Rating: 
Summary: Caro Needs An Editor!-2
Review: "Master of the Senate" is Robert Caro's third volume on the life of former President Lyndon Johnson. It encompasses Johnson's years in the Senate, from 1949 to early 1960. During most of those years, LBJ was either Minority Leader or Majority Leader of that body. Significantly, MOS does not cover the 1960 presidential campaign. Those curious as to how close LBJ came to the 1960 Democratic nomination for President or why JFK chose him as his running mate must wait for the fourth and final Caro volume. There are indeed high points to MOS: Like the author's previous efforts, the story is long, deep in detail, exhaustively researched rich in historical perspective/portraits and pulls no punches. Readers will receive a detailed, insider's view of the legislative process. The wheeling and dealing, horse trading, intimidation, pleading, vote trading, vote changing, lying, cruelty, threats and outright career destruction are all laid bare. So too are the often-arcane senatorial procedures and parliamentary tactics that LBJ perfected. In fact, LBJ expertly used all the tactics above. Caro also delves deeply into the "Southern Problem". That refers to the 25 or so Senators from the Old Confederacy who stood hard and fast against Government activism, especially any attempt to pass Civil Rights legislation. As a negative bloc, the Old Southerners could and did paralyze the Senate. Caro is tough on this group and deservedly so! Their leader was Richard Russell of Georgia, who Caro elevates to the second most important character in MOS. Throughout the pages of MOS, LBJ shadow boxes with Russell. LBJ can't afford to appear too liberal, for fear of alienating Russell, but he must be sufficiently progressive to satisfy his liberal wing, led by such stalwarts of Paul Douglas of Illinois and Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. To be the 1960 Democratic nominee, LBJ had to satisfy both wings of his party. All of the dancing above climaxes in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This severely watered down bill gave blacks the right to vote in all (then) 48 states, but little else. Caro reports that the Republican Vice President -one Richard Nixon- was de facto a stronger supporter of Civil Rights than LBJ but received no credit for his stance. Interestingly, a young Massachusetts Senator-one John F. Kennedy-is a minor character in MOS. LBJ thought JFK was too "sickly" to be President. Would time have proven him correct? There are also problems to MOS but the bottom line is that it is too long- way too long. Full disclosure: I borrowed the headline above from a previous reviewer, one Ms.VanAllan from Texas. She very appropriately called for an EDITOR! Does anyone do actual editing anymore? I further agree with Ms. VanAllan that 200 pages could easily have been deleted from the final text. For example, how many times does the intelligent reader need to be reminded of the "Southern problem", the Southern Blocs attitude toward Civil Rights, the lugubrious pace of the Senate or LBJ need to shadow box with Senator Russell? How many trips back to that ranch in the Texas Hill Country must we suffer through? Some of the "ancient history"of the Senate could also have been dispensed with. My guess is that the author has become 1) either obsessed with his writing/research of LBJ or 2) vastly too self-indulgent. This reviewer once took a class on the films of the great movie director, Billy Wilder ("Some Like It Hot", "Double Indemnity"). The leader told us that as Wilder became increasingly self-indulgent in his later years, no one in Hollywood would stand up to him and his last movies suffered as a result. The opinion from this perspective is that Caro is similarly guilty. No editor or publishing executive will discipline him. 2 closing thoughts: There were 13 states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy, not 11 as the author repeatedly (!) states. Finally, judging by previous reviews, it takes many readers some time to plow through MOS. Readers may wish to spring for the extra $$ and buy this book in hardcover. My (paper) cover was in sad shape when I finally completed the long and winding road that led to the finish line of MOS.
Rating: 
Summary: Typically brilliant Caro - a Masterful tale
Review: Once again, Robert Caro hits a home run. The third volume of the LBJ biography is even better (to my mind, at least) than either volumes one or two. The first hundred pages is the best history of the United States Senate I have ever read. Caro's writing style is never ever boring. He turns a phrase as well as any fiction author, and captures the imposing presence of LBJ. For the reader it is as if we were actually on the Senate floor, being buttonholed by Johnson himself. LBJ alternately cajoled, threatened, flattered, fawned and browbeat his colleagues as he consolidated power in himself as no one ever had before him. The story of this volume is Johnson's transformation from a typical Southern Senator, with all the baggage that entails, to the man who masterminded the passage of the first Civil Rights law in one hundred years. There is no question that the Act as passed was tepid, and the jury trial guarantee which was included in order to get the Southern Senators to acquiesce to its passage was enough to ensure that perpetrators of rights violation could do so without fear of conviction. Nonetheless, if only for its symbolic significance, Caro makes clear that this did offer hope to a segment of the population sorely in need of even that symbolic victory. There is ample evidence presented for those who believe that Johnson went through this effort and transformation because of his driving ambition to be President. His most brilliant work since the Robert Moses bio. No doubt this volume will join that opus as one of the most important biographies of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Lyndon Johnson: Mover and maker of men
Review: It's hard to reconcile the Lyndon B. Johnson as president that I watched when I was growing up during Vietnam and the Lyndon Johnson as Senate leader in Robert Caro's definitive and comprehensive book, "Master of the Senate". President Johnson always looked tired and sad. Caro's Johnson is full of the vitality and energy that I had missed ten years earlier. Slowly and deliberately, Caro sets out on a path to show the reader that LBJ was a man of tremendous complexity, imbued with an enormous drive and talent. Senator Johnson certainly attained, as majority leader, the peak job of his career in a sense and I'm sure a job that was his most satisfying, his mixed reviews as president, notwithstanding. That such a massive literary effort could be achieved showing just twelve years of Johnson's life is a tribute to both author and subject. Caro knows how to build and tell a story better than anyone. Setting the opening chapters as the prelude he gradually constructs an account of the mushrooming career of a man who could be charming and vulgar, obliging and vicious, honorable and ignominious, noble and petty. That Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon served together in the Senate and were back-to-back presidents is one of the great side stories in American politics. The characters in "Master of the Senate" are handled deftly by Caro, who always puts Lyndon Johnson right at center stage. There are men of great stature surrounding Johnson like Senator Richard Russell and Speaker Sam Rayburn, who more often than not and more often than others steered LBJ's career. There are some losers, too.....principled Senator Paul Douglas, who never seemed to get the hang of Senate politics, Senator William Knowland, who never learned how to count votes and President Eisenhower who comes off looking like an informed George W. Bush. But Caro saves his best episodes for the crescendos of the later acts, especially the Civil Rights fight of 1957. Through the middle of every storm there is Lyndon Johnson, HAVING to win every contest. I was particularly roused by one comment Johnson made to Katherine Graham, wife of (and later publisher herself) Phil Graham of the Washington POST. He told Mrs. Graham that "civil rights could be accomplished, not by idealism but by rough stuff." And since Johnson played rough (and knew how to count) he was always besting Senators Douglas, Humphrey and their fellow liberals who preached the idea but didn't have Johnson's ability to cajole, buttonhole, dealmake and even compromise when necessary. Although both admired and detested as a Senate leader, Lyndon Johnson was ultimately a man of astounding achievement. It is ironic that though LBJ sought the presidency so vigorously, he attained it accidentally. However, his home was the Senate and in that body he was an unqualified success. Robert Caro has captured the essence of Lyndon Baines Johnson and diffused it remarkably through the 1,040 pages of this masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the series so far
Review: This is a rather strange book. It is sort of history and sort of biography but really it is more of a novel. This is of course not to disparage the skill of the writer Caro. He is a person who is an accomplished historian and a master of the written word. It is more what he chooses to write. He writes history in the way that McCauley or Plutarch did. Not the dry recording of events but rather the use of events to tell a certain story or to say something. The story is of course that of the greatest champion of the poor and the Afro Americans since the death of Lincoln was Lydon Baines Johnson. Yet anyone reading the three volumes of Caro's story so far would never even guess that such was Johnson's destiny. Because no figure was less idealistic, more in the pockets of big oil than Johnson. His political background was Texas and his allies were the southern supporters of the Jim Crow system. However in a book of more than a thousand pages Johnson's future and success in civil rights is only mentioned as a more or less ironic aside. The book opens by describing the workings of the American Senate. How the bizarre seniority system and the strangle hold of the Democratic Party in the south enabled the Senate to strangle progressive legislation for a generation. A good deal of Caro's previous volumes concentrate on the character weakness of its protagonist. This book is very much the portrait of an anti hero. However the discussion of Johnson's time in the Senate show what a supreme political operator and tactician he was. He was able to become Senate leader within his first term. More importantly he was able to make that position one of importance. He was able to get his own party to override the seniority system and to create a dialogue between the liberal and conservative wings of his party. Johson was still very much in the pocket of big oil as is shown clearly in the hatchet job he did for them in getting rid of Olds. Yet Johnson was able to change the dynamics of the system, an achievement which dwarfs others who sat in that chamber. The climax of the book is the passing in 1957 of the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. It was an act which was limited to protecting the voting rights of Afro Americans. In reality it was never enforced vigorously by Eisenhower and during its course of operation the number of enrolled voters who were Afro American actually fell. Caro however sees this as a important event as it put civil rights back on the legislative agenda and more importantly gave Johnson the credential to run as a Southern Presidential candidate who did not carry with him the baggage of segregation. Reading the book one is struck by how much of it is not strictly history but more a book about history. However it is an intensely readable work which keeps you turning the pages and spikes up the interest. Caro is a master communicator so that he can use a few words to not only explain the civil rights era but he can conjure up the passions which motivated both sides. It is one of the best books on the American Political system to be written.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterwork of American History
Review: Again, Robert Caro has demonstrated that he is among the pantheon of major American historians. "Master of the Senate" is an impeccable added volume in his biography of Lyndon Johnson. Caro provides us with a thorough and engaging history of the Senate as well as detailed and understandable exploration of the arcane protocols and oral tradition that govern it in order to frame and effectively represent Johnson as a senator. While some reviews (e.g.: in the New York Times) regarded this history of the Senate in the volume's first hundred pages as superfluous, it provides an essential context for appreciating Johnson's tenure for those who lack a working understanding of the workings and traditions of that body. Particularly interesting is Caro's description of how the design of the Senate has assured the South disproportionate influence in the direction of legislative branch throughout the nation's history. While Caro describes an often vulgar, loathesome, cynical, protean (yet brilliant) figure he also strives to present him in the most objective possible light, suggesting that Johnson was increasingly oriented to do good as he sought to enlist the support of, and represent, the nation as a whole. It is clear that he was very sensitive to criticisms of the preceding volume "Means of Assent" and learned from the reaction, if in fact the criticism were at all valid. The length of the work is initially daunting; however, Caro's skill as a writer matches his scholarship and this is another very readable work by this author, which kepts the reader engaged and committed. I learned a great deal and felt that the time invested was very well spent. For years I have anxiously awaited this continuation in Caro's study of Johnson; the gratification was well worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: Political Biography Par Excellence
Review: The third volume in Mr. Caro's biography of Lyndon B. Johnson gives great insight into both the man and the institution. Caro masterfully describes the contradictions that were an elemental part of LBJ and how he made, for better or worse, an entire branch of government responsive to his will, and in the process, responsive to some of the core needs of the American people. Both of the preceding volumes in this series provide essential background to the full understanding of this volume, however Master of the Senate can easily stand on its own. Caro adroitly weaves the history of the Senate into this work as he did when he described the hardscrabble existence of the Texas Hill Country people in Path to Power and the structures of Texas politics in Means of Ascent. This volume, and this series, places Caro in the forefront of American biographers along with William Manchester and David McCullough. Mr. Caro, thanks for this great work and the thoroughness of your research and writing. Please send us the next volume soon.
Rating:
Summary: Caro Brings Relevance to the Known Stories
Review: Caro's Master of the Senate is a masterful sage of a mysterious man. One cannot decide if this man was pure genious, pure power-monger, just a bit evil, or a secretive angel on a mission. The answer is probably all of the above, and Bob Caro's mastery of the topic is that he places Johnson's actions against a well-developed tapestry of the events around him, leading to a more thorough understanding of his actions and accomplishments. I've been a fan of Caro's work since hearing him on NPR's Fresh Air and subsequently plodding through his masterpiece, "The Power Broker" on Robert Moses. Having read his first three volumes on Johnson (and just hoping to God he doesn't suffer a heart attack before finishing the rest!), I had the opportunity to travel to the LBJ ranch, library, and historical site in Texas last week. The first thing that struck me is how much of the LBJ story - so well told by Caro, and so interesting to me - was in fact common knowledge. It only seemed new to me, being a "northern boy" just old enough to barely remember the end of LBJ's Presidency. The second thing that struck me was how that common history, displayed and described in all the historical sites, came to a common end, lacking detail and relevancy. The museums are willing to go only so far, admitting, for example, how difficult Vietnam was for the man (what a surprise to any American, eh?). The museums left one with a superficial list of accomplishments. Granted, these sites are made for the masses, but without the details of the political realities, Johnson is just another President charting his way through the events of his day. Caro, on the other hand, leaves one with a deep understanding of just what Johnson was capable of. And in Master of the Senate, Caro is at his best. Caro, for example, spends a solid 30+ pages describing Senator Russell, his personality, his history, his power structure, and most importantly why he held the power and views that he held, so that the reader can understand how Johnson played (used?) him for his personal and positional gain, and why Johnson's rise to power was all the more impressive. That but one example of Caro's magic, and it is what sets him apart from all other biographers I have read. Probably the best reflection on Caro's throughness and honest approach to history was the reaction of the front desk staff at the LBJ Library in Austin, who, upon my commenting that I had read Caro's work, quickly pointed out that Caro was indeed "persona-non-grata" for quite some time. Nothing cuts like the truth... Happily, they too have seen the value and quality of his work, and it indeed can now be obtained in the museum store. I have not experienced a modern biographical work more worth reading than Caro's.
Rating:
Summary: In awe
Review: One stands in awe of Caro's ability to gather and digest so much information and then present it in a compelling story. No one who reads the first two volumes will be able to bypass this third volume. It continues the series with a story-telling mastery that one expects of fiction writers. The first three volumes are almost equal by themselves to a graduate degree in political science without all the hard work. And all of us who have read the first three volumes eagerly await the next, which will, indeed, undoubtedly complete the degree. But this book is not just for those interested in politics. It's for everyone who has an interest in the American experience. A classic.
Rating:
Summary: Caro is the best biographer writing in the U.S. today
Review: In this book, Caro proves himself to be a master of history and biography surpassing anyone else writing today. Caro writes about aspects of American history that would be lost to many Americans, and makes it exciting, even the legislative process can be dry reading. After reading The Power Broker, his choice of Johnson as a subject initially was difficult to understand. I have read that the Johnson family will not meet with Caro, and that is unfortunate, because with this volume it is clear that Caro admires Johnson, and understands his complex personality better than anyone else who has written about him. Here, Caro very successfully weaves together Johnson's life and times in a manner that shows Johnson as a tragic figure, virtually destined to follow his family's pattern of ultimate failure, because of his extraordinary ambition. I am determined to go back and read the first volume again, with its wonderful story of life in the Hill Country. Anyone interested in 20th century American history owes Caro a debt of gratitude for devoting his life to studying Johnson and explaining him and his times to the rest of us. I only hope we don't have to wait 10 years for volume 4.
Rating:
Summary: Caro Delivers on LBJ Again.
Review: As usual, Mr. Caro's work on LBJ is excellent. In particular, the book starts with a very absorbing overview of the US Senate, showcasing the concept of the founding fathers to make the Senate a bastion of calm and reason. However, he also shows the Senate's inherent flaws so keenly exploited by the southern senators who for many generations successfully fought off Civil Rights legislation. Mr. Caro includes a sobering and retrospective view of the Senate's inherent isolationism to include "what if" the Senate had ratified the Treaty of Versailles and America had joined the League of Nations. As an historian with a deep background in 20th Century America, I have a professional interest in the topic, but so should any reader with an interest in 1950's America, in particular during the tumultuous challenges brought on by the Cold War and the fight for Civil Rights . However, this book definitively showcases LBJ's years in the Senate. He remains a larger-than-life figure in American politics and his "history" is truly extraordinary.
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