Lbj biography 2012 nissan

Johnson is a lesson in how to do biography as history, and one in how power works in the American political system. Once what is likely to be the last volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson , number five, is unpacked in bookstores and pushed out to Kindles and iPads everywhere, Robert Caro will have been at it for over four decades.

When exactly that will be is still unclear, and I am not holding my breath. In , Caro predicted it would take another two or three years. Less favorably, a Salon. They are engrossing, and they are helpful reminders that deadlock in the US Congress and pandering political manipulation are nothing new. They are also, however, nothing eternal and unchanging.

They are tied to historical contexts and historical actors. Institutions matter, but people matter as well. People who can shape, change, and dominate these institutions. The Path to Power is the origin story. The Johnsons of Johnson City had once been respected, but as Lyndon Johnson grew into a man, they no longer were.

Very informative and detailed biography.

Caro stresses the contrast between young Lyndon and his father, an idealist who Lyndon had once sought to emulate. No more. This all adds up to the making of a maker. Of a liar and abuser, for sure, but an occasional and effective advocate for the downtrodden all the same. On the many changes that electrification and the building of better roads brought to rural America, the book presents little new information.