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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating and wonderful book about a complex giant ., 18 May 2002
By A Customer
This enormous and wonderful book is the third volume of Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson.When I read thefirst volume,"Path to Power I was astonishedby the versatility and power of Caro's writing.I remember particularly his evocation of the harsh Texas Hill Country of Johnson's youth and his extraordinarily effective and moving depiction of the rigours of the life of the hill farmers' families before the coming of electricity. One read too of the young Johnson working on a Texas State Highway "road gang" in harness with apair of mules doing brutally hard work for pay of $2 a day.LBJ's determination to succeed ,to avoid the penury which befell his father stemmed from such experience,experience which nurtured in him an empathy with the poor,exemplified in his youth by his efforts to help his empoverished Mexican-American students during his time as a schoolteacher in Southern Texas.
"Master of the Senate" covers the years from his disputed election to the Senate in 1948 up to his election as Vice-President to John Kennedy in 1960.The book is so compelling,so gripping and,indeed,exciting,that one is never daunted by its great length.Even when Caro lengthily digresses on the history of the Senate or even more telling,the racial history of the 1950s it is time well spent.
Johnson was a powerful paradoxical figure.A marvellous intuitive politician he became leader of the Democrats in the Senate and Caro tells how Johnson bent that body to his will by intelligent manipulation and the sheer massive force of his personality and ambition.Ruthless,frightening,even cruel,early in his career he orchestrated the professional destruction of a dedicated public servant,Leland Olds,to satisfy his Texan oil baron backers and Caro cites many instances of of vindictiveness, of humiliation of opponents or those who failed to comply with his wishes;most unattractive too is his almost dismissive treatment of his devoted and adoring wife.
Caro discusses at several points just how genuine LBJ's compassion for the poor and unjustly deprived really was.In what became known as the Longoria Affair an emotional Johnson reacted to a Texan funeral home's refusal to extend facilities for thereinterment of a Mexican-
American private killed in the Pacific in 1945 by arranging a hero's burial in Arlington National Cemetery.This earned Johnson undying popularity in the Hispanic communitybut Caro points out that when some of the Texan power brokers expressed rumblings of displeasure,LBJ found it expedient to backtrack and distance himself from the matter-"my participation was limited to doing my duty as I saw it to this constituent."
There is so much that is unattractive about Johnson,extending of course to his famed physical crudity.In the earlier books we learned how Johnson would summon subordinates to take notes as he sat in their full view using the toilet;in this book we see a hilarious picture of the man sprawled in his Senate chair,legs splayed out,using a nasal inhaler with an obscene trumpeting snort that could be heard in the public gallery above.There is too a wonderful set of photographs entitled The Johnson Treatment showing how he used his immense physical presence to overpower and intimidate ,one arm round the shoulder of an interlocutor,the free hand grabbing his lapel to forestall an escape.
So much then that is unattractive,even repulsive in this man and yet there is much to admire:his intelligence and inventiveness,his perceptive analysis of others' strengths and weaknesses and gullibility.He was too,Iwas surprised to learn a remarkably gifted mimic and raconteur.
The climax of the book is the story of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.This is a wonderfully told suspenseful saga and one gasps at the audacity and intricacy of Johnson's balancing and manoueuvring and enjoys too the episodes and sub-plots involving other major protagonists like Paul Douglas of Illinois and Richard Russell of Georgia shouting at each other in temper across the Senate floor thus nearly wrecking LBJ's subtle calculations.Yet he triumphed.The measure itself was seen by most liberals as weak and watery but Johnson knew that the walls of the citadel of Southern intransigence had at last been breached.
This is a thrilling and engrossing book,great literature as well as great historical biography.Caro,s three books have expended about 2000 pagesupon his subject and one begrudges him none of them.I earnestly hope we do not have to wait too many years for the continuation of this fascinating story.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A manificent book, truly remarkable, 10 Jun 2006
This is an imposing book. Huge, and at first sight dull. Caro starts off with a history of the Senate. But he does so brilliantly, gradually developing a layered and richly drawn portrait of the context of his subject. By looking at his time as a Senator and the way he uses the institution to get what he wants this book presents a fascinating picture of LBJ and his times. A quite brilliant book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful History And Biography!, 5 Nov 2006
I took up "Master Of The Senate" on the recommendation of a state senate majority leader. I began the book with some skepticism because I did not like Johnson when he was president and I feel that his reputation has deteriorated since then. Long before completing this book I was very grateful for the recommendation. In it, author Robert A. Caro treats the reader to a work equally great as biography and history. He does an excellent job in revealing Johnson's character and accomplishments in the context of the history in which he lived.
"Master Of The Senate" is the third volume in Caro's biography of LBJ. It deals primarily with his years in the Senate from his election to elevation (if that is the proper term) to the vice-presidency. It portrays a man who was repulsive and clever, ill but indefatigable, obsequious and ruthless, loved and hated, respected and feared, but always successful.
Caro gives the reader an eye opening history of the Senate leading to the condition in which Lyndon Johnson found it in 1949. Although primarily covered in earlier volumes, Caro gives the reader an insight into the ups and downs LBJ endured on his way to the Senate. On a personal basis he portrays Johnson as an incredibly crude man, an open womanizer who demeaned Lady Bird while playing on the loneliness and vanity of The Powers of the Congress. After wondering how Johnson had any success in politics, the reader is summoned to awe inspiring admiration of his accomplishments.
Assimilating himself into the Southern caucus, LBJ ingratiated himself to Sam Rayburn and Sen. Richard Russell, two single, lonely men longing for a son figure to take make their lives whole. They were to be his powerful patrons who would advance his career to heights not open to them.
Just as the quest for the presidency was Johnson's sole goal during his Senate career, so the reporting of this quest is Caro's theme throughout the book. The pursuit of the presidency presented Johnson with his greatest challenge. A Son of the South, he had to build on his Southern base while distancing himself from it. While doing the bidding of the Southern caucus he had to destroy its power by changing Senate seniority rules and passing the first Civil Rights bill in over 80 years. Sections of the book detail how he put together a coalition which stripped the bill of its significance and then obtained its passage. His use and abuse of both Southern sponsors, like Russell, and Northern liberals, such as Hubert Humphrey, demonstrate a skilled and ruthless operator.
One test I apply in assessing a book is whether it leads me to want to read more. "Master Of The Senate" aces this test. I now want to read the rest of the series as well as other books about Johnson and other national political actors who shared his stage. Even more than before, I know, "In my heart", that Barry was right, but Robert A. Caro has made me want to know more about Lyndon B. Johnson.
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