The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 3)

Master of the Senate

Reissued as a Bodley Head trade paperback, the third instalment of ‘the greatest biography of our era’ The Times

The greatest biography of our era … Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics

As if it were possible, Master of the Senate takes what was already an outstanding multi-volume series on to a still higher plane. It is, quite simply, the finest biography I have ever read, or ever could imagine reading. It is more than that: it is one of the finest works of literature I have ever encountered, or ever hope to

The breathtaking detail makes it impossible to put down

Dazzling ... awesome ... Rarely will you come across a more compelling account of the nature of great power and its entanglement with massive personality. Rarely will you find another biography which is such a fascinating study of how a bad man became a power for the good

A wonderful, a glorious tale … It will be hard to equal this amazing book … Caro’s description of how [Johnson passed the civil rights legislation] is masterly; I was there and followed the course of the legislation closely, but I did not know the half of it

Quite breathtaking ... one of the great political biographies

This is as much a biography of the Senate as of Johnson’s time in it; readers will come away with a much deeper understanding of how the legislature, and political power, function

Robert A. Caro has been described as ‘the greatest political biographer of our times’ (Sunday Times) and ‘the most revered historian of his generation’ (New York Times). His first book, The Power Broker, published in 1974, was described in 2015 as ‘one of the greatest non-fiction works ever written’ (Sunday Times) and his ongoing multi-volume work The Years of Lyndon Johnson has been described as ‘the greatest biography of our era’ (The Times). With these books he has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, twice won the National Book Award and three times won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also been awarded virtually every other major literary honour, including the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, the highest award in the humanities given in the United States. Born in 1935, he graduated from Princeton University, later became a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and was an investigative reporter for Newsday for six years. He lives with his wife, the writer Ina Caro, in New York City, where he is at work on the fifth and final volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson.

‘The greatest biography of our era … Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics’ The Times 
 
Robert A. Caro’s legendary, multi-award-winning biography of US President Lyndon Johnson is a uniquely riveting and revelatory account of power, political genius and the shaping of twentieth-century America. 
 
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Master of the Senate takes Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate. Once the most august and revered body in politics, by the time Johnson arrived the Senate had become a parody of itself and an obstacle that for decades had blocked desperately needed liberal legislation. Caro shows how Johnson’s brilliance, charm and ruthlessness enabled him to become the youngest and most powerful Majority Leader in history and how he used his incomparable legislative genius – seducing both Northern liberals and Southern conservatives – to pass the first Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction.

The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 2)

Means of Ascent

Reissued as a Bodley Head trade paperback, the second instalment of ‘the greatest biography of our era’ The Times

Monumental … sets a standard by which future political biographies must be judged

Thrilling … never has it been told so dramatically, with breathtaking detail piled on incredible development

A white-knuckle hair-raising tale … riveting and explosive

Uputdownable … as compulsive as any Hollywood thriller

A wonderfully detailed, magnificently readable study that gives us not only Johnson’s character but also a vivid picture of America in the 1940s

His depiction of Texas is as brilliant as his account of Lyndon Johnson’s driven soul … a richly rewarding book

‘The greatest biography of our era … Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics’ The Times 
 
Robert A. Caro’s legendary, multi-award-winning biography of US President Lyndon Johnson is a uniquely riveting and revelatory account of power, political genius and the shaping of twentieth-century America. 
 
 In this second instalment we witness a momentous turning point in American politics: the tragic last stand of the old politics versus the new. Following Johnson through his service in the Second World War, it describes the foundation and the myths of his long-concealed fortune. The explosive heart of the book is Caro’s revelation of the shocking true story of the fiercely contested 1948 senatorial election, which Johnson won with the the ‘87 votes that changed history’.

The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 1)

The Path to Power

Reissued as a Bodley Head trade paperback, the first instalment of ‘the greatest biography of our era’ The Times

A book of radiant excellence … at the summit of American historical writing … Proof that we live in a great age of biography

A superb and unique biography … Meticulous in research, grand in scale, this is a major work that will remain a tower of its kind

Truly sensational and enthralling … totally original

By every measure – depth of research, brilliance of conception, the seamless flow of the prose – The Path to Power is a masterpiece of biography

Powerful and stirring. A monumental political saga … it is an overwhelming experience to read The Path to Power

Not only a historical but a literary event. An epic biography … a sweeping, richly detailed portrait … an awesome achievement

‘The greatest biography of our era … Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics’ The Times 
 
Robert A. Caro’s legendary, multi-award-winning biography of US President Lyndon Johnson is a uniquely riveting and revelatory account of power, political genius and the shaping of twentieth-century America. 
 
This first instalment tells of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country, revealing in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy and ambition that set LBJ apart. It charts his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as a Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate and his attainment, nonetheless, at the age of thirty-one of the power for which he hungered.

Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

The Power Broker

One of the 100 best non-fiction books ever written (Time) now in paperback for the first time

Simply one of the best non-fiction books in English of the past 40 years ... There has probably never been a better dissection of political power ... From the first page ... you know that you are in the hands of a master ... riveting ... superb ... not just a stunning portrait of perhaps the most influential builder in world history ... but an object lesson in the dangers of power

One of the great biographies of all time ... [by] one of the great reporters of our time ... and probably the greatest biographer. He is also an extraordinary writer. After reading page 136 of his book The Power Broker, I gasped and read it again, then again. This, I thought, is how it should be done ... said to be one of the greatest nonfiction works ever written ... Every MP, wonk and would-be wonk in Westminster has read [Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson], because they think it is the greatest insight into power ever written. They’re nearly right: it’s the second greatest after The Power Broker

I think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker back when I was 22 years old and just being mesmerized, and I'm sure it helped to shape how I think about politics

This is irresistibly readable, an outright masterpiece and unparalleled insight into how power works and perhaps the greatest portrait ever of a world city

A stupendous achievement ... Caro's style is gripping, indeed hypnotic, and he squeezes every ounce of drama from his remarkable story … Can a democracy combine visionary leadership with effective checks and balances to contain the misuse of power? No book illustrates this fundamental dilemma of democracy better than The Power Broker ... Indeed, no student of government can regard his education as complete until he has read it

Remarkable … we learn as much about the intoxication and addiction of power as we do about the bureaucratic titan whose imprint on New York bears comparison with his only modern equivalent, the smasher and rebuilder of Paris, Baron Haussmann … [with] his detailed reporting and rhythmic prose, his great acuity for understanding and describing the nuances of politics and power … [Robert Caro] has no contemporary rivals

Monumental … extraordinary … The writing never flags. The detail is never irrelevant. The sheer relentlessness has a mesmeric quality. The character sketches … are wonderful … the way in which he shows how power is attained and how it can corrupt [is] fascinating … This book has helped change the way history is written

An epic, meticulously detailed study of power in general: how it’s acquired, how it’s used to change history, how it ultimately corrupts those who get it ... Masterfully, Caro shows how Moses transformed New York in ways both progressive and backward, benign and cruel ... as an account of how power and ambition shape the urban environment, The Power Broker has yet to be beaten

The story of how Robert Moses made and broke people and places is astonishing. It comes so highly recommended that it is unignorable

A truly exceptional achievement … Important, awesome, compelling … extraordinary on many levels and certain to endure

One of the most exciting, un-put-downable books I have ever read. This is definitive biography, urban history, and investigative journalism. This is a study of the corruption which power exerts on those who wield it to set beside Tacitus and his emperors, Shakespeare and his kings

Surely the greatest book ever written about a city

Irresistible reading. It is like one of the great Russian novels, overflowing with characters and incidents that all fit into a vast mosaic of plot and counterplot. Only this is no novel. This is a college education in power corruption

The most absorbing, detailed, instructive, provocative book ever published about the making and raping of modern New York City and environs and the man who did it, about the hidden plumbing of New York City and State politics over the last half-century, about the force of personality and the nature of political power in a democracy. A monumental work, a political biography and political history of the first magnitude

A triumph, brilliant and totally fascinating. A majestic, even Shakespearean, drama about the interplay of power and personality

Caro has written one of the finest, best-researched and most analytically informative descriptions of our political and governmental processes to appear in a generation

Caro’s achievement is staggering … A milestone in literary and publishing history

An extraordinary study of the workings of power, individually, institutionally, politically, and economically

A masterpiece of American reporting. It’s more than the story of a tragic figure or the exploration of the unknown politics of our time. It’s an elegantly written and enthralling work of art

In the future, the scholar who writes the history of American cities in the twentieth century will doubtless begin with this extraordinary effort

This superb life of city planner Robert Moses is also an epic study of power that helped shape Obama’s politics

Even if you’ve never heard of Moses, the freshness of Caro’s prose makes this an exhilarating study in power

There has never been a better book about the art of politics, nor a more riveting study of what power does to an individual

Its ambition, which is vast, matches the scale of vision of its subject… Aside from being a considerable work of biography, The Power Broker is a near-peerless work of narrative nonfiction. Caro’s style is born of his obsessive attention to detail: he specialises in the rapid-fire accumulation of crushing facts, and the well-placed one-sentence paragraph that knocks you out like a sucker-punch… There are many moments of greatness in this brilliant book.

Robert A. Caro has been described as ‘the greatest political biographer of our times’ (Sunday Times) and ‘a world authority on the nature of power and how to use it’ (Guardian). His first book, The Power Broker, won the Pulitzer Prize in biography and the Frances Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians. His subsequent books comprise a multi-volume work, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, 'regarded by many as the greatest political biography of the modern era' (The Times), winning three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the National Book Award and a further Pulitzer Prize. In 2009 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama, the highest award in the humanities given in the United States. He lives in New York City with his wife, Ina, an historian and writer.

The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro is 'simply one of the best non-fiction books in English of the last forty years' (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times): a riveting and timeless account of power, politics and the city of New York by ‘the greatest political biographer of our times’ (Sunday Times); chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time and by the Modern Library as one of the 100 Greatest Books of the Twentieth Century; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a Sunday Times Bestseller; 'An outright masterpiece' (Evening Standard) 
 
The Power Broker tells the story of Robert Moses, the single most powerful man in New York for almost half a century and the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever once being elected to office, he created for himself a position of supreme and untouchable authority, allowing him to utterly reshape the city of New York, turning it into the city we know today, while at the same time blighting the lives of millions and remaining accountable to no one. 
 
First published in the USA in 1974, this monumental classic was a Sunday Times bestseller when published in the UK in 2015 and is now widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest books of its kind.

The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 4)

The Passage of Power

The fourth instalment in Robert Caro's multi-award-winning and bestselling biography of Lyndon Johnson, spanning a pivotal era in American history.

Monumental… For many politicians it is the finest book on politics… Magnificent…the tension between the fraud and ruthlessness that repulsed political liberals and the reaction of voters to whom he delivered, make Caro’s book the ultimate political story

This extraordinary work will remain essential reading for decades to come

A true story of huge personalities, bloody assassinations, loves, hatreds and betrayals (and the Kennedy family) that renders it by turns gripping, sensational and immensely depressing… A white-knuckle rollercoaster ride… Magisterial

A work of greatness, of such acute observation of politics that its insights are applicable far beyond [its] time and place

Caro’s strength as a biographer is his ability to probe Johnson’s mind and motivations… Riveting… A rollercoaster tale

Brilliant... Important... Remarkable... With this fascinating and meticulous account of Lyndon Johnson, Robert Caro has once again done America a great service

As riveting as a thriller… The next book will crown an achievement in presidential biography unmatched among presidential histories

Caro sets the gold standard for modern political biography ... we can only hope we are fortunate enough to see this monumental work reach its long-awaited conclusion

One of the most ambitious single-handed literary enterprises in our time

Long live Robert Caro… Truly epic political history and character study… Riveting…it elevates Caro’s tale to Shakespearean drama, as the coldhearted, Machiavellian maneuvering and hot-blooded rivalries of supremely ambitious men play out the fate of the free world at stake

A tremendous story, bursting with colour and character…the sheer wealth of political details keeps you turning the pages…gargantuan but brilliant

It is not often that I have muttered, “Astonishing”, to myself as I close a book. But I see what people were on about now. Caro is a brilliant narrator of recent history… It is a work of greatness, of such acute observation of politics that its insights are applicable far beyond the time and place of the United States, 1960-64

Riveting reading from beginning to end... The real tour de force in this stunning mix of political and psychological analysis comes in the account of the transition between administrations... An utterly fascinating character study, brimming with delicious insider stories... Unquestionably, one of the truly big books of the year

An addictive read, written in glorious prose that suggests the world’s most diligent beat reporter channeling William Faulkner. Passage is an essential document of a turning point in American history. It’s also an incisive portrait of one great, terrible fascinating man suddenly given the chance to reinvent the country in his image

My book of the year, by a landslide majority... Caro marries profound psychological insight with a brilliant eye for the drama of the times

A breathtakingly dramatic story [told] with consummate artistry and ardor... It showcases Mr Caro's masterly gifts as a writer: his propulsive sense of narrative, his talent for enabling readers to see and feel history in the making and his ability to situate his subjects’ actions within the context of their times… Taken together the installments of Mr Caro’s monumental life of Johnson so far not only create a minutely detailed picture of an immensely complicated and conflicted individual, but they also form a revealing prism by which to view the better part of a century in description of Johnson – and those of John and Robert Kennedy – have novelistic depth and amplitude… Mr Caro uses his storytelling gifts to turn seemingly arcane legislative maneuvers into action-movie suspense, and he gives us unparalleled understanding…of how Johnson used a crisis and his own political acumen to implement his agenda with stunning speed… Engrossing

It is the mismatch between Johnson’s fate prior to the assassination and his fate in its aftermath that gives this book, the fourth volume of Caro’s monumental biography, its compelling but also unfathomable flavor… Caro’s account of the day of the assassination… is a magnificent piece of writing. What might have seemed familiar becomes startlingly fresh, because it is seen from the perspective of the man whose destiny suddenly came back into focus as the world of those around him was falling apart.

Riveting... Shakespearean... It’s a rollercoaster narrative as Johnson plummets from the powerful Senate majority leader post to vice-presidential irrelevance, hated and humiliated by the Kennedy brothers, then surges to presidential authority with the crack of Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle and forces a revolutionary civil rights act through a recalcitrant Congress... Caro’s tormented, heroic Johnson makes an apt embodiment of an America struggling toward epochal change, one with a fascinating resonance in our era of gridlocked government

Caro has once again shown that he might well be the greatest presidential historian we’ve ever had… Although the amount of research Caro has done for these books is staggering, it’s his immense talent as a writer that has made his biography of Johnson one of America’s most amazing literary achievements… Caro’s portrayal of the president is as scrupulously fair as it is passionate and deeply felt… The series is a masterpiece, unlike any other work of American history published in the past. It’s true that there will never be another Lyndon B. Johnson, but there will never be another Robert A. Caro, either. By writing the best presidential biography the country has ever seen, he’s forever changed the way we think, and read, American history

The years of Lyndon Johnson, when completed, will rank as America’s most ambitiously conceived, assiduously researched and compulsively readable political biography… When Caro’s fifth volume arrives, reader’s gratitude will be exceeded only by their regret that there will not be a sixth

A great work of history… A great biography… Caro has summoned Lyndon Johnson to vivid, intimate life

The fourth volume of one of the most anticipated English-language biographies of the past 30 years... A compelling narrative...that will thrill those who care about American politics, the foundations of power, or both

Political biography of the highest quality… An unmatched psychological portrait of Johnson as John F. Kennedy’s assassination catapults him into the presidency

Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson is said to be on William Hague, George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt’s summer reading list

This book shows the mastery of Johnson in politics, and also the mastery of Caro in biography

A great and occasionally astonishing biography

One of the greatest biographies in the history of American letters

The latest in what is almost without question the greatest political biography in modern times… Nobody goes deeper, works harder or produces more penetrating insights than [Caro]

A major event in biography, history, even publishing itself… Caro has once more combined prodigious research and a literary gift to mount a stage for his Shakespearean figures: LBJ, JFK, LBJ’s nemesis Robert F. Kennedy

A masterly how-to manual, showing Johnson’s knowledge of governing, his peerless congressional maneuvering and effective deal-making. The Years of Lyndon Johnson is a compact library: brilliant biography, gripping history, searing political drama and an incomparable study of power. It’s also a great read… And, after thousands of pages spent with Lyndon Johnson, one of Caro’s singular achievements is that you want more

Brilliant… Riveting reading from beginning to end… The real tour de force in this stunning mix of political and psychological analysis comes in the account of the transition between administrations, from November 23 1963 to January 8, 1964… An utterly fascinating character study, brimming with delicious insider stories… Political wonks, of course, will dive into this book with unbridled passion, but its focus on a larger-than-life, flawed but fascinating individual – the kind of character who drives epic fiction – should extend its reach much, much further. Unquestionably, one of the truly big books of the year

This pile-driving book has all the ingredients of a great drama, the humiliating childhood breeding a lifelong desire (to be president), the failure (to gain the Democratic nomination), the humiliation (almost constant, by JF Kennedy) the sudden change of fate (the assassination), and the vindication (when Johnson drives through key bills that Kennedy couldn’t, and proves himself the most astute of politicians). Totally compelling

It is an extraordinary story of a deeply flawed character, told with such verve, such command of the facts, and such an understanding of power

The fourth installation of Caro’s masterwork came out this year and, cheeringly, there is no slackening of plot or pace

It is a profound portrait of two men, Johnson and John F. Kennedy, and the relationship between them

A fascinating story, Shakespearean in its passion and fury, as well as darkly comical

This pile-driving book has all the ingredients of a great drama, the humiliating childhood breeding a lifelong desire (to be president), the failure (to gain the Democratic nomination), the humiliation (almost constant, by J. F. Kennedy) the sudden change of fate (the assassination), and the vindication (when Johnson drives through key bills that Kennedy couldn’t, and proves himself the most astute of politicians). Totally compelling

The fourth volume of Caro’s magisterial work spans the five years that end shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, as Johnson prepares to push for a civil rights

A meticulous dissection of political and economic structures in the US… a riveting read by one of the modern masters of historical writing

Hailed as 'the greatest biography of our era' (The Times) this is the fourth part of Robert Caro's multi-award-winning best-selling work on American President Lyndon Johnson. 
 
The Passage of Power, 'the series' crowning volume' (Economist), spans the years 1958 to 1964, arguably the most crucial years in the life of Johnson and pivotal years for American history. This era saw some of the most frustrating moments of Johnson's career, but also some of his most triumphant. His battle with the Kennedy brothers over the 1960 Democratic nomination for president was a bitter one, and the ensuing years of Johnson's vice-presidency were marked with humiliation. But, thrust into power following the assassination of J. F. Kennedy, Johnson grasped the presidential role with unprecedented skill. Caro also provides a fresh perspective on Kennedy’s assassination from Johnson's viewpoint, and penetrates deep into what it was like for him to assume a position of such power at a time of national crisis. 
 
The Passage of Power documents Johnson's extraordinary early presidency, forcing previously abandoned bills on the budget and civil rights through an uncooperative Congress and striving to achieve what he saw to be the highest standard of office. 
 
In The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Caro shows a delicacy of touch and a profoundness of insight into the state of a nation under the hand of a political master. Collectively these volumes constitute a major history of America in the first three-quarters of the twentieth century.

Robert A Caro

Anyone trying to write in any form will devour it

One of the greatest non-fiction works ever written

Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times, on The Power Broker

Irresistibly readable, an outright masterpiece

David Sexton, Evening Standard, on The Power Broker

A stupendous achievement … Caro’s style is gripping, indeed hypnotic, and he squeezes every ounce of drama from his remarkable story

Vernon Bogdanor, Independent, on The Power Broker

I think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker back when I was twenty-two years old and just being mesmerized

A breathtakingly dramatic story [told] with consummate artistry and ardor … It showcases Mr Caro’s masterly gifts as a writer

Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, on The Years of Lyndon Johnson

My book of the year, by a landslide majority … The adjective ‘Shakespearean’ is overused and mostly undeserved but not in this case

Robert Harris, Guardian, on The Years of Lyndon Johnson

Regarded by many as the greatest political biography of the modern era

Researching, Interviewing, Writing

Robert A. Caro is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, whose landmark biographies are widely hailed as masterpieces. 
 
This is the captivating account of his life as a writer, describing the sometimes staggering lengths to which he has gone in order to produce his books and offering priceless insights into the craft of non-fiction writing, be it the pursuit of truth, the writer's process, the art of interviewing or the creation of literature. 
 
Including several of Caro's most famous speeches and interviews as well as new material, this is the self-portrait of a man who knows the meaning and importance of great story-telling - and, like all his books, is an utterly riveting example of that too.

Robert A Caro

Praise for Working

Anyone trying to write in any form will devour it

One of the greatest non-fiction works ever written

Irresistibly readable, an outright masterpiece

Anyone trying to write in any form will devour it

One of the greatest non-fiction works ever written

Irresistibly readable, an outright masterpiece

Anyone trying to write in any form will devour it

One of the greatest non-fiction works ever written

Irresistibly readable, an outright masterpiece

Books by Robert A Caro

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