Rating: 
Summary: Five stars, but...
Review: An excellent continuation of the author's series on LBJ. Can't wait for the next volume. Extremely well written, smooth flowing prose. It takes a lot of guts to start a boigraphy of LBJ with 105 pages of history of the US Senate from 1800, but Caro pulls it off smoothly and enjoyably. Lots of research, lots of great prose, fascinating subject for a biography -- what more could you want?
The only drawback -- and I almost deducted a few stars for this -- is that Caro is a charter member of the knee-jerk liberal club. Got any kind of problem? Quick -- enact more laws, have the Federal government spend more money! Caro never met a regulation he didn't like, including, remarkably, rent control, a dismal failure everywhere it has been tried. He also hates the South and every senator from the South, and calls all Republicans "Neanderthals" and "primitives". This gets hard to stomach pretty fast. It is annoying to have to make allowances for his flagrant biases on every page, but the book is still worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: LBJ gets his due
Review: I first heard about Caro's work in the New Yorker & having always felt LBJ got a short shrift in history - I was eager to read this book. This doesn't even cover his vice presidency or presidency - which will make even more engrossing reading for sure. The re-evaluation of LBJ's legacy now is especially pertinent given the current situation of another Texan in office facing a foreign crisis whose parameters remain frighteningly unknown. FYI, I noticed HBO has a movie coming out soon Path to War about LBJ's decisions that led to the escalation of the Viet Nam conflict. Looks fascinating as well, and hopefully along with the Caro biography - a more complete, well-rounded view of LBJ will emerge for the public at large.
Rating:
Summary: Caro is the best
Review: I have looked forward to this book since the moment I closed Means of Accent, the second volume in Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson. I have no particular interest in Johnson, but Caro weaves an enthralling tell of his life and times that the pages turn themselves. Master of the Senate delivers on every level.
Rating:
Summary: A GIANT TEXAS BARBECUE OF A BIOGRAPHY....
Review: This book was well worth the wait. Those who read "Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent", the first two books in the series, will not be disappointed. It's all here. The chicanery, the manipulation, the ruthless and low cunning mixed up with the soaring idealism, the deep compassion, the empathy for the poor and oppressed that together made up the contradictory character of LBJ. This book does not simply capture LBJ, it also captures the Senate and its other powerful men--Russell, Humphrey, Douglas, Hayden, and so on. The book brings to life the arcane political maneuverings surrounding events--some long forgotten like the Leland Olds confirmation battle where LBJ ruthlessly destroyed a liberal government regulator to keep Texas oil campaign contributions coming, others of great import like the great parliamentary battles that paved the way for civil rights legislation. Master of the Senate has all the marks we come to associate with a Caro biography--the lavish James Mitchneresque descriptions, the Edward Gibbon literary prose, the painstaking documentation and in-depth interviews of people who knew LBJ. This book is biography as we have not seen in a long time in the grand, multi-volume Victorian style. Long life, good health, and prosperity to Robert Caro so he can write Volume IV!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Johnson -- The Master Politician
Review: First of all, who's better at bringing to life political history than Caro? The research he's done is truly impressive, and the stories he tells are quite engrossing. As the drama of the story unfolds and Johnson is shown to be the Master of the Senate, Caros is shown to be the master of political history. The intensity of his writing and the colorful accounts combine to make a brilliant book. 1. Caro points out how there were very few people before Johnson who really understood the inter-workings of the political machine and more importantly, how to manipulate it. Johnson was superior at maneuvering the Senate to get what he wanted. 2. The book clearly documents how Johnson pulled off the 1957 Civil Rights Act. This accomplishment showed Johnson's ambition and drive. The darker side of this feat was the means used to achieve it were somewhat ruthless. He forced his way through the Senate. (This is much more common today, but should it be tolerated and accepted like it is?) 3. Johnson was rather anxious and suffered from depression -- it could be argued that much of the cause of his external anguish was the use of his cut-throat tactics. However, I think Caro is fairly gracious here. Still, not all means are justifiable even though the ends may be good. I'm not sure if LBJ clearly understood this. In summary, Caro writes a provocative book and one which develops Johnson's work in the Senate with care and wit.
Rating:
Summary: Master of the Senate is a masterpiece
Review: The introduction alone is worth the price of the book. It is certain to win the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Caro holds your interest throughout the book. Every student of political science should keep this book handy at all times.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This is the least successful of the three volumes of Caro's Johnson biography. One reason is that Johnson has ARRIVED and is a senator. The previous two volumes dealt with the PURSUIT, which inevitably is more dramatic. Yes, the manipulations he pulls to increase his power in the Senate are interesting. And the history of the Senate itself is interesting (mostly). But the passing of legislation isn't as gripping. And I am not convinced that Johnson was compassionate. As James Rowe says to Johnson in this book, "You'll never be President if you don't pass civil rights legislation." THAT'S why Johnson was pro-civil rights. Not because he was compassionate, but because he wanted to be President. Johnson was a border-line sociopath, if anything, bereft of compassion. This book is over 1,000 pages and could have been shorter. But it IS interesting and I do recommend it. Johnson is certainly a fascinating character to read about, and to read of his heart attack and his reaction to it is fascinating. Much else is fascinating in this book, too.
Rating:
Summary: Update on the Next Volume
Review: Just had to share some information on the next volume, I heard Robert Caro being interviewed today and he said that he expects his next LBJ book to be completed in 4 or 5 years. The reason this book took so long is that he has been also doing a lot of research on the next volume (LBJ's Vice-Presidency and Presidency years), because he needed to interview so many people before they die, several already have. Caro said that not only did he interview so many people from the LBJ administration, but he also had to read their papers, documents, etc. So, in effect, a lot of the ground work for Volume 4 has already been done.
I just started reading this volume and so far it has exceeded my expectations - wonderful detail without going overboard, fascinating perspective into that era. Caro is a great writer.
Rating:
Summary: An insightful look at both the Senate and Johnson
Review: Robert Caro's account of Johnson reveals him to be a determined and politically savvy person but equally fascinating is the portrayal of the Seante itself, firmly entrenched against social change in the pre-1950's years (at least, as Caro describes it).
But Caro doesn't stop there. He does an excellent job of creating an in-depth analysis of Johnson, of society in those years and, finally, the Civil Rights Act. For sheer depth of research and enlightening tidbits about Johnson and his years in the Senate, this one is hard to top!
Rating:
Summary: An amazing biography and work of history
Review: Readers who found themselves devouring David McCullough's superb biography of John Adams and Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" may think it's a new phenomenon for works of history and biography to be as compellingly written as a novel by John Grisham or Stephen King. But Robert Caro set the standard years with his enormous biography of New York City mogul Robert Moses (which appeared in the early 1970s) and with the first volume of his monumental biography of Lyndon Johnson (which appeared in 1982). Caro knows how to tell a story like no one else. Like its two predecessors, "Master of the Senate" will keep you up long after you know you should turn off the lights and go to sleep. This is not merely lively writing; it is meticulously researched political and social history, and it is the story of a man who was larger than life, in the full sense of that cliched term. During his lifetime, no one, even his closest colleagues and family members, could have known or understood half as much about Lyndon Johnson as Robert Caro has learned in his nearly thirty years of researching Johnson's life and times. Every colorful detail recounted by Caro fascinates, sometimes morbidly, for Johnson's many character defects tended to overshadow his real accomplishments and his place in 20th century American history. Caro does not stint on either character defects or accomplishments. I waited restlessly for ten years for this volume, wondering when -- and if -- it would appear, wondering whether Caro would have the health and strength to research and write it. His life of Johnson was originally to have been three volumes; now a fourth will be needed. One wonders whether Caro, who took more than 1100 pages in "Master of the Senate" to cover Johnson's 12-year career in the Senate, will be able to cover his vice-presidency, presidency, and post-presidency life in one final volume. After waiting ten years, I devoured "Master of the Senate in five days. It did not disappoint. I could not possibly recommend a book more enthusiastically.
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