Stunning... - Rated 
Whether we like it or not, US politics are key to us Europeans. Whether we like or not - and no doubt there are times we like it rather less - the sheer power of the US, the ubiquity of US culture, our three centuries of shared history and wars, the blood shed by US soldiers on our land, the deep bonds that tie our nations - and no doubt there are times we havebvdeep reservations about these bonds - all make US politics key to us. And understanding them, and what makes them what they are, and how they came to be what they are, are fundamental for us Europeans to come to terms with a relationship that isn't always easy. And in order to achieve some measure of understanding, one has to delve into US political history, and into the history of US political institutions.
In this area, Mr. Caro's book should be compulsory reading.
If it were just a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, it would deserve the highest praise. Meticulously researched, unswervingly evenhanded in the appraisal of the central character, both critical and admirative, here is a book that reads like a thriller. Obviously, the chapters detailing how the 1957 Civil Rights Act became law is the most spectacular example of how Mr. Caro turns history into a fascinating, palpitating piece of literature that one simply cannot put down. The way the plot unfolds, the way the dramatis personae are brought to the stage, the way events big and small are brought to play is simply masterful. But other examples abound, that the reader will enjoy just as much. On literary value, storytelling power,historical perspective on the man and politician L.B. Johnson alone, this book stands.
What really fascinates, though, is the insight Mr. Caro provides in the inner workings of a great institution, the Senate of the United States. It shows its grand sides, its moments of grandeur, its solemn and momentous times, and its petty, dark, cynical workings. The opening chapters contain a superb short history of the Senate, bringing into perspective the tensions between South and North, liberals and conservatives, and the way these tensions modeled and conditioned the way the US Senate would mold,and quite often would refuse to mold US policy. The narrative builds up an almost palpable image of the institution and its workings. Fascinating stuff.
I could go on and on... Suffice it to say: the moment I finished reading,I ordered the first two volumes of Mr. Caro's LBJ biography.
Masterful History And Biography! - Rated
I took up "Master Of The Senate" on the recommendation of a state senate majority leader. I began the book with some skepticism because I did not like Johnson when he was president and I feel that his reputation has deteriorated since then. Long before completing this book I was very grateful for the recommendation. In it, author Robert A. Caro treats the reader to a work equally great as biography and history. He does an excellent job in revealing Johnson's character and accomplishments in the context of the history in which he lived.
"Master Of The Senate" is the third volume in Caro's biography of LBJ. It deals primarily with his years in the Senate from his election to elevation (if that is the proper term) to the vice-presidency. It portrays a man who was repulsive and clever, ill but indefatigable, obsequious and ruthless, loved and hated, respected and feared, but always successful.
Caro gives the reader an eye opening history of the Senate leading to the condition in which Lyndon Johnson found it in 1949. Although primarily covered in earlier volumes, Caro gives the reader an insight into the ups and downs LBJ endured on his way to the Senate. On a personal basis he portrays Johnson as an incredibly crude man, an open womanizer who demeaned Lady Bird while playing on the loneliness and vanity of The Powers of the Congress. After wondering how Johnson had any success in politics, the reader is summoned to awe inspiring admiration of his accomplishments.
Assimilating himself into the Southern caucus, LBJ ingratiated himself to Sam Rayburn and Sen. Richard Russell, two single, lonely men longing for a son figure to take make their lives whole. They were to be his powerful patrons who would advance his career to heights not open to them.
Just as the quest for the presidency was Johnson's sole goal during his Senate career, so the reporting of this quest is Caro's theme throughout the book. The pursuit of the presidency presented Johnson with his greatest challenge. A Son of the South, he had to build on his Southern base while distancing himself from it. While doing the bidding of the Southern caucus he had to destroy its power by changing Senate seniority rules and passing the first Civil Rights bill in over 80 years. Sections of the book detail how he put together a coalition which stripped the bill of its significance and then obtained its passage. His use and abuse of both Southern sponsors, like Russell, and Northern liberals, such as Hubert Humphrey, demonstrate a skilled and ruthless operator.
One test I apply in assessing a book is whether it leads me to want to read more. "Master Of The Senate" aces this test. I now want to read the rest of the series as well as other books about Johnson and other national political actors who shared his stage. Even more than before, I know, "In my heart", that Barry was right, but Robert A. Caro has made me want to know more about Lyndon B. Johnson.
One of the Truly Great Biographies - Rated
Even those addicted to the soap opera of politics would admit that not all political 'personalities' really deserve a biographic trilogy by a skilled writer. Lyndon Baines Johnson lived a life that would almost be better suited to Greek tragedy than political biography: raised in poverty, and after a dubious election found his way to Congress whereupon his ambition lead him to become a New Dealer and acolyte of Sam Rayburn, the then-speaker of the House.
After promotion to the Senate after another bruising election campaign, LBJ set about waking up this august house from its non-partisan slumber. Through bullying, intimidation, a certain dose of charm and any other tactic available to him, LBJ passed more legislation than anyone since Franklin Roosevelt.
Thanks to his presidency, Liberalism scaled new heights: its war on poverty formed LBJ's 'Great Society' and radically reduced the back-breaking poverty that many in the US still silently suffer from; his civil rights legislation put an end to the political apartheid that blighted many areas of the South; and his rhetoric created a climate in both Houses that embraced social change.
However, to misquote Mandeville, private vice can equal public virtue. Johnson was a bully to his wife, a tyrant to his staff on many occasions, and was obscenely crude and unstatesmanlike.
Perhaps this hubris, this taunting of the political gods, was the reason that he couldn't bring himself to play it smart rather than tough over Vietnam. His passion, and his talents, were directed at domestic reform, and it was a nationalist movement in a faraway Southeastern country that was to see the death of reform liberalism and the Democrats as the US's majority party. After being beaten by the unlikely victor of the New Hampshire primary, Eugene McCarthy, who had been running on an anti-war platform, Lyndon Baines Johnson withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States of America. His statement would serve as epitaph for the liberalism that he held so dear. His vice-president, championed in the Senate by LBJ from his first inauspiciously radical days in that conservative chamber, had the moral purity that LBJ lacked, but not the political skills to put the 1968 genie back in the moderate liberal bottle. The mainstream majority had seen enough. LBJ's life was a Greek tragedy, and Robert Caro has done us the service of making one of the great political careers into the biography that it so richly deserved. In so many ways this isn't just a biography of a man, but of an age, a politics and a political institution that exists no more but whose legacy lives on.
A manificent book, truly remarkable - Rated
This is an imposing book. Huge, and at first sight dull. Caro starts off with a history of the Senate. But he does so brilliantly, gradually developing a layered and richly drawn portrait of the context of his subject. By looking at his time as a Senator and the way he uses the institution to get what he wants this book presents a fascinating picture of LBJ and his times. A quite brilliant book.
Brilliantly told tale of a flawed politician - Rated
Caro really deserves recognition for a weighty but extraordinarily detailed account of Johnston's years in the Senate. Occasionally the minute detail which Caro deploys chafes but the story itself is compelling. Johnston is both ogre and saint. He is presented as so self serving, ambitious and ruthless in pursuit of his goals that the notion that he might have been involved in the assasination of John F Kennedy in order to achieve his long held ambition of becoming President can not be overlooked. A thoroughly enjoyable and very well written book.
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