Master of the Senate Audiobook By Robert A. Caro cover art

Master of the Senate

The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III (Part 3 of a 3-Part Recording)

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Master of the Senate

By: Robert A. Caro
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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About this listen

National Book Awards, Winner

Pulitzer Prize, Winner

Master of the Senate, Book Three of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, carries Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate.

At the heart of the book is its unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done.

It was during these years that all Johnson’s experience—from his Texas Hill Country boyhood to his passionate representation in Congress of his hardscrabble constituents to his tireless construction of a political machine—came to fruition. Caro introduces the story with a dramatic account of the Senate itself: how Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun had made it the center of governmental energy, the forum in which the great issues of the country were thrashed out. And how, by the time Johnson arrived, it had dwindled into a body that merely responded to executive initiatives, all but impervious to the forces of change. Caro anatomizes the genius for political strategy and tactics by which, in an institution that had made the seniority system all-powerful for a century and more, Johnson became Majority Leader after only a single term-the youngest and greatest Senate Leader in our history; how he manipulated the Senate’s hallowed rules and customs and the weaknesses and strengths of his colleagues to change the “unchangeable” Senate from a loose confederation of sovereign senators to a whirring legislative machine under his own iron-fisted control.

Caro demonstrates how Johnson’s political genius enabled him to reconcile the unreconcilable: to retain the support of the southerners who controlled the Senate while earning the trust—or at least the cooperation—of the liberals, led by Paul Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, without whom he could not achieve his goal of winning the presidency. He shows the dark side of Johnson’s ambition: how he proved his loyalty to the great oil barons who had financed his rise to power by ruthlessly destroying the career of the New Dealer who was in charge of regulating them, Federal Power Commission Chairman Leland Olds. And we watch him achieve the impossible: convincing southerners that although he was firmly in their camp as the anointed successor to their leader, Richard Russell, it was essential that they allow him to make some progress toward civil rights. In a breathtaking tour de force, Caro details Johnson’s amazing triumph in maneuvering to passage the first civil rights legislation since 1875.

Master of the Senate, told with an abundance of rich detail that could only have come from Caro’s peerless research, is both a galvanizing portrait of the man himself—the titan of Capital Hill, volcanic, mesmerizing—and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings and personal and legislative power.

This is Volume 3. Have you listened to Master of the Senate, Volume 1 and Volume 2 yet?©2002 Robert A. Caro, Inc. (P)2002 Books on Tape, Inc.
Americas Historical Politics & Activism Presidents & Heads of State United States Inspiring American History Biography Latin America

Critic reviews

National Book Awards Winner

Pulitzer Prize Winner

“A wonderful, a glorious tale.... It will be hard to equal this amazing book. It reads like a Trollope novel, but not even Trollope explored the ambitions and the gullibilities of men as deliciously as Robert Caro does. Even though I knew what the outcome of a particular episode would be, I followed Caro’s account of it with excitement. I went back over chapters to make sure I had not missed a word.... Caro’s description of how [Johnson passed the civil rights legislation] is masterly; I was there and followed the course of the legislation closely, but I did not know the half of it.” (Anthony Lewis, The New York Times Book Review)

“A masterpiece.... Robert Caro has written one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age.” (Daniel Finkelstein, The Times, London)

“Mesmerizing.... [It] brings LBJ blazing into the Senate.... A tale rife with drama and hypnotic in the telling. The historian’s equivalent of a Mahler symphony.” (Malcolm Jones, Newsweek)

Masterful Biography • Compelling Narrative • Exhaustive Research • Fascinating Political History • Brilliant Storytelling
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I always choose unabridged versions. With The Master of the Senate, that could be too much of a good thing. I haven't listened to the abridged version, but...

The three volumes get into so much detail about Senate procedure and minor votes that a good abridgment would be preferable for all but the most detail-oriented listener.

Still, this is only a minor quibble with Caro's masterpiece. The story in Volume 3 of how Johnson finessed the passage of the symbolically ground-breaking (but toothless) Civil Rights Act of 1957 is unparalleled. A great biographer walks us through the subtle strategies of a political genius.

Note: The unabridged Master of the Senate has three volumes. The perspective listener can only tell this by carefully examining nearly illegible cover pictures. Audible should clarify this in the web site's text.

Consider the abridged version

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What made the experience of listening to Master of the Senate the most enjoyable?

The learning from the story is priceless.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Master of the Senate?

To learn about the "real LBJ" and some specifics about his relationship with RK. The "real LBJ" is beyond belief (almost).

Have you listened to any of Grover Gardner’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The last part of this book is fantastic.

Any additional comments?

You can not go wring with this book.

OUTSTANDING

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great book on president Johnson Senate years. only issue I have is this was originally on tapes and there are pauses while it say to turn tapes over which should be edited out

great book

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if you're reading this review, you probably already know that Robert Caro's biography is fantastic. There are a few formatting issues - the last three hours of the third volume are a repeat - but the quality is all there.

A note on the division: the audiobook is divided into three parts, which is a bit of a ripoff. However, it actually makes sense if you're only interested in particular parts. The first part is a long history of the Senate, which I found difficult to sit through (what a useless institution!), plus a bit of the early days of LBJ in the Senate. The second part is the meat of the book about LBJ's rise to power and how he wielded it. This part is amazing.

The third part is about civil rights and how LBJ came around to supporting it. This part was half inspiring, half pure cynicism, like the man himself. If you're interested in that aspect, you can probably just get the third part.

I will definitely be reading more of Caro's works.

Fantasic

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The cassette instructions could be edited out. They eventually become so annoying they made me stop listening for a few days.

Cassette instruction

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This whole series is well-balanced and researched. What more could be asked of a biographer. Oh yea, well written too!

Great

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The book is great but I noticed that the last third of the book is just a repetition of previous chapters - word for word. That was disappointing given how excellent everything was until then. Otherwise I am happy with the book.

Great but one flaw

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Even a broken clock is right twice a day. When amorality stumbles upon a moral cause.

Caro's third LBJ volume covers Johnson's Senate career from his stolen 1948 election to (very briefly) his selection as JFK's running mate in 1960. Because so much of the book is about how LBJ mastered the strange parliamentary procedures of the Senate to secure his own hold on it, the first quarter is a very lengthy history OF the Senate and those procedures/traditions. While necessary for what the bulk of the book would be about, it's also a little disconnected.

This is also the first book where Caro quotes extensively from (and name checks) other historians whose works had come out during the writing and added a great deal of independent research to the time period -- notably David McCullough's bio of Truman, Stephen Ambrose's bio of Eisenhower, along with the Rowland Evans/Bob Novak and Doris Kearns Goodwin's works specifically on LBJ. As the events reported involved other major political players with their own histories, this frequent citation to other secondary sources isn't good or bad, but it is memorable.

After the lengthy "and this is the Senate" section is complete, Caro does a masterful job of helping the reader understand even the most obtuse Senate rules and also shows how LBJ became so adept at them. As he began to manipulate all those around him, press, staff, fellow Senators, the constant march towards increased power and influence for LBJ begins to feel almost inevitable.

Whereas the two previous volumes LBJ's inherent lack of morality/ethics and general corruption showed him to be an odious and malignant narcissist -- the LBJ of this volume is the least morally objectionable. In part because Caro isn't focusing on his infidelity or abuse towards his wife or his corrupt business practices or his attempts to steal elections.

The kiss-ass Johnson, now that he's in the Senate, doesn't have to kiss as much ass (especially once he becomes Majority Leader) -- now he can be the full-throated bully he always was -- and he does. But because so much of his efforts are limited to minutiae of Senate scheduling of bills and securing votes and glad-handing (or arm twisting) -- the overall effect is less revealing of LBJ's character and simultaneously less "objectionable." He's an amoral fish in an amoral pond, I'll allow it.

To that end, Caro makes even the most byzantine Senate maneuvers interesting and shows an LBJ at the apex of his power and it is, if nothing else, impressive the work LBJ put into controlling so much of the legislative process within the Senate.

The final half of the book centers on the 1957 Civil Rights bill which LBJ was instrumental in getting through the Senate even against the generally solid southern voting bloc. As the first federal civil rights act since Reconstruction, it's precedential significance was more substantial than its actual content. Caro's exhaustive detail on how the bill came to be, from amendments to addendum to cloture to threatened filibusters is fascinating.

Where Caro goes a little *too far* is in trying to portray Johnson as a champion of civil rights. After nearly 1800 pages of LBJ only making the most cynical and calculating moves and nearly every single personal interaction designed solely to maximize his own power, Caro's attempts to cast LBJ as someone uniquely sympathetic towards black Americans (or any minority group) rings especially hollow. While it's clear Caro wants to credit LBJ for being "the greatest champion for African Americans since Lincoln" -- even Caro can't ignore Johnson's consistent racism across decades.

At best, LBJ saw shifting political winds affecting the Democratic Party and tilting towards a more liberal view of black enfranchisement and civil rights. His ceaseless quest for the Presidency (and supported by the Southern voting bloc) saw in black Americans an exploitable source of votes and little else. There's little doubt that had LBJ been able to secure/hold the presidency without helping pass civil rights legislation, he would have done so.

So while Lincoln said early in the sectional crisis over slavery that if he could preserve the union by freeing all or none of the slaves, he would do it, at least Lincoln had a principle in mind (Union) he was trying to uphold. The only principle for Johnson was Johnson. He gets SOME credit then, but not nearly as much as Caro wants to give him.

As a deep dive into the workings and evolution of the Senate, Caro's "Master of the Senate" is masterful. As a 4th quarter attempt to elevate an amoral LBJ into a champion of anything OTHER than his own ambition, it fails at the goal-line.

A broken clock is right twice a day.

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The book is great and Grover Gardner is a complete pro. But Audible needs to fix this recording because the last five chapters are duplicates of previous chapters and they haven’t edited out the “cassette 14, side 2” stuff. You would think making us pay three credits for one book would get us more than ERRORS!

Audible problem with Part 3

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The book and narration are great as are the other Caro series but the audio is messed up and chapeters are out of order, particularly the last 5 or so chapters are just a repeat and include “cassette 11 side a”. It’s weird.

The recording is messed up at the end

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