THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON II
Means of Ascent
Here, Johnson’s almost mythic personality—part genius, part behemoth, at once hotly emotional and icily calculating—is seen at its most nakedly ambitious. This multifaceted book carries the President-to-be from the aftermath of his devastating defeat in his 1941 campaign for the Senate—the despair it engendered in him, and the grueling test of his spirit that followed as political doors slammed shut—through his service in World War II (and his artful embellishment of his record) to the foundation of his fortune (and the actual facts behind the myth he created about it).
The culminating drama—the explosive heart of the book—is Caro’s illumination, based on extraordinarily detailed investigation, of one of the great political mysteries of the century. Having immersed himself in Johnson’s life and world, Caro is able to reveal the true story of the fiercely contested 1948 senatorial election, for years shrouded in rumor, which Johnson was not believed capable of winning, which he “had to” win or face certain political death, and which he did win—by 87 votes, the “87 votes that changed history.”
Telling that epic story “in riveting and eye-opening detail,” Caro returns to the American consciousness a magnificent lost hero. He focuses closely not only on Johnson, whom we see harnessing every last particle of his strategic brilliance and energy, but on Johnson’s “unbeatable” opponent, the beloved former Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, who embodied in his own life the myth of the cowboy knight and was himself a legend for his unfaltering integrity. And ultimately, as the political duel between the two men quickens—carrying with it all the confrontational and moral drama of the perfect Western—Caro makes us witness to a momentous turning point in American politics: the tragic last stand of the old politics versus the new—the politics of issue versus the politics of image, mass manipulation, money and electronic dazzle.
Praise for Means of Ascent
CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Thrilling. Caro burns into the reader’s imagination the story of the [1948 Senate] election. Never has it been told so dramatically, with breathtaking detail piled on incredible development . . . In The Path to Power, Volume I of his monumental biography, Robert A. Caro ignited a blowtorch whose bright flame illuminated Johnson’s early career. In Means of Ascent, he intensifies the flame to a brilliant blue point.”
HENRY F. GRAFF, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
“Brilliant. No brief review does justice to the drama of the story Caro is telling, which is nothing less than how present-day politics was born.”
Tom & Mandy Levis
MARK FEENEY, BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE
“Epic…Caro has a unique place among American political biographers. He has become, in many ways, the standard by which his fellows are measured. Caro’s diligence [and] ambition are phenomenal…A remarkable story.”
RONALD STEEL, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Immensely engrossing…Caro is an indefatigable investigative reporter and a skillful historian who can make the most abstract material come vibrantly to life. [He has a] marvelous ability to tell a story…His analysis of how power is used—to build highways and dams, to win elections, to get rich—is masterly.”
ELIOT FREMONT-SMITH,
NEW YORK
“A monumental work, a political biography and political history of the first magnitude.”
JIM FINLEY, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“A spellbinding, hypnotic journey into the political life and times of Lyndon Johnson. Riveting drama.”
STEVE NEAL, FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM
“The most compelling study of American political power and corruption since Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men…It is nothing less than a political epic, the definitive account of a watershed election, rich with all of the intrigue and drama that have become the stuff of legend. [It has] the suspense of a political thriller.”
THOMAS W. HAZLETT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Magnificent…Thunder and lightning rip through Mr. Caro’s viscerally compelling work.”
GUY HALVERSON, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
“A brilliant but disturbing book…A devastating study that warrants the broadest readership. He reminds us that Americans need to be vigilant in upholding their highest standards of ethics and good government.”
PHILIP SEIB, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
“His research is dazzlingly exhaustive, his gripping story is enhanced by excellent writing, and his findings [seem] largely irrefutable. No one has done a better job of researching [the 1948 race] than Mr. Caro. He has produced a portrait not only of Lyndon Johnson, but also of the politics and values of mid-century America.”
PAUL GRAY, TIME
“Riveting…Explosive…Readers are in for a white-knuckle, hair-raising tale that could have ended in any of a dozen ways, with L.B.J. in the White House the longest shot of all. This is good history. Caro’s treatment achieves poetic intensity.”
ROBERT A. KRONLEY, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
“Means of Ascent is a political biography, a detective story, a western and a character study. Above all, it is a richly textured, multilayered chronicle of a fundamental social and political change and how this change highlighted elements of Mr. Johnson’s character: his powerful needs, tremendous ambition and particular genius.”
Means of Ascent
In an interview about Means of Ascent, Robert Caro said, “This volume raises the question of the connection between means and ends. Many of the ends in Johnson’s life were noble. We wouldn’t have the civil rights legislation we have today if Johnson didn’t push it through. That’s not to say his presidency was a triumphant one. It divided the country; it caused a credibility gap. But whatever the ends—good and bad—the means by which he rose to the position to enact those ends is what made them possible.”
THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON
Exploring Power
Lieutenant Commander Johnson at Seven–Mile Strip
Johnson with Lady Bird and his mother during his 1946 re-election campaign
Lyndon Johnson with his staff at the House Office Building, Spring 1948
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One of Robert Caro’s many notes to himself while editing a manuscript
Johnson and the Flying Windmill in Texas
President Harry Truman greets Johnson on the campaign train
Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson, January 3, 1949. He and Senators J. Allen Frear, Paul H. Douglas, and Robert S. Kerr pose with Senate President pro tempore Arthur Vandenberg (left)
Lyndon Johnson knew how to make the most of such enthusiasm and how to play on it and intensify it. He wanted his audience to become involved. He wanted their hands up in the air. And having been a schoolteacher he knew how to get their hands up. He began, in his speeches, to ask questions.
FROM MEANS OF ASCENT
Robert Caro Books
He has measurably enriched our lives with his intellectual rigor, his compassion, his openness, his wit and grace.
SIR HAROLD EVANS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
