The Passage of Power

The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Book 4

By: Robert A. Caro

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 32 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

National Book Critics Circle Award, Biography, 2013

The Passage of Power follows Lyndon Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career - 1958 to 1964. It is a time that would see him trade the extraordinary power he had created for himself as Senate Majority Leader for what became the wretched powerlessness of a Vice President in an administration that disdained and distrusted him. Yet it was, as well, the time in which the presidency, the goal he had always pursued, would be thrust upon him in the moment it took an assassin’s bullet to reach its mark.

For the first time, we see the Kennedy assassination through Lyndon Johnson’s eyes. We watch Johnson step into the presidency, inheriting a staff fiercely loyal to his slain predecessor; a Congress determined to retain its power over the executive branch; and a nation in shock and mourning. We see how within weeks - grasping the reins of the presidency with supreme mastery - he propels through Congress essential legislation that at the time of Kennedy’s death seemed hopelessly logjammed and seizes on a dormant Kennedy program to create the revolutionary War on Poverty.

Caro makes clear how the political genius with which Johnson had ruled the Senate now enabled him to make the presidency wholly his own. This was without doubt Johnson’s finest hour, before his aspirations and accomplishments were overshadowed and eroded by the trap of Vietnam.

It is an epic story told with a depth of detail possible only through the peerless research that forms the foundation of Robert Caro’s work, confirming Nicholas von Hoffman’s verdict that “Caro has changed the art of political biography.”

©2012 Robert A. Caro (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

The best political biography

Outstanding and riveting. Caro’s best book covering one of the most crucial phase of American history:

From Powerful to Powerless

The fourth installment of Robert Caro's majestic and sweeping biography of LBJ is a mammoth achievement and ranks favorably with all prior installments.

I stumbled onto the series a couple of years ago after seeing Robert Caro on a television program and began my exploration of the series with "Master of the Senate." Since the first two installments have not been made into audio books yet, I purchased "The Path to Power" & "Means of Ascent" on my Kindle and found both to be riveting.

For those of you who have gone thorough the entire series as I have, you know that LBJ's life contained periodic reversals. This installment chronicles the 3 years he spent in the most desolate wilderness of them all: The vice presidency.

Daniel Webster is reported to have said when the Whig Party offered him the chance to be vice president, "I do not propose to be buried until I am dead." LBJ--after he bungled securing the 1960 nomination and JFK mopped the floor with him--made a different calculation; to friends who wondered why on earth he would trade the second most powerful post in the land (senate majority leader) for the vice presidency he said, "seven of them got to be president without even being elected."

For 3 years LBJ was ignored, insulted, and treated with thinly veiled contempt by the Kennedy group--particularly by Robert F. Kennedy who DETESTED Lyndon Johnson. Newspaper headlines began asking, "Whatever Happened to LBJ?" His genius for legislation went untapped and Kennedy's domestic program was floundering.

Then it happened...

Half the book covers a roughly 7 week period of time. The coverage of the assassination is the summit of "history as thriller" and finds few if any equals.

For conspiracy theory buffs, sorry, but Caro does not give credence to the idea LBJ was involved. Caro has chronicled just about every fault Johnson has from the megalomaniacal to the scatological, but murder isn't one of them.

Grover Gardner, as another reviewer already mentioned, was the only possible choice for this book. He lends it his usual gravity and precision. Why Caro hasn't contracted him to record the first two books in the series, I don't know. "Means of Ascent" was so funny in places I needed a tissue by my side to wipe the tears.

Caro's penchant for exhaustive research has meant that he has taken over 35 years to produce four books. The man is now 75 and he still has all of Johnson's election and Vietnam to cover. Let's hope his health holds out and he finishes the job.

Well worth the super size length

Any additional comments?

Why jump into a mammoth, 32 hour read, volume 4 of a projected 5, in progress before many of us were born and volume 5 due some years from now?Two answers - for a first look, it stands alone, riveting, full of the story-teller's perfect details and timing.If you thought you'd read all the good stuff, Caro read it and cross-checked and then interviewed the author or surviving player with the questions you might have asked.History and biography can meet and exceed the best fiction, if only because reality is stranger, wilder and harder to freeze into safe, comfort.The non-LBJ characters are vivid, detailed, memorable, quoted and described by the distilled insight of libraries of books, letters and interviews. Myself, I've wondered about Bobby Kennedy, studied under fellows who worked with him, idolized and loved him. Caro shows us that great gift for friendship, and how it shaped written history, but adds the dark side with light, shadow and colors. The JFK portrait alone is worth the read, with the JFK-RFK relationship drawn from anecdotes. Found myself seeing new parts of a president by fully imagining what RFK the hit man, lightning rod and alter ego must say about JFK off-stage giving orders, or onstage communicating with his brother without words.Notes on framing - Caro writes that he found no direct evidence for the "LBJ murdered JFK" theories, and you can read the reviews at Amazon.com for some pointers by opposing authors and readers.A better path into what-if questions, IMHO, is "Tears of Autumn" by espionage expert McCarry, with an Oswald portrait by Stephen King in his recent time travel novel.
And Vietnam is mostly left for volume 5 - but I found eery parallels between RFK and LBJ losing all control, dignity, RFK defending the Bay of Pigs and firing an advisor who'd proven right, and LBJ chewing-out senior military men posing too-hard choices.

captivating study of LBJ and RFK

Would you consider the audio edition of The Passage of Power to be better than the print version?

audio is very good. have not read print

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Passage of Power?

the segments as to RFK personality.

What about Grover Gardner’s performance did you like?

he is the only reader who could do this book. the equal of his work on "Truman"

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

impossible, although good on a long drive to Mmmoth fromLA.

Any additional comments?

solid addition to his earlier books on LBJ

A Smooth Passage

Grover Gardner provided an intimate narration of Robert Caro's book The Passage of Power. I knew little of the transition from Kennedy to Johnson and the truly remarkable job Johnson did with it. In fact it seemed almost too smooth. It seems obvious if it were not for Johnson's consummate knowledge of the how to pass legislation and how to work people to his advantage, the civil right's legislation of 1964 and 1965 would never have made it through with Kennedy.

This was a book I could not put down and it made me want to read the preceding books on Johnson and the next one to come.

You will be surprised and will perhaps wonder how Johnson managed all he did that first year. It is a bit eerie too thinking about the possibilities of conspiracy. None which seem to amount to anything.

Great historical biography, beautifully read

Wow. This was my first of Caro's books. I'd always been a bit intimidated by their length, which made a daily commute the perfect way to chip away at them. Subject matter was more interesting than I'd imagined, Caro is a master storyteller, and very well narrated.

Fascinating. Riveting. Kept my attention to every detail.

The parallel stories of Johnson and Kennedy in the first third of the book really set the stage for how these two men came together and then how he took total command of the country friends and foes after the assasination.

Powerful Story Telling

Riveting story that is chock full of incredibly interesting stories that help give even greater understanding of the world of the 60's.

Caro Is The Best

Biography as every author ought to read. History as well as art. All of this series is essential if one wants to know what Johnson was.

For all interested in American History

Any additional comments?

This book provides amazing insights to the individuals and workings of our national political system in the late 1950's- 60's. It is not pretty but it is honest. The contradictions within LBJ are beyond imagination. A powerful political leader as we do not see today, but a human figure with failings as well as strengths. I am looking forward to the next book.