Rating: 
Summary: An Instant Classic
Review: "Master of the Senate," the third volume in Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, is a breathtaking work. Caro brings many talents to the story of LBJ's life; a gift for painting vivid word pictures of people and places; an ability to place events in context; and a clarity of vision that allows him to be unflinchingly honest about his subjects.The book opens with a lengthy history of the Senate, a mini-book in itself, and absolutely vital for the reader's understanding of the institution Johnson came to in 1949 and how truly amazing was his ability to master it. When Senator Richard Russell enters the picture as a significant mentor to Johnson, the narrative is interrupted for a mini-biography of Russell. It's of great value in helping us understand a man who played a pivotal role in Johnson's life and career. The great drama of the book is the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a measure that might have accomplished little in reality, but carried great weight symbolically as the first piece of civil rights legislation since reconstruction. The story of the that act is largely the story of the man who sheperded it through the Senate, Lyndon Baines Johnson. I've read all of Mr. Caro's LBJ books as soon as they've appeared. I heartily recommend all three of them, but this book stands alone very well on its own merits. For a true understanding of one of the great and tragic figures of 20th century politics, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Political history at its best!
Review: Caro's LBJ: Master of the Senate is truly a masterpiece on LBJ's tenure in the US Senate and the history of how that body functions. I have scarcely enjoyed reading a book as much as I have this voluminous study. Caro traces some of the great orators of the senate from the days of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, which he termed as the "Golden Age" of the Senate, through its decline, and finally up to the point of the emergence of a true political mastermind, Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson's ultimate goal was nothing other than the highest office in the land and every step along the way from US Congressman to Majority Leader of the US Senate was merely a stepping stone. But Johnson's years in the senate are the most remarkable. In his first term as a senator, Johnson became Majority Leader and the youngest one in history at that. In a senate that operated by seniority and where freshmen senators were like children who were only to be seen and not heard, Johnson had demonstated his great political skills. Johnson, as Caro pointed out, understood how to find power and how to use it. From the first day he entered the senate, Johnson determined he would find out who the bigshots were and then use his political charm to earn their trust. Richard Russell was the most powerful and influential senator in that great body and Johnson pulled out all the stops. Southern senators held most of the powerful committee charimanships in the senate and as a result, they as chairmen and as a group were the real powerbrokers of the senate. Johnson understood their importance and how to manipulate them and all the other senators to further his ambitions. Johnson understood that to become president he had to have the support of northern liberals. How Johnson played to both sides is quite interesting and entertaining to read about. One comes away with the impression that Johnson did not have any core beliefs, he just knew how to agree with all sides and make them believe he was one of them. Johnson also understood that he needed to have the financial backing of the wealthy and very conservative oil tycoons in Texas. One of the blemishes on Johnson's period in the senate was the utter destruction of Leland Olds who had been appointed by Johnson's idol FDR as chariman of the FPC and later renominated by President Truman. This proved how ruthless Johnson could be in destroying a good man in order to pander to these oil tycoons in order to enhance his political goals. The most remarkabe feat of Johnson's career in the senate was the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act that was utterly useless in its results, but was in actuality a feat that had not been accomplished since the Reconstruction Period. Liberals justly demanded more, but Johnson understood that a more liberal bill would never have passed. I greatly admired the courage and sincerity of people like Hubert Humphrey who fought so hard for Civil Rights. As a proud southerner, I also greatly admired southern senators like Richard Russell who had so much ability and talent, but all their talent was, in my opinion, put to shame by their vehement opposition to Civil Rights for blacks in this country. From reading this book you will get a good working knowledge of the history of the US Senate and how it operated then and hopefully be able to compare it with how it operates today. Lyndon Johnson was perhaps the most politically astute individual in our nation's history whose talents in working the senate are nothing short of amazing. A times humorous and at times appalling this is a book worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Award Winning Book
Review: Master of the Senate has won the 2002 National Book Award in Non-Fiction, The 2003 Pultizer Prize in Biography, The Carl Sandburg Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read..but
Review: I have been waiting a long time for this volume, as have many. It is well written and as thorough as can be done. I understand the need to clarify, but in the later half of the book, during the civil rights legislation, it get tedious...very tedious. At a few points I found myself saying out loud, get to the point! I enjoy Caro's deep sense of history, and reading this series has been actually a collection of smaller biographies on other great men and women of the time. I appreciate that he doesn't just drop a name, but gives us a clear background of the person and a precise history. He places the events and the times into a context that is understandable and enjoyable. I await the further adventures of Lyndon. I find him an intricate man and a consumate politician, who will do what it takes, even compromise, be "untruthful" and sneaky, to get his way in the long haul.
Rating:
Summary: Richard Russell's Prodigal Son
Review: In his quest for meticulousness and accuracy, Robert Caro sometimes sacrifices poetry for precision. It is thus a delight to absorb the first two chapters of this book, a seventy-five page grand essay on the institution of the United States Senate and its role in the governmental process. This portion of the work should be required reading for citizenship and voting. We have here informative prose at its best, a walk through the various institutions of government, explaining how each is unique. In particular, Caro sets forth a primer on citizen expectations of the Senate. In so many words, he argues persuasively that the Senate, as crafted by our forefathers, was a masterful invention. Tragically, its lofty mission as the philosophic branch of government was derailed by Civil War and Reconstruction, so that by 1949 it was little more than a helpless giant held hostage by regional interests [notably the South] and business [notably utilities]. Like a dysfunctional family hiding abuse, the Senate was long on form and corrupt in substance, powerless to defend and uphold the basic constitutional guarantee of equality, justice, and voting rights. That Lyndon Johnson would break this Gordian knot is almost beyond comprehension. Many reviewers have made note of Johnson's mixed motivations and psychology. Johnson's eleven years in the Senate did not, by any stretch of the imagination, render him more of a statesman and less of a wheeler-dealer. Caro's account of Vice-President elect Johnson's behavior in his last Senate days is almost comic. But the fact remains that in Caro's telling of the tale the 1949 edition of the sniveling servant senator of Texas oil and gas corporations was not quite the same man as the 1957 Senate Majority Leader who spearheaded passage of the first civil rights bill of the twentieth century. The author, a critic of Johnson's methods, gives Johnson his due and his place in history. One of the primary building blocks in Caro's story is Richard Russell, the Georgia institution who orchestrated the Southern block of Senators. Having run unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1952, Russell, in the Caro scheme of things, transplanted his own aspirations to Johnson, who had carefully cultivated his relationship to Russell as practically a son to the father. Russell was thus willing to bring the Dixie Band along behind Johnson, convincing his southern neighbors that by giving Johnson latitude in dealing with the northern and liberal branch of the Democratic Party, they increased the chances of a Johnson/Southern presidential candidacy down the road. Thus it was that only Strom Thurmond filibustered the 1957 civil rights legislation. Caro's "Russell Thesis" is essentially the backbone of the work. Without Russell, Johnson would have been no more successful as Majority Leader than his recent predecessors who had resigned into oblivion. I believe that Caro makes a very good case for this reading of senatorial politics through the 1950's. I do believe that the theory will not go unchallenged. For one thing, it assumes that the Dixie Democrats actually believed that Johnson was of presidential timbre, or for that matter, that they themselves would have wanted a Johnson Presidency. Johnson's Machiavellian methods and his borderline mania were hardly the stuff that would inspire confidence in a Stennis, Ellender, George, or any other card carrying Southern member of the country's most exclusive club. As Caro focuses so heavily on the Johnson-Russell connection, it is hard to know what Russell's allies really thought about Johnson. When one considers that the tacit but primary legislative goal of most senators of the Deep South was preservation of the "Southern Way of Life," [read segregation], a character of Johnson's sort might have served Southern senators as a diversion or political lightning rod. Certainly there was enough about Johnson to dislike, and any savvy senator, southern or otherwise, knew that Johnson's "walking around money" was not coming from the Sierra Club. Thus, while Caro emphasizes Johnson's power, he tends to underestimate the possibility that senators used Johnson for their individual or collective purposes as well. Russell, perhaps? Many reviewers have noted the trail of people who paraded through Johnson's senate years. One who seems to have understood him well [if belatedly] was Richard Nixon. One gets the sense that if Nixon, and not the hapless William Knowland, had been Republican Minority Leader across the aisle, Johnson may have had a harder time of things. Another significant personage is James Rowe, the New Deal veteran whose personal advice, detailed memos, and political assessments were stunningly accurate in keeping Johnson on target for the White House. Certainly the Macbeth character in this drama is Hubert Humphrey, whose idealism and principle wrestled with ambition and insecurity. Johnson needed only to play him, not corrupt him. Somewhat invisible in this work-whether due to actual sickness or design-is John Fitzgerald Kennedy, an interesting omission. Caro's only record of Johnson's assessment of Kennedy was a kind of disdain for the Massachusetts' senator's chronic poor health; Johnson thought he was "sickly" and "yellow," and not robust enough to run for the vice-presidency in 1956. [p. 646] Much also has been written by reviewers about the book's length. Aside from the marvelously crafted opening, there is some validity to issues raised about its editing. And, there is a bit of a time warp for the reader who devoured the previous volume hot off the press in 1990. One needs to do a reacquainting with the Texas oilmen, for example, who fueled Johnson's political ambitions. In doing the math, I have forsaken any hopes of seeing the end of the George Nash/Herbert Hoover saga in this life. I do hope I live long enough to follow Caro and Johnson to the White House, because it has been a hell of a story so far.
Rating:
Summary: Caro's Book Breaks New Ground
Review: Recently I finished reading Caro's masterpiece "Master of the Senate: The Lyndon Johnson Years" and found it to be an arduous, but enjoyable read. The book is ambitious in its attempt to portray a man's skill and craft as a Senator, while also showing the dark side of an already revered man in history.
Caro's introduction to the book paints the engrossing history of the Senate, while correlating it directly to how Johnson thought and worked. When a new individual, that had an impact upon Johnson's career or life, came into Johnson's life a brief and poignant biography of that person demonstrating what significant impact they brought to him. This also is one of the few faults the book has, because at times the book seems slow to a snail's pace, making the book seem cumbersome. However, once a reader manages to navigate past the miniature biography they are immediately rewarded with a substantial payoff.
The most intriguing parts of the novel are projected when Caro demonstrates the more sidious side of a great politician. As a whole, the reader finds out Johnson matches the archetypical bad movie politician. An abusing, profane using, womanizing man emerges, as well as a man who utilized his enormous frame to intimidate those around him. What makes this truly fabulous is that Caro uses such panache in doing so, that you can either love, or hate, Johnson in the end.
Overall this book is an engaging read, and the size of the book should not intimidate the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything you've ever wanted to know about the U.S. Senate
Review: The third volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson is a thoroughly researched and detailed account of Johnson's rise to power in the Senate. From the beginning, Johnson sought the keys to power, seeking out the powerful southern Democrat senators like Richard Russell and slowly becoming their trusted protege; then working his way into the once weak Senate leadership position and making it his own power base. As anyone who has read the previous volumes, LBJ's most cherished belief was power for its own sake, and Caro illustrates the many ways in which Johnson worked his way up, the way he knew who could help him and who could advance his presidential aspirations. He is shown as a forceful domineering man who regularly brought subordinates to tears yet shamelessly ingratiated himself to senior senators whose political friendship he coveted. Johnson is portrayed as one of the most dynamic politicians of his era, but with many negative and deplorable traits as well. This volume delves into the Senate of the 1950's, and Caro brings it to life, with Johnson as the central figure. It's interesting how such important figures of that era are merely footnotes now; a man like Richard Russell is all but forgotten now, but he was a powerful man who was both an eloquent legislator and at the same time the man who wanted to maintain segregation in the South at all costs. Other better known people are featured in these pages; Harry Truman, Joseph McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Sam Rayburn and Adlai Stevenson to name a few. At times there is too much Senate and not enough context of the outside world (until the chapters about the rise of the civil rights movement in Montgomery and other places). To be fair, one cannot fault Caro for such focused detail and insight; he has exhaustively explored Johnson's life in three volumes over the last two decades, and the Senate was truly Johnson's home in that era. In fact, the first 100 pages are devoted to a history of the Senate and the way it had changed by the time Johnson arrived.
In the first half of the book it is all LBJ, but he becomes almost a secondary figure at times later in the book. There is so much detail about various bills, backroom deals and subcommittees and the like that it all becomes pretty wearying once you reach page 850 or so. The previous volume, Means of Ascent, was a sleeker and more interesting narrative overall. Despite the overlength of this book, it is certainly recommended to those who are interested in the politcal landscape of that era.
Rating:
Summary: Master of the Biography
Review: Robert A. Caro is a national treasure. His three volumes (to date) on Lyndon Johnson are amazing: incredibly detailed, rich with beautiful prose, strewn with amazingly good sketches of other players on the scene at the time. The current volume, Master of the Senate, covers the dozen years that Lyndon Johnson was in the Senate, and the author makes sure you understand the situation when the subject of the book arrives in the Senate. To do this, he spends a hundred pages giving you a history of the Senate itself, from Daniel Webster and Henry Clay right up through the end of World War II. This leads him to illuminate what had been going on in the Senate for the previous decades. Always intended as a decentralized body (unlike the House of Representatives), the Senate, when full of independant-minded senators, can be unmanageable in the extreme. If someone doesn't like a piece of legislation, they can filibuster it. It's very hard to override such a filibuster, because two thirds of the senators have to agree to do so. Remember that each of those senators might, in the future, wish to filibuster themselves, and so they might be reluctant to shut down someone else's expression of reluctance. This led to the Senate not doing a whole lot during the thirties and forties, or at least not a lot that was controversial. When Johnson entered the Senate, the first thing he was confronted with was a Majority Leader who was so inneffective he couldn't get re-elected, and his replacement couldn't either. By the time Lyndon Johnson got the job, it was considered the death knell of your career. It also took a good deal of seniority to get there (you had to hold your seat in the Senate for a long time), and Lyndon Johnson was a new senator. How did he overcome both of these restrictions? Readers of the first two volumes, familiar with Johnson's obsequious relationship with legendary Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn (Mr. Sam) won't be surprised to find that Johnson found a mentor in the Senate and flattered the guy shamelessly. The individual was Richard B. Russell (one of the Senate office buildings is named for him), a patrician blueblood from Georgia who insisted that segregation was the only solution to the race problem in the South, and that anyone who said otherwise was trying to destroy Southern culture or something. He was courteous, friendly, elaborately cultured, and intensely polite. He never used ratial epithets on the floor of the Senate, as did some of the more virulent race-baiters from the deep South. Only very occasionally did the mask slip, and the racist emerge... The author has a wonderful way with prose, and his descriptions of people make this an extremely worthwhile book. I would like to recommend it to anyone interested in Lyndon Johnson, or the United States government, or politics in general.
Rating: 
Summary: Caro needs an editor.
Review: Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the previous 2 parts of Caro's LBJ biography, I eagerly awaited the publication of this book. However, this time I finally lost patience with Caro's prose. He is wordy, repetitive, and follows every tangent no matter how relevant. Don't get me wrong, much of the information is fascinating, but a good editor could have trimmed at least 200 pages and helped to create a much tighter book
Rating:
Summary: Riveting and authoritative
Review: It's not every day that I take a 1000+ page hardback book on a plane trip. But since buying this book in February I have taken it on several trips because I literally could not bear to be parted from it. LBJ was a puzzling and inherently contradictory character, a man with compassionate instincts who was nonetheless in thrall to some of the most base and reactionary political interests of his time. This book lays out with exquisite detail and nuance the odyssey he traveled from his early days in Congress until his finest hours as Senate Majority Leader, culminating in the passage of the first civil rights act in more than 80 years. Like many baby boomers who came of age politically during the Vietnam era, my view of LBJ was incomplete at best. I am grateful to this book for the additional understanding I have gained from it, and I look forward to reading the two earlier volumes.
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