A few years back, somebody gave me a copy of The Path to
Power, the first book of Robert Caro’s planned five-volume
biography of Lyndon Johnson. My enthusiasm was about as genuine as
the combat reports from the Gulf of Tonkin attack that Johnson used
as a pretext to launch the Vietnam War. Five books! One for each
year of Johnson’s accidental presidency! Did the series include
every morning’s breakfast menu? A quick glance at the opening
chapter, which started with Texas rainfall reports from 1905 and
then reeled backward into accounts of Cherokee Indian attacks of
the mid-19th century, seemed to confirm my worst fears. Already I
had lost sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.
But once I actually sat down and started reading, my fears quickly disappeared. When I finished a week later, I ran to buy copies of the next two books in the series—Means of Ascent and Master of the Senate—and read them too. By the end of the month, I had madly ripped through more than 2,500 pages about Johnson (and he hadn’t even reached the vice presidency!) and began saying nightly prayers for the good health of Caro, then nearing 70.
So far, they’ve been answered. Caro’s fourth volume, The Passage of Power, is every bit as transfixing as its predecessors and just as detailed. Its 712 pages cover only the years from 1960 to 1963: Johnson’s unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination against John F. Kennedy; the rancorous negotiations that led to Johnson’s inclusion on the ticket; his tormented internal exile in the vice presidency; and the first month of his tempestuous presidency.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/09/13/power-without-principle
But once I actually sat down and started reading, my fears quickly disappeared. When I finished a week later, I ran to buy copies of the next two books in the series—Means of Ascent and Master of the Senate—and read them too. By the end of the month, I had madly ripped through more than 2,500 pages about Johnson (and he hadn’t even reached the vice presidency!) and began saying nightly prayers for the good health of Caro, then nearing 70.
So far, they’ve been answered. Caro’s fourth volume, The Passage of Power, is every bit as transfixing as its predecessors and just as detailed. Its 712 pages cover only the years from 1960 to 1963: Johnson’s unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination against John F. Kennedy; the rancorous negotiations that led to Johnson’s inclusion on the ticket; his tormented internal exile in the vice presidency; and the first month of his tempestuous presidency.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/09/13/power-without-principle
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