num_pages: 1200
description: Robert Caro's Master of the Senate examines in meticulous detail Lyndon Johnson's career in that body, from his arrival in 1950 (after 12 years in the House of Representatives) until his election as JFK's vice president in 1960. This, the third in a projected four-volume series, studies not only the pragmatic, ruthless, ambitious Johnson, who wielded influence with both consummate skill and "raw, elemental brutality," but also the Senate itself, which Caro describes (pre-1957) as a "cruel joke" and an "impregnable stronghold" against social change. The milestone of Johnson's Senate years was the 1957 Civil Rights Act, whose passage he single-handedly engineered. As important as the bill was - both in and of itself and as a precursor to wider-reaching civil rights legislation - it was only close to Johnson's Southern "anti-civil rights" heart as a means to his dream: the presidency. Caro writes that not only does power corrupt, it "reveals," and that's exactly what this massive, scrupulously researched book does. A model of social, psychological, and political insight, it is not just masterful; it is a masterpiece. --H. O'Billovich
language: English
title: Master of the Senate
titlecomplete: Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #3)
characters: John Connally, Paul Douglas, Estes Kefauver, George Reedy, Bobby Baker, William F. Knowland, Richard B. Russell, Jr., Hubert Humphrey, Robert A. Taft, Stuart Symington, Sam Rayburn, Lyndon B. Johnson, Walter F. George
genres: Audiobook, American, History, Presidents, American History, Us Presidents, Biography Memoir, Politics, Biography, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 21978
series: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Biography or Autobiography, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: National Book Award
category: Nonfiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Biography, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Biography, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: D. B. Hardeman Prize
publisher: Random House