is effective,it earns you little friends in the process. In college he was a hated and unpopular student. But through the use and misuse of the colleges political system,LBJ was able to gain great power within the
college,the respect of his peers and the affection of the faculty.
After University,LBJ talents were no overlooked and his first experiences in politics, was as a secretary of a Texas congressman who had no interest,what so ever in politics. LBJ took advantage of his position and his bosses absence and became de facto congressman,using his position to learn how to play politics within Washington DC. By the time he was finished,the amount of influence and connections he made,laid the groundwork for a political network,that would prepare him for his first run for public office.
The latter half of the books goes into detail, about Lyndon B Johnson's tireless campaign for Congress,which earned him an unlikely victory as well as the start of a friendship with President Roosevelt and concludes with his first taste of political defeat.
Robert Caro's first volume on the life of rise of LBJ, is told with rich detail and intimate detail. Just like his contemporaries, I find myself hating Lyndon B Johnson for the tactics he uses to acquire influence and power, but there are moments I cant help respect the tenacity and endless energy he possessed,which pulled him out of a hard,back breaking life,like his father before him. By far one of the best political biographies I have ever read and could not recommend it more.








