Today’s New York Times Book Review has a review by Bill Clinton of Robert Caro’s latest (and fourth) volume in his ongoing biography of Lyndon Johnson. Readers here will know that I consider this as one of the two best political biographies of all time, the other being William Manchester’s unfinished biography of Winston Churchill.
The latest volume, The Passage of Power, covers the roughly five years of Johnson’s life up to soon after he assumed the presidency following Kennedy’s assassination. The volume was favorably reviewed by in-house critic Michiko Kakutani six days ago, who emphasized one of the main virtues of Caro’s biography: his ability to concoct a fascinating narrative out of what would seem to be boring political manipulations, like the passage of bills:
This engrossing volume (spanning 1958 to 1964) is the fourth and presumably penultimate volume in a series that began with “The Path to Power,” published back in 1982, and it showcases Mr. Caro’s masterly gifts as a writer: his propulsive sense of narrative, his talent for enabling readers to see and feel history in the making and his ability to situate his subjects’ actions within the context of their times. Of all the chapters in Johnson’s life, this is the one most familiar to most readers, but Mr. Caro manages to lend even much-chronicled events, like the Cuban missile crisis and Kennedy’s assassination, a punch of tactile immediacy.
. . . Mr. Caro uses his storytelling gifts to turn seemingly arcane legislative maneuvers into action-movie suspense, and he gives us an unparalleled understanding — step by step, sometimes minute by minute — of how Johnson used a crisis and his own political acumen to implement his agenda with stunning speed: a test of leadership and governance that political addicts and more casual readers alike will find fascinating, given the gridlock in Washington today.
Clinton’s review is favorable too, and not too badly written. Kudos to the Times for getting one ex-President to review a biography of another.
Clinton recounts some personal experiences with Johnson, and emphasizes one theme of the book that was present from the first volume: though Johnson was a bully, relentless in his ambition and, at least early in his career, often duplicitious and self-serving, when he became President he began using his power for wonderful ends:
But for a few brief years, Lyndon Johnson, once a fairly conventional Southern Democrat, constrained by his constituents and his overriding hunger for power, rose above his political past and personal limitations, to embrace and promote his boyhood dreams of opportunity and equality for all Americans. After all the years of striving for power, once he had it, he said to the American people, “I’ll let you in on a secret — I mean to use it.” And use it he did to pass the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the open housing law, the antipoverty legislation, Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start and much more.
If you haven’t read Caro’s biography, and enjoy politics, personality, great writing, and a good yarn, by all mean procure volume one of Caro and start reading.
If you have an opportunity to visit the LBJ Library in Austin, it’s worthwhile, as is the LBJ Ranch west of Johnson City.
I am reading Caro LBJ volume 1… fascinating. Also reading Hitch 22. He says that Bill was a pathological liar from day 1. He did not inhale because he was allergic to smoke but his room at Oxford was a collection center for “brownies” and “cookies.”
reading Caro LBJ vol.1 fascinating. Also reading Hitch 22 and he says some things about Bill that are not flattering.
Vietnam, anyone?
“And use it he did to pass the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the open housing law, the antipoverty legislation, Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start and much more.”, anyone?
“And use it he did to pass the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the open housing law, the antipoverty legislation, Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start and much more.”, anyone?
Bribes to keep US voters quiet!!. F***k the Gooks???.
“I just love the smell of Napalm in the morning” Anyone for genocide??.
Started reading The Path to Power about a week and a half ago, basically as a result of reading Jerry’s review of The Passage of Power. As of this morning I’m about halfway through. It’s remarkable what a bastard LBJ was, how he would even steal elections for his college’s student council and the Little Congress, and how much he craved power and prestige. I keep turning the page just to find out what this guy will do next. On top of that Caro tells his story so well that I just slide from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, page to page without really realizing how much I’ve been reading. And this is from someone who really doesn’t like politics all that much, for many of the reasons described in the book.
The story behind the books is also extremely fascinating. I’ve read several pieces describing Caro’s painstaking process and am amazed by the man’s patience and dedication to task. Hopefully he makes it long enough to finish the last book, and even if he doesn’t his has to be one of the most remarkable accomplishments in the history of biography.
All those wonderful ends? carpet bombing,napalm, genocidal slaughter, and all the other worldly delights that the vietnamese people are so ungrateful about.
I’ve previously enjoyed your blog and reelled in your rationality.
Its quite a shock to find that you support Johnson’s psychopathic tendencies??.
“But for a few brief years, Lyndon Johnson, once a fairly conventional Southern Democrat, constrained by his constituents and his overriding hunger for power, rose above his political past and personal limitations, to embrace and promote his boyhood dreams of opportunity and equality for all Americans.”
Oh, for chrissake. If I want fairy tale history I’ll go to Disneyland.
Johnson, and the Dixie-Daley axis controlling his party, did not “give” the American people a damn thing; those things had to be beaten out of them. They did not “rise above” their lust for power. They did not “see the light.” They did not “transcend their petty ambitions” when a magic princess kissed them on the lips. They reluctantly allowed these reforms to pass because the irrestible will of an outraged public left them no choice.
Why in hell do you think Johnson sent a half-million troops to Vietnam, to wage a war his own generals told him he’d lose? And please, oh please, do not give me the shopworn excuse, “the right wingers made him do it.” If I want that, I’ll head over to Balloon Juice.
He sent them there for one purpose: to destroy the civil rights movement. By placing the nation at war, he could divide the civil rights leadership and use the war as an excuse to delay reform; it was only the outrage of an awakened American people that forced those reforms to pass, and they finally had to drive him from office to do it.
The whole purpose of the Vietnam war was to sabotage the reforms Johnson is now being given credit for!
The purpose of historical writing such as Caro’s is to blind you to the truth: Magic doesn’t work, angels don’t exist, and the powerful are never going to do the right thing until we leave them no choice, and when they do, it’ll probable be what they wanted rather than what we wanted. It astonishes me that Mr. Coyne, a relentless critic of religion’s magical thinking, would greet the above fairy tale platitudes with anything but derision.
+1
Caro doesn’t sugar-coat anything about LBJ – as anybody who has read, in the second volume titled “Means of Ascent,” the account of how “Landslide Lyndon” flat-out stole his 1948 Senate election from Coke Stevenson through his machinations in the Rio Grande valley with “Ballot Box 13” would know.
IIRC, Caro describes the civil rights legislation (accurately, I think) as the “golden thread” running through the otherwise “purple ribbon” of LBJ’s career. The fact is, no one else — especially no one else at all likely to find himself occupying the White House at the time — could have rammed the civil rights, voting rights, and fair housing acts into law, especially when it came to ramming them through his old-stomping ground in the U.S. Senate, where Johnson’s old buddies in the hidebound Southern delegation had successfully resisted even the most-tepid anti-lynching laws for the better part of a century after the Civil War.
I expect that Caro, as is his wont, will go into exhausting and withering detail in his final volume about Johnson’s folly in Viet Nam — the debacle that split LBJ wide open and carved him out like a ripe mango, then sent his withered old ass back to his Texas ranch to live out the rest of his short, wretched life in the ignominy he earned in Southeast Asia.
I am not a Johnson fan but I think Caro’s writing is tremendous…just as Jerry has stated.
Caro’s biography of LBJ is one of the rare works that earns the adjective “magisterial.” It is packed full of set pieces — on everything from the Comanche wars; the Texas Hill country; the history of the U.S. Senate dating back to Calhoun, Clay, and Webster; to stand-alone biographies of Sam Rayburn, Richard Russell, “pass the biscuits” Papi O’Donnell and many more — that make it worth the read even if it never mentioned LBJ.
Opening a new volume of Caro’s work is like opening a box full of presents, like a “CARE package” from a favorite uncle — chock full of family memorabilia, disclosing new sides to well-known family members, and introducing others, previously unknown, who played a huge role in the family’s history.
I’m reading his bio of Robert Moses now and found “The Path to Power” on my dad’s bookshelf. Can’t wait to get started on it!