Master of the Senate

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

By: Robert A. Caro

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Master of the Senate, book three of the Years of Lyndon Johnson, carries Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his 12 years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate. At the heart of the audiobook 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 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.

Critic reviews

“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)

Superb!

An immaculate and delightful political book! There simply is not a more detailed account of political success than Caro's masterpiece. I will add that the audio quality and narrator's voice are both excellent. I humbly recommend to all.

A great book killed by editing.

I thought the book was phenomenal, and the performance was great. It's too bad the editing killed it. tbey still include the breaks to flip the cassette over...on a digital book. the chapters were broken up by cassette, bot the actual chapters.

Robert Caro is a Master of Nonfiction

For such long books with so much detail about what one might consider trivia in another biography, Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson is unbelievably compelling. It traces Johnson's rise to become the Senate majority leader, his heart attack, his first attempt at winning the presidential nomination, his record on civil rights, his cold war stance, and many other issues. Underlying everything is the conflict within Johnson about the issues he cares about, and his unbridled ambition. Caro acknowledges both, but it's the ambition that is Johnson's higher value and driving force. Another very well written study of power by Robert Caro.

Awesome !

All three books have been riveting. I’m looking forward to book four and hopefully book five.

Audible problem with Part 3

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!

The recording is messed up at the end

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.

Cassette Notifications

cassette notifications were unpleasant and should not be too difficult to edit out in 21st century.

not altered from booknonntape version

strangely part 3 of master of the senate has been transferred very sloppily from its books on tape origins. every 20 mins or so the recording stops to tell us that this cassette has ended please flip the cassette. then several seconds of silence followed by an announcement that we were starting a new cassette. very lax treatment on the part of Audible

Amazing book!

Amazing book. But this recording needs EDITING.
No need for the incessant “flip the tape over” messages in a digital format!

The best author reader combo on this app

if you’ve made it this far you’re in for the long haul so just go ahead and hit the purchase button, it’s worth it