Book Review: The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro
The Years of Lyndon Johnson Means of Ascent is Robert A. Caro’s second volume into the life of America’s thirty sixth President and his accumulation of political power. First published in 1990 by Alfred A. Knopf, Means of Ascent was originally intended to be a part of a three volume work however the scope of Caro’s project increased first to four volumes, and then to five. Volume III, Master of the Senate, was published in 2002 and Volume IV, The Passage of Power, was published in 2012. Caro has said his guesses on how long writing will take him are always wrong but he expects the book to be finished in a few years.
Means of Ascent covers a seven year period of Johnson’s life; following his defeat in the 1941 Texas Senate campaign to Wilbert ‘Pappy’ O’Daniel, to his eventual victory in the 1948 senate campaign against former Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, a man known then as ‘Mr Texas’. Nearly half the book is dedicated to the 1948 campaign, in part because it was a turning point in Johnson’s career and because during his eleven years as congressman for Texas’ 10th district, he barely did anything of note beyond his perfunctory duties and his dwindling political influence following the death of President Roosevelt cast serious doubts on his political future.
Volume I of The Years of Lyndon Johnson was published in 1982, so it has been over 40 years of Caro’s life that he’s dedicated to researching and writing about Lyndon Johnson, and it this total dedication to the biographical process which is what drew me to these books, rather than an initial interest in Johnson. Caro has dedicated his life to writing about just two men and their taste for, acquisition of, and use of power; Robert Moses and Lyndon B Johnson. As Caro himself described his work, “ I never had any interest in telling the life of a great man. I think of them as studies in political power”
What makes Caro such a successful, if painfully slow, writer of biography and history is his fundamental understanding of consequence and the need to fully explain the conditions and actions that preceded and followed any given consequence. Entire chapters, long chapters mind you, are dedicated to providing supplements of knowledge to fully allow the reader to understand Johnson’s actions and their consequences. A chapter is dedicated to Johnson’s political maneuvers to purchase KTBC, an Austin radio station, and the lengths he took to make it profitable and influential. Another chapter is dedicated to the life of Coke Stevenson, Johnson’s 1948 democratic primary candidate, the aforementioned Mr Texas. Without these pages upon pages of explanation into how revered Stevenson was in Texas, his history of public service, his method and disdain of campaigning, his personal integrity and his reverence for the spirit of the law, the reader wouldn’t appreciate the depths to which Johnson sank to claw a victory from him.
Caro knows that in order to understand the consequences of Johnson’s behavior, he has to write entire chapters where other authors might write only a few pages. When asked about whether it would have been possible to write a smaller book, Caro responded “You could do that. I wouldn’t want to do it that way”.
Caro’s skill at explaining and introducing these supporting characters in Johnson’s life are done with as much care and attention as if they were the subject of the book. After reading about Coke Stevenson and Frank Hamer, the retired Texas ranger brought by Stevenson as protection when investigating Johnson’s illegitimate primary votes, you want the book to be about them!
Only the chapter on the purchase of KTBC dragged for me, but the rest of the 412 pages practically flew by. Means of Ascent is noticeably shorter than The Path to Path, Volume I, as that book focused on the first thirty years of Johnson’s life; from his poor Hill country childhood to his first taste of power as a Congressman. This book charts just seven years but these seven years are so well documented by Caro that it makes you wonder what he left out. Occasionally Caro will insert himself and his research process into the narrative to discuss the facial expressions of his sources, or whether a particular source would refuse to speak, their silence more telling than any words might be.
Caro is quite even handed when it comes to describing and chronicling Johnson’s admirable and detestable qualities. He makes it easy to root for Johnson when he’s suffering through a debilitating kidney stone and is only about to continue campaigning through sheer force of will despite barely being able to walk. One of the most humorous passages is when Johnson is travelling by train to an event in the grips of a fever, and his poor aid is kept up all night from Johnson screaming at him to open the window when he’s hot, closing it when he’s cold and ordering him to hug him when he’s really cold. Caro makes it equally easy to dislike Johnson when describing his treatment of his wife and his staff, his seemingly compulsive boasting and lying, or his shameless attitude to stealing an election in a way extreme even for Texas elections of the time.
In the long introduction to the book, Caro jumps forward in time to Johnson’s Presidency and how he had to listen to civil rights protesters outside the White House singing “We Shall Overcome”.With historical non-fiction, especially Presidential non-fiction, it’s impossible to complain about spoilers, but why does Caro jump fifteen years to a moment in time completely unconnected with the rest of the book? I believe it’s because of his understanding of the complexities of Johnson and of political power. Despite his willingness to commit voter fraud, to use the letter of the law against the spirit of itself, and despite Johnson’s use of his political power to financially enrich himself, he did ultimately sign the Civil Rights Act into law against the wishes of his party.
If you like skillfully crafted and meticulously researched biography, especially political biography, or non-fiction that explores American history, or you are interested in the life of Lyndon Johnson then I cannot recommend the Years of Lyndon Johnson enough. They are hefty tomes but they represent some of the most complete biographies of an individual I have ever read. Used copies are easy to find online, and if you live in England or don’t mind paying for shipping, Penguin have released a modern modern cover design in paperback.
If you’re not interested in Johnson himself, but are interested in the craft of writing, I recommend Caro’s book Working, published by Knopf and released earlier this year.
