Caro’s epic study of Lyndon Johnson has reached the third of a scheduled four volumes, and it’s another masterful performance. It takes one’s breath away to realize Caro will spend forty years (if his final volume takes as long as this one) on a man who comes across as mostly despicable in the first two volumes. This volume includes plenty of disgraceful behavior, but author makes a good case that Johnson was a genius at politics and the greatest benefactor of Blacks of his century.

The first two volumes cover his life before election to the senate in 1948, and they portray a dismal picture. He worked hard, loved his mother, and was a surprisingly good schoolteacher, but his intense ambition placed success above everything. If winning involved lying, breaking the law, or stabbing a friend in the back, he never hesitated. A Congressman since 1937, he used his office to enrich himself. Fraud won him the 1948 election to the senate (but his opponent’s fraud defeated him in the election of 1941). And he was an unfaithful husband who treated his wife terribly.

Entering the senate in 1949, he cultivated and won over Richard Russell, leader of southern Democrats and the most influential senator. To demonstrate his conservatism, he denounced civil rights legislation, joined enthusiastically in filibusters, and orchestrated a vicious attack on the head of the Federal Power Commission who had frustrated efforts of the oil industry to control prices. This upset many supporters who assumed (correctly) that he had been a New Dealer. Texas oil men harbored similar suspicions, but they quickly became Johnson enthusiasts. When the position of Majority Leader became vacant, he assumed it. This was easier than it sounds. Sophisticated readers may blink when Caro reminds them that, unlike the Speaker of the House, a Senate Majority Leader held an unimportant position with little power. No ambitious senator coveted it.

Combining the few powers at his disposal with ferocious manipulative skills and chiarisma, he made the Majority Leader into the dominating post in the Senate (when he left, it reverted). It didn’t hurt that his wealthy Texas backers produced an avalanche of money which Johnson distributed to the election campaigns of deserving colleagues

Johnson first appears on page 109. Before this, Caro delivers a history of the Senate which, despite a glorious record, had been a moribund institution for almost a century. Except during major legislation, attendance was so sparse that routine business occurred at a glacial pace. Southern control of most committees meant reform died no matter what the national mood. After the shock of the depression during Roosevelt’s first term, all FDR’s liberal legislation failed. After assuming office, Truman announced his “Fair Deal,” a program of civil rights and social reform. The Senate killed every bill. Truman campaigned in 1948 against a “do nothing Congress.” Despite his great victory, no Fair Deal bill passed the Senate. It was “the chief obstructive force in the federal government.”

Johnson brought the Senate into the twentieth century. While opposed to a “leader,” Senators had plenty of needs he could fulfill. Using his sole power over scheduling, he vastly improved the speed of legislating. He was the first leader who actually kept track of Senators, so he could summon them quickly when a quorum was required. A senator anxious to pass a minor bill that benefited his state alone could appeal to Johnson, and it was done. Despite his conservative reputation, he persuaded southern leaders to appoint talented liberals to important committees. He argued that this would unite Democrats to fend off Senate Republicans, now a majority after Eisenhower’s election in 1952. In fact, his aim was to win respect from northern liberals. He enticed them by helping pass several bills they could not have achieved by themselves. Backing his presidential ambitions, conservative Southerners kept quiet. They would not keep quiet for a civil rights bill, but Johnson knew that without a gesture toward the Negro national party leaders would consider him a Southerner (and therefore unelectable).

The culmination of his leadership was the voting rights act of 1957. Even at the time, supporters considered it a weak bill, and they were right. Yet its passage was a virtuoso performance and a milestone. Eighty years of southern control of the Senate meant certain death for attempts to help the Negro. Even the mildest anti-lynching law (dozens were introduced) was easily defeated. During previous attempts to pass civil rights laws, including one the previous year, liberals appealed to ideals of justice, democracy, decency, and the rule of law. This never worked. Johnson knew southern senators were unmoved by Negro poverty, oppression, and discriminatory laws, and they only mildly disapproved of lynching. However, Southerners worshipped the Constitution, portraying themselves as its defenders in opposing social legislation. Since the Constitution enshrined the right to vote, these senators agreed (theoretically) that it was a bad thing to deprive anyone of that right. Using this as a thin wedge Johnson persuaded them to forgo the usual filibuster, and the bill passed. Now the Attorney General could charge southern officials who refused to register Blacks. The trial would take place before a local judge and jury, so acquittal was guaranteed. Yet it laid the groundwork for the powerful laws of 1964 and 1965 which also couldn’t have passed without the President’s genius at arm-twisting.

Speaking of genius, Master of the Senate runs to over a thousand pages, many devoted to the minutia of political maneuvering, yet it’s hard to put down. Caro’s Johnson displays plenty of the vicious traits that filled volumes 1 and 2, but the author’s admiration is much more in evidence. What remains is a gripping biography of a man Caro maintains was an unparalleled virtuoso in the exercise of political power.

Recommended: Yes