The Years of Lyndon Johnson is a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson by the American writer Robert Caro. Four volumes have been published, running to more than 3,000 pages in total, detailing Johnson's early life, education, and political career. A fifth volume is expected to deal with the bulk of Johnson's presidency and post-presidential years. The series is published by Alfred A. Knopf.
In the first volume, The Path to Power, Caro retraced Johnson's early life growing up in the Texas Hill Country and working in Washington, D.C. first as a congressional aide and then as a congressman. Caro's research included renting a house in the Hill Country for three years, living there much of that time, to interview numerous people who knew Johnson and his family, and to better understand the environment in which Johnson had grown up. [1] This volume covers Johnson's life through his failed 1941 campaign for the United States Senate. [2]
This book was released on November 12, 1982. It won the 1982 National Book Critics Circle Award. It was a finalist for the 1983 National Book Award, hardcover autobiography or biography. [3]
In the second volume, Means of Ascent, Caro detailed Johnson's life from the aftermath of Johnson's first bid for the U.S. Senate in 1941 to his election to the Senate in 1948. Much of the book deals with Johnson's bitterly contested Democratic primary against Coke R. Stevenson in that year and the Box 13 scandal. The book was released on March 7, 1990.
In the third volume, Master of the Senate, Caro chronicles Johnson's rapid ascent in the United States Congress, including his tenure as Senate majority leader. This 1,167-page work examines in particular Johnson's battle to pass a landmark civil rights bill through Congress without it tearing apart his party, whose southern bloc was anti-civil rights while the northern faction was more supportive of civil rights. Although its scope was limited, the ensuing Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first such legislation since the Reconstruction era.
The book was released on April 23, 2002. It won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the 2002 National Book Award for Nonfiction, [4] the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, and the 2002 D.B. Hardeman Prize. [5]
In the fourth volume, The Passage of Power, Caro covers Johnson's life from 1958 to 1964, the challenges Johnson faced upon his assumption of the presidency, and the significant accomplishments in the months after Kennedy's assassination. [6]
The 736-page book was released on May 1, 2012. According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on fourteen critic reviews with twenty-eight being "rave" and two being "positive" and four being "mixed". [7] On Bookmarks July/August 2012 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a 
(4.00 out of 5) from based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "Despite a few minor flaws, The Passage of Power is a comprehensive and compelling biography". [8] [9]
It won the National Book Critics Circle Award (2012; Biography), [10] the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2012; Biography), [11] the Mark Lynton History Prize (2013), the American History Book Prize (2013) [12] and the Biographers International Organization's Plutarch Award (2013). [13] It was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012). [14] It was selected as one of Time magazine's Best Books of the Year (non-fiction #2). It was ranked by the New York Times as #73 in its list of the 100 best books of the 21st century in 2024. [15]
In November 2011, Caro estimated that the fifth and final volume—expected to treat the remainder of Johnson's presidency and his life thereafter [16] —would require another two to three years to write. [17] In March 2013, he affirmed a commitment to completing the series with a fifth volume. [18] As of April 2014, he was continuing to research the book. [19] In a televised interview with C-SPAN in May 2017, Caro confirmed over 400 typed pages as being complete, covering the period 1964–65; and that once he completes the section on Johnson's 1965 and 1966 legislative achievements, he intends to move to Vietnam to continue the writing process. [20]
In an interview with the New York Review of Books in January 2018, Caro said that he was writing about 1965 and 1966 and a non-chronological section about the relationship between Johnson and Bobby Kennedy. Asked if he still planned to visit Vietnam soon, Caro replied: "Not yet, no. This is a very long book. And there's a lot to do before that's necessary. I'm getting close to it now." [21] In December 2018, it was reported that Caro is still "several years from finishing" the volume. [16] In January 2020, Caro said he had "typed 604 manuscript pages so far" and is "currently on a section relating to the creation of Medicare in 1965". [22] Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Caro postponed his research trip to Vietnam and a visit to the Johnson Presidential Library, but continued work on the book from his home in Manhattan. [23] In October 2021, Caro said that he was writing about Johnson's passing of Medicare and his escalation of the Vietnam War. [24] In December 2022, Caro related that he still hoped to conduct research in Vietnam. [25] Robert Gottlieb, Caro’s editor for more than fifty years, passed away in June 2023; a spokesperson for Caro said that he was “continuing his work on Volume 5 with limited interruption”. [26]
In a September 2024 interview for the 50th anniversary of his book The Power Broker , Caro revealed that he was steadily making progress on the fifth book, but was re-writing sections related to the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. and still had a substantial amount of work to finish when it came to writing about the Vietnam War. [27] He also revealed in separate interviews that he had completed sections related to Medicare and was receiving digital versions of Vietnam-era documents from the Johnson Presidential Library. [28]
Throughout the biography, Caro examines the acquisition and use of political power in American democracy, from the perspective both of those who wield it and those who are at its mercy. In an interview with Kurt Vonnegut and Daniel Stern, he once said: "I was never interested in writing biography just to show the life of a great man," saying he wanted instead "to use biography as a means of illuminating the times and the great forces that shape the times—particularly political power." [29]
There are plans for a Chinese translation of the series, collectively known under the title Lindeng Yuehanxun, published by Beijing-based Xiron Books. Chengdu resident He Yujia took four months to translate the first volume. She had not learned a significant amount of information about Lyndon Johnson in her formal education, and in accordance with her usual approach to translating non-fiction, she translated material as she read it instead of reading the entire work and then translating it. In late 2018, she spent four months translating the second volume, Jinjie zhi Ti ("Means of Ascent"), but as of 2020 the publisher still has not released the translation. Nor has He Yujia received financial remuneration for her work. Peter Hessler argued that this could be related to a decline in China-United States relations. [30]
Politicians have responded strongly to The Years of Lyndon Johnson:
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson previously served as a U.S. representative and U.S. senator.
Sarah Tilghman Hughes was an American lawyer and federal judge who served on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is best known as the judge who swore in Lyndon B. Johnson as President of the United States on Air Force One after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. She is the first and only woman to have sworn in a US President. The photo depicting Hughes administering the oath of office to Johnson is widely viewed as the most famous photo ever taken aboard Air Force One.
Richard Brevard Russell Jr. was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 66th Governor of Georgia from 1931 to 1933 before serving in the United States Senate for almost 40 years, from 1933 to 1971. Russell was a founder and leader of the conservative coalition that dominated Congress from 1937 to 1963, and at his death was the most senior member of the Senate. He was a leader of Southern opposition to the civil rights movement for decades.
Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson.
Coke Robert Stevenson was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of Texas from 1941 to 1947. He was the first Texan politician to hold the state's three highest offices. In 1966, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark marker number 5118, honoring Stevenson, was placed on the Kimble County Courthouse grounds in Junction, Texas.
Master of the Senate is a book that deals with the Senatorial career of Lyndon B. Johnson by the American writer Robert Caro.
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. Like its counterpart, the Senate was established by the United States Constitution and convened for its first meeting on March 4, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City. The history of the institution begins prior to that date, at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, in James Madison's Virginia Plan, which proposed a bicameral national legislature, and in the controversial Connecticut Compromise, a 5–4 vote that gave small-population states disproportionate power in the Senate.
Sam Houston Johnson was an American businessman. He was the younger brother of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Robert A. Dallek is an American historian specializing in the presidents of the United States, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
Robert Gene Baker was an American political adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson, and an organizer for the Democratic Party. He became the Senate's Secretary to the Majority Leader. In 1963, he resigned during an investigation by the Democratic-controlled Senate into his business and political activities. The investigation included allegations of bribery and arranging sexual favors in exchange for Congressional votes and government contracts. The Senate investigation looked into the financial activities of Baker and Lyndon Johnson during the 1950s. The investigation of Lyndon Johnson as part of the Baker investigation was later dropped after President Kennedy's assassination and Johnson's ascension to the presidency.
The Lyndon B. Johnson bibliography includes major books and articles about President Lyndon B. Johnson, his life, and presidential administration. Kent B. Germany in his review of the historiography noted in 2009 that Johnson has been the subject of 250 Ph.D. dissertations, well over one hundred books, and many scholarly articles. The New York Times and the Washington Post published 7600 articles on him during his presidency. Only a select subgroup are listed here, chiefly those reviewed by the major scholarly journals.
Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure as the 36th president of the United States began on November 22, 1963, upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and ended on January 20, 1969. He had been vice president for 1,036 days when he succeeded to the presidency. Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, ran for and won a full four-year term in the 1964 presidential election, in which he defeated Republican nominee Barry Goldwater in a landslide. Johnson withdrew his bid for a second full term in the 1968 presidential election because of his low popularity. Johnson was succeeded by Republican Richard Nixon. His presidency marked the high tide of modern liberalism in the 20th century United States.
Harry Cummings McPherson Jr. served as counsel and special counsel to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and was Johnson's chief speechwriter from 1966 to 1969. McPherson's A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider's view of Washington and an essential source for Johnson's presidency. A prominent Washington lawyer and lobbyist since 1969, McPherson was awarded American Lawyer magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died February 16, 2012, in Bethesda, Maryland.
The 1948 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 2, 1948. After the inconclusive Democratic Party primary in July, a hotly contested runoff was held in August in which U.S. Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson was officially declared to have defeated former Texas governor Coke R. Stevenson for the party's nomination by eighty-seven votes. The state party's executive committee subsequently confirmed Johnson's nomination by a margin of one vote. The validity of the runoff result was challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court due to allegations of irregularities, and in later years, testimony by the parties involved indicated that widespread fraud occurred and that friendly political machines produced the votes needed for Johnson to defeat Stevenson. After years of desultory opposition to Democrats during the post-Reconstruction years of the Solid South, Republicans vigorously contested the general election by nominating businessman and party activist Jack Porter, who waged an aggressive campaign. Johnson won his first term in the Senate, but by a closer margin than usual for Texas Democrats.
All the Way is a play by Robert Schenkkan, depicting President Lyndon B. Johnson's efforts to maneuver members of the 88th United States Congress to enact, and civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. to support, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The play takes its name from Johnson's 1964 campaign slogan, "All the Way with LBJ."
The Box 13 scandal was a political scandal that occurred in Jim Wells County, Texas during the 1948 United States Senate elections, regarding disputed votes in a Democratic primary involving Lyndon B. Johnson and Coke Stevenson.
Let Us Continue is a speech that 36th President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson delivered to a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963, five days after the assassination of his predecessor John F. Kennedy. The almost 25-minute speech is considered one of the most important in his political career.
Horace Wooten "Buzz" Busby Jr. was an American opinion journalist, speechwriter, consultant, and public relations expert. He was considered one of Lyndon B. Johnson's closest confidants before and during Johnson's term as President of the United States.
The Southern Caucus was a Congressional caucus of Southern Democrats in the United States Senate chaired by Richard Russell, which was an effective opposition to civil rights legislation and formed a vital part of the later conservative coalition that dominated the Senate into the 1960s.
The Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee was a subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services.
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