R INSIDE Volume 64 I 3 BOOK REVIEW R

SCOTT RYAN Senator for Victoria and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition

here is almost a cult amongst readers of political history and biography: those who count down the Tyears until the release of the next volume of Robert Caro’s totemic biography of Lyndon Johnson. Commencing with The Path to Power and Power in 1982, followed by Means of Ascent in 1990 then Master of the Senate in 2002, the latest volume, The the Years of LBJ Passage of Power released earlier this year was a full decade in the making. This latest volume covers the period Scott Ryan on Robert Caro’s latest work on U.S. leading into the 1960 election, when history Johnson competed with Kennedy for the Democrat nomination, through to early 1964, the assassination of John Kennedy and its aftermath. Caro has been working on this project since completing his first book, the Pulitzer Prize winning biography of , , published in 1974. For an author of only 5 books over more than 40 years, Caro has an exceptional series of awards—two Pulitzers and a clutch of National Book Awards and the National Humanities Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom. All the LBJ volumes are titled ‘The Years of Lyndon Johnson’ and this is an important distinction. These are more than simply a biography; they are a history of the United States seen through the prism of the activities of one of its most influential figures. Through Caro’s extraordinary ability to paint word pictures, a different period of time is brought vividly to life. This The Years of Lyndon B. applies equally to his descriptions of Johnson: The Passage of Power the life of African Americans in the Deep South under Jim Crow as it by Robert Caro, does to the grief of Robert Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Random House, 2012, 761 pages following the assassination of JFK.

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THROUGH WHAT SOME MAY CONSIDER > CRAVEN ACTIONS, HE TOOK CONTROL OF CONGRESS IN A MANNER THAT HAD NOT BEEN DONE SINCE THE VERY EARLY DAYS OF FDR

Richard Nixon and LBJ

CONTINUED the best short history of the US from the focus on legislative power Yet, in the aftermath of the This achievement can never be Robert Kennedy, long romanticised, In an interview two decades ago, Senate yet written. One hangs on outlined in Master of the Senate and assassination, Johnson seized power underestimated. Bringing about the is described in a manner that one Caro outlined his aspirations for every word of its almost 100 pages his fight for office Meansin of Ascent. in an extraordinary fashion. Through end of Jim Crow was the final step cannot come away without being a his writing: as it builds to the arrival of a man It focuses on Johnson’s humiliation what some may consider craven in removing a stain upon the Great little more sceptical about he and his ‘I don’t regard my books as who would dominate it like no one upon taking office as Vice President actions, he took control of Congress Republic. Despite many attempts, Presidential brother. biographies so much as I do as had before. and his subsequent assumption of in a manner that had not been done no-one else had even got close. If Caro is not the greatest writer history. That’s why I call them “The The introduction toThe Passage office amidst the first televised national since the very early days of FDR. But LBJ did, and did so in such a of biography then he at least earns Years of Lyndon Johnson” and I of Power is similarly enticing to the tragedy. It should not be forgotten just He smashed the conservative fashion that the Southern Caucus himself a position on the podium. feel that in order to endure, a work reader. The key theme of Caro’s work how momentous Johnson’s ascension coalition of the Republican Party was stunned. Regardless of what one thinks about of history has to be written, the is about detailing the use of political was. Kennedy was the first television and of which When reading about these LBJ, any student of history can learn prose, has to be at the same level as power—for good and ill. In his president, a signal of generational he was formerly a leader. He passed events, one at the same time a great deal about the United States, a novel that will endure, and I don’t introduction to The Passage of Power, change, and this was the first the largest tax cut until that point, admires LBJ’s capacity to work its government and this era through think there’s enough emphasis in Caro argues that power reveals the assassination of the modern media era. along with the pivotal civil rights and his insights into what makes reading this latest volume. It is not my the writing of a lot of history, on true nature of the person. While one Johnson taking office also bill that had both been bottled up his fellow politicians tick, but at favourite volume, that remains the the fact that this is a book.’ conceals characteristics in order to represented something profound— in Congress with no prospect of the same time is repulsed by his previous volume about LBJ’s time in The introductions to each of Caro’s rise in political power, the elevation the first President from the South, proceeding. In the words of Caro seeming lack of moral boundaries. the Senate. But The Passage of Power LBJ works invite the reader to to supreme power reveals the true the old confederacy, since Andrew from a previous volume ‘it was The other main feature of this greatly adds to understanding of continue into the large volumes, person. This is as true in a presidential Johnson assumed the office following Abraham Lincoln who struck the volume is Johnson’s war with Bobby those days in late 1963 and early 1964 giving not only a taste of what is to system as it is in a parliamentary one. the assassination of Lincoln. Apart chains from black Americans, but Kennedy. One can learn a great deal following the Kennedy assassination. come, but reminding a reader of past While the character of John Howard from the fissures in the Democratic it was Lyndon Johnson who took about the Kennedys from this book: In Caro’s unique style, it does so volumes as well. This is just as well, was revealed as he served as Prime Party itself, which sometimes existed them by the hand, led them into the family project to get to the by looking at past events as well as with the almost decade-long average Minister, so was that of Kevin Rudd in name and banner only, the very the voting booth, drew democracy’s White House, the vanity of JFK, the through an extraordinarily detailed between publication. and their respective longevity says notion of a President from the curtain behind them and made them Clinton-like ability to create a myth description of the period itself. His introduction to the third something about both. segregated South was anathema to once and for all and forever a part of simply through allowing others Now the countdown begins volume, Master of the Senate is The Passage of Power moves away much of the nation. American political life.’ to project their hopes onto you. for the fifth and final volume. R

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