Identify Of Books The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1)
| Title | : | The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1) |
| Author | : | Robert A. Caro |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 882 pages |
| Published | : | February 17th 1990 by Vintage (first published November 21st 1982) |
| Categories | : | Biography. History. Nonfiction. Politics. North American Hi.... American History. Presidents |
Robert A. Caro
Paperback | Pages: 882 pages Rating: 4.44 | 16011 Users | 895 Reviews
Narrative Supposing Books The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1)
The Years of Lyndon Johnson is the political biography of our time. No president—no era of American politics—has been so intensively and sharply examined at a time when so many prime witnesses to hitherto untold or misinterpreted facets of a life, a career, and a period of history could still be persuaded to speak.The Path to Power, Book One, reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and urge to power that set LBJ apart. Chronicling the startling early emergence of Johnson’s political genius, it follows him from his Texas boyhood through the years of the Depression in the Texas hill Country to the triumph of his congressional debut in New Deal Washington, to his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, of the national power for which he hungered.
We see in him, from earliest childhood, a fierce, unquenchable necessity to be first, to win, to dominate—coupled with a limitless capacity for hard, unceasing labor in the service of his own ambition. Caro shows us the big, gangling, awkward young Lyndon—raised in one of the country’s most desperately poor and isolated areas, his education mediocre at best, his pride stung by his father’s slide into failure and financial ruin—lunging for success, moving inexorably toward that ultimate “impossible” goal that he sets for himself years before any friend or enemy suspects what it may be.
We watch him, while still at college, instinctively (and ruthlessly) creating the beginnings of the political machine that was to serve him for three decades. We see him employing his extraordinary ability to mesmerize and manipulate powerful older men, to mesmerize (and sometimes almost enslave) useful subordinates. We see him carrying out, before his thirtieth year, his first great political inspiration: tapping-and becoming the political conduit for-the money and influence of the new oil men and contractors who were to grow with him to immense power. We follow, close up, the radical fluctuations of his relationships with the formidable “Mr. Sam” Rayburn (who loved him like a son and whom he betrayed) and with FDR himself. And we follow the dramas of his emotional life-the intensities and complications of his relationships with his family, his contemporaries, his girls; his wooing and winning of the shy Lady Bird; his secret love affair, over many years, with the mistress of one of his most ardent and generous supporters . . .
Johnson driving his people to the point of exhausted tears, equally merciless with himself . . . Johnson bullying, cajoling, lying, yet inspiring an amazing loyalty . . . Johnson maneuvering to dethrone the unassailable old Jack Garner (then Vice President of the United States) as the New Deal’s “connection” in Texas, and seize the power himself . . . Johnson raging . . . Johnson hugging . . . Johnson bringing light and, indeed, life to the worn Hill Country farmers and their old-at-thirty wives via the district’s first electric lines.
We see him at once unscrupulous, admirable, treacherous, devoted. And we see the country that bred him: the harshness and “nauseating loneliness” of the rural life; the tragic panorama of the Depression; the sudden glow of hope at the dawn of the Age of Roosevelt. And always, in the foreground, on the move, LBJ.
Here is Lyndon Johnson—his Texas, his Washington, his America—in a book that brings us as close as we have ever been to a true perception of political genius and the American political process.
Be Specific About Books In Favor Of The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1)
| Original Title: | The Path to Power |
| ISBN: | 0679729453 (ISBN13: 9780679729457) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1 |
| Characters: | Sam Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Sam Rayburn, Charles Marsh, Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Setting: | Johnson City, Texas(United States) Washington, D.C.(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction (1982), National Book Award Finalist for Autobiography/Biography (Hardcover) (1983) |
Rating Of Books The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1)
Ratings: 4.44 From 16011 Users | 895 ReviewsAppraise Of Books The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #1)
So far in my quest to read a biography of each President who held office during my lifetime, I have covered Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. I have been mostly content with the biographers I chose but Robert A Caro tops them all. He even managed to keep me interested for at least 80% of the time. Reading presidential biographies feels a lot like being in school, except that most of the American history I studied in school was deeply slanted towards the sentiments that all of our Presidents wereNot being American myself, I have no particular interest in US presidential history, unless that history can be shoehorned into an entertaining biopic, preferably with a British actor in the lead role. (I wonder who theyll get to play Obama when the time comes. Liam Neeson?) This book, though. This book is something else. Political biography is too pissant a term for this Ahab-like undertaking. Id call it a biographie-fleuve, but I dont think thats a real word even in French. Lets just call it a
"...if Lyndon Johnson was not a reader of books, he was a reader of men--a reader with a rare ability to see into their souls."-- Robert A Caro, The Path to PowerI'll write more tomorrow, but if the next three (and the final, yet to be written book) are as polished and well-researched as this one, this may end up being the definitive biography of any president. I loved Morris' Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy. It and Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton were nearly tied in my affection and
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson is the first volume in Robert Caros epic series covering the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Caro is a former investigative reporter and the author of two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies: Master of the Senate (the third volume in this series) and The Power Broker about the life of Robert Moses. Caro is currently working on the fifth (and, presumably, final) volume in his LBJ series.Published in 1982, The Path to
It would be difficult to overstate the breadth of this book, which covers Lyndon Johnson's life up to his failed bid to move to the Senate from the House in 1941. Author Robert Caro, no question a great writer, offers lengthy vignettes on everything from the Hill Country where Johnson grew up to a classic description of the powerful but lonely House Speaker Sam Rayburn. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book that also delves at length into the down and dirty of how Johnson came to power through
Lyndon B. Johnson what a magnificent, despicable, ingenious, unscrupulous, complicated bastard.Johnson was president when I was born, so I have no personal memory of him. And I had no particular interest in him until I saw the two Tony Award-winning plays about him: All the Way and The Great Society.These two plays covered Johnson's presidency, particularly his interactions with the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. There is little about his early life except what he relates in
This book was looooong! I wouldn't cut anything, though. As with other Robert Caro books, the content covers far, far more than the biographical subject. I read all about the inner workings of the Roosevelt administration, Sam Rayburn, "Cactus Jack" Garner, Texas machine politics, the ecology of the Texas Hill Country, and the creation of a little company called Brown and Root.When it comes to Lyndon Johnson, it fills in a lot of pre-history referenced in the other books and just makes me even
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