The passage of power
Continues Johnson's career from the 1960 elections through his vice presidency to the first months of his presidency.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
3people
2012–2025years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Short answer, yes.
Longer answer - from my prospective - I enjoyed the first book Path to Power the most, which revolves around LBJs early life up to becoming a US Representative. I thought it was very on par with the Power Broker. That an the Power Broker would probably be my first recommendation to an ambitious college kid who wants to know the real Politik of how the world works.
The next book Means of Assent was my least favorite of Caro’s books, but still highly enjoyable.
Master of the Senate and Passage of Power are both great. But sort of specific to LBJs spot in life. Great, but I’m not sure they sparked my thinking quite the way the Power Broker and Path to Power did.
- "The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson" Robert Caro
LBJ "hacked" the American Senate, understanding its operations better than anyone perhaps ever. He further understood its role in American politics, and the impact of American politics upon it. This 3rd volume of Caro's multi-volume biography covers LBJ's adoption of the vice-presidency, why his hopes of dominating JFK from that position failed (tldr; Kennedy was much, much smarter that Johnson understood), and Johnson's extraordinary transition to the Presidency on Kennedy's assassination.
The book would be outstanding simply for its sketches of JFK and RFK, figures secondary to its primary focus. Taken as a whole it's required required reading for anyone thinking they understood politics.
- >They had banked on Murati calming employees while they searched for a CEO. Instead, she was leading her colleagues in a revolt against the board.
I finally finished the 4th of Caro's books about LBJ, "The Passage of Power", largest part about how LBJ dealt with assassination. Over and over shows how LBJ made sure that nobody, meaning world leaders, citizens, others in government, and, relevant here, also those in the Kennedy administration would feel lost and want to resign. Caro made sure to note how this is a very difficult task and required LBJ to act differently than normal, but also how important it is to not have things go into disarray which easily happens.
Side note: Astounding notes of how LBJ was able to get bills that weren't going to get through congress with Kennedy were pushed through and made possible by Johnson. Quote to end a chapter by Richard Russell, southern complete segregationist and racist, says "You know, we could have beaten John Kennedy on civil rights, but we can't Johnson." Other side, Caro makes certain however about how the coming issues of Vietnam show the darker side of LBJ and not get fully caught up in his stability of power and civil rights successes.
Maybe these are all cases of those who want power are usually those who shouldn't have it.
