Rating: 
Summary: A great way to spend time on a long drive
Review: This audiobook has been extremely well edited, and flows naturally from one chapter to the next. I couldn't find where the book had been abridged.Even abridged, this is a 9 hour package, which I found myself captivated by during a 6 hr drive by myself. The reader has an excellent tone, and imitates cleverly the regional (Southern in particular) accents of the Democrat senators LBJ was dealing with. This makes this long document lively, with passages that seem direct interviews. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: A master work with a central flaw
Review: I have read all three of Robert Caro's volumes on LBJ with fascination. Caro is unsurpassed as a researcher, and while there is far too much repetition here (similar evidence marshalled to make a similar point) and too wide a sense of relevance (was it necessary to spend a chapter, for example, on Coke Stevenson's happy marriage AFTER he lost the 1948 Democratic Primary for the Senate to LBJ?) and a lot of stagey writing, too (eg, thundering one-sentence paragraphs), the degree to which Caro succeeds in reconstructing a context for the most minute of LBJ's machinations gives priceless insight and makes this a truly exciting work to read.
The great flaw of these books, however, is that they make Johnson a one-dimensional character, a tireless self-seeker and manipulator of men and women who cannot live a day without furthering his ambitions. In the service of his cause, Caro's Johnson never commits himself, never gives a hint of his true views, if he has any. He started out as a New Dealer but with Southern Conservatives he always behaved like one of them. Then finally, added to this portrait of the shamelessly sycophantic bully, Caro also would have us believe that Johnson all along was an idealist who really wanted to help people, a trait that Caro sees expressed in LBJ's heroic early performance as a teacher of poor Texas children. This assessment will be borne out by the record of LBJ's presidency (Caro is still at work), when Johnson did abandon his Southern base and revert to the emulation of his original model, FDR. But there is no way that the Johnson has described so far will be able convincingly to be transformed into the idealistic reformer president Caro hints at in volume theree. The complexity of motivation simply isn't there in these three volumes. Caro's LBJ seems always to be approached through the eyes of others, whereas LBJ's own point of view remains elusive.
LBJ's life makes a fascinating story--that of a man who used every dirty trick in the book on his way to the top, then tried to use his position to help people. Caro's book would have been better titled LBJ and the Art of Corruption, for he shows that part of the story brilliantly--how money and power work together (roughly, power equals money squared). It's the other side of the story that is unconvincing here, and we are still left wondering Who is the real LBJ?
Rating:
Summary: The best so far
Review: I thought it would be hard for Caro to top "Means of Ascent" but I believe that he managed to do it here. I'm a political junkie and this book managed to teach me a great deal about how the US Senate specifically, and about politics in general. The best thing about this is that Caro takes the time to explain the difference between his presentation of LBJ and previous interepretations of LBJ. Caro has always approached his subjects as a journalist, not as a historian, and so his investigative work and his unwillingness to settle for the conventional wisdom, and to probe the veracity of LBJ's own statements prove invaluable in "Master of the Senate." I really felt like I was finally gaining a true understanding of the institutional history of American government reading this book. I can't wait to see how Caro deals with the Democratic nomination fight of 1960.
Rating:
Summary: what happened after page 500?
Review: Something goes wrong with this book after page 500. Great, powerful, driving, insightful, brimming with anecdote and personal detail...up to page five hundred. After that, a downhill slide. Virtually nothing of interest, page after page of uninteresting senate detail amounting to nothing, and - the sign of a true problem - when Caro reaches such a fascinating figure as McCarthy he provides not a single bit of personal detail or biographical history. Additionally, the whole writing style becomes very unCaroesque: ungrammatical, unreadable sentences, and a complete absence of narrative drive. What happened, Bob?
Rating:
Summary: The Master of the Political Biographers
Review: Absolutely brilliant! Master of the Senate is one of the best political biographies I have ever read. Lyndon Johnson comes alive as the great Senate leader and this book sets the tone necessary for understanding both the man and his presidency. Robert Caro is the Master of the American Political Biographers.
Rating: 
Summary: Like chinese food: an hour later, you're hungry again
Review: I should start by saying I feel badly that I am only giving this book two stars, but I think the biggest factor affecting the rating should be the book's substance and general tone, and that is what I take issue with. That said, I will point out that the style of writing is classic and the sort that only appears in great works of nonfiction. Caro really is a very skilled writer and others should emulate his phraseology. The problem with the book is that, even though it's 1000 pages long, it feels oddly unsatisfying. I read it through and found myself asking, "Wait, how did he get control of the Senate again?" When you really look at it, Caro tends to say things like, "If so-and-so senator couldn't be persuaded by money or by concessions [or whatever else], then Johnson would just use his power to get the vote." Caro seems to keep using this phrase - Johnson would just use his "power" - to explain things. But that doesn't explain anything, and when you dig down to see what it means, Caro doesn't have any more of an answer than anyone else. He fails to really convey the "why" of things - why no one would vote for Estes Kefauver to get one some committee, or why everyone followed Russell's word so closely, or why the Policy committee decided so much. Any attempt to explain it just hits up against some well-written but basically empty passage saying how "clever" or "feared" or "powerful" Johnson or Russell was. The real reason for this failure is the basic exaggeration of Johnson's power. Caro makes him out to be the wisest, cleverest person since Solomon. But instead of being "Master of the Senate," Johnson is really just "Master of His Times." That is because Johnson, instead of imposing his will on the majority, like some seem to believe, really just shepherded the pre-existing will to passage. The heart of the book, the struggle over the 1957 Civil Rights bill, proves this. It passed not because Johnson singlehandedly made them do it, but because there was finally enough liberal support, coupled with Republican votes, to make it happen. Johnson may have insisted on making the deal, but any majority leader in office at the time could have done so as well. So the book's main failure is one of emphasis. By devoting so much well-written copy to a great story (but re-telling it with Johnson as the prime mover), Caro gives too much credit to his subject, and his slippery definition of the exact source of Johnson's power is a symptom of this. Many future politicians will surely try to use this book to imitate Johnson's feats; too bad there really isn't anything particularly exceptional to learn from them.
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.
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