Robert Caro.
ROBERT CARO: LYNDON JOHNSON BIOGRAPHY VOL.4
THE PASSAGE OF POWER: THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON (2012)
Winner of the National Book Cfritics Circle Award.
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Lyndon B. Johnson (born 1908) was a Democrat polician from Texas, who served from 1963 to 1969 as the 37th President of the USA. He had been serving as Vice President when President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. He previously served as a Senator from Texas, and as the Senate Majority Whip. His major achievement as Senate Majority Leader was the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1965 and 1968. He was also as President strongly committed to the war on poverty, through his Great Society agenda. His foreign policy was less successful. He ramped up the military involvement of the USA in the Vietnam War but this led to huge casualties, to the rise of anti-war protests, and to the eventual withdrawal of the USA from Vietnam under his successor Richard Nixon. This fourth volume of Caro’s biography covers the 1960 election, his role as Vice President, the assassination of President Kennedy, and Johnson’s first days as President.
Like the previous volumes, this fourth volume of Caro’s Johnson biography received high praise. The FinancialTimes wrote: "One of the most compelling political narratives of the past half-century . . . A vivid picture of how political power worked in the US during the middle of the 20th century at local, state and national level . . . This extraordinary work will remain essential reading for decades to come." The Economist wrote: "Caro's masterpiece of biography . . . His strength as a biographer is his ability to probe Johnson's mind and motivations . . . Riveting . . . A roller-coaster tale."
MEET THE AUTHOR
CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO OF THE AUTHOR (9 MINUTES)
Robert Caro (born 1935) is a journalist and author known for his much admired biographies of New York City planner Robert Moses and US President Lyndon Johnson. He has won many awards including two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography. He was born in New York City, the son of Jewish parents. He became a prolific writer from a young age. At Princeton his senior thesis ‘Heading Out: A Study of the Development of Ernest Hemingway Thought’ ran to 235 pages and caused the University to introduce a maximum length for senior theses.
