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Master of the Senate
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III (Part 1 of a 3-Part Recording)
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
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Master of the Senate
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Summary
Master of the Senate, book three of the Years of Lyndon Johnson, carries Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his 12 years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate. At the heart of the audiobook is its unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done.
It was during these years that all Johnson’s experience—from his Texas Hill Country boyhood to his passionate representation in Congress of his hardscrabble constituents to his tireless construction of a political machine—came to fruition. Caro introduces the story with a dramatic account of the Senate itself: how Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun had made it the center of governmental energy, the forum in which the great issues of the country were thrashed out. And how, by the time Johnson arrived, it had dwindled into a body that merely responded to executive initiatives, all but impervious to the forces of change.
Caro anatomizes the genius for political strategy and tactics by which, in an institution that had made the seniority system all-powerful for a century and more, Johnson became majority leader after only a single term—the youngest and greatest Senate leader in our history; how he manipulated the Senate’s hallowed rules and customs and the weaknesses and strengths of his colleagues to change the unchangeable Senate from a loose confederation of sovereign senators to a whirring legislative machine under his own iron-fisted control.
Caro demonstrates how Johnson’s political genius enabled him to reconcile the unreconcilable: to retain the support of the Southerners who controlled the Senate while earning the trust—or at least the cooperation—of the liberals, led by Paul Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, without whom he could not achieve his goal of winning the presidency. He shows the dark side of Johnson’s ambition: how he proved his loyalty to the great oil barons who had financed his rise to power by ruthlessly destroying the career of the New Dealer who was in charge of regulating them, Federal Power Commission Chairman Leland Olds. And we watch him achieve the impossible: convincing Southerners that although he was firmly in their camp as the anointed successor to their leader, Richard Russell, it was essential that they allow him to make some progress toward civil rights. In a breathtaking tour de force, Caro details Johnson’s amazing triumph in maneuvering to passage the first civil rights legislation since 1875.
Master of the Senate, told with an abundance of rich detail that could only have come from Caro’s peerless research, is both a galvanizing portrait of the man himself and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings and personal and legislative power.
Critic reviews
“A wonderful, a glorious tale.... It will be hard to equal this amazing book. It reads like a Trollope novel, but not even Trollope explored the ambitions and the gullibilities of men as deliciously as Robert Caro does. Even though I knew what the outcome of a particular episode would be, I followed Caro’s account of it with excitement. I went back over chapters to make sure I had not missed a word.... Caro’s description of how [Johnson passed the civil rights legislation] is masterly; I was there and followed the course of the legislation closely, but I did not know the half of it.” (Anthony Lewis, The New York Times Book Review)
“A masterpiece.... Robert Caro has written one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age.” (Daniel Finkelstein, The Times, London)
“Mesmerizing.... [It] brings LBJ blazing into the Senate.... A tale rife with drama and hypnotic in the telling. The historian’s equivalent of a Mahler symphony.” (Malcolm Jones, Newsweek)
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What listeners say about Master of the Senate
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- blraider
- 21-07-16
An excellent book
Caro did it as a real master. Very detailed review of history of US Senate as well as its masters from its foundation.
Narator performed his role extrimely good.
I really enjoyed. My sincere recommendation.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 27-05-10
A proper in-depth, detailed book
Really excellent from start to finish. This is an unbiast, honest review which goes into great detail. I really enjoyed the book and I wish that all history books were as unbiast as this one. Really very good overall. Enjoy!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-08-19
Great, in-depth but with quite some repetition
Off course it’s great. Not only for a better understanding of President Johnson but also of the whole era in American politics and life.
The only thing that annoys me are the repetitions. Especially, when you have read all the previous books.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Audible Customer
- 23-06-21
Forensic
If you enjoy political Auto/biographies you'll love this. It's a pity it's one of three rather than as a whole, however the Authors attention to detail is such that one book would have been to intimidating for the buyer! Still this is still great value for the political nerd!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. H. F. Mccallion
- 06-08-21
Simply Breathtaking
As a bridge between Path to Power and Master of The Senate, Means of Ascent is sometimes overlooked. But the richness in comprehension you get about new technology, the war, what it means to be a Texan….just amazing. The 25,000 word chapter on the background to Coke Stevenson is just mesmerising. The final section on the election theft brims with incredible characters and the truly one-off remarkable-ness of Johnson’s will to win and his work ethic, or work unethic. Amazing!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- E P
- 23-04-19
Fake News 1950s Style
This massive biography of LBJ continues to hold it’s hypnotic grip. This potion examines fake news, sound bites and sexed up documents all set in the America of the early 1950s
Additionally this is one of the clearest explanation of the USA system of government I have read
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- T &S Calvert
- 19-12-16
Excellent
Excellent biography of LBJs time getting into the Senate and first steps to prominence. Audible makes the information much more accessible due to the detail in this tome..
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- J�hann Kolbr�narson
- 03-11-21
no sound
the book unfortunately has no sound. That makes it redundant. It had sound when i first bought it.
warm regards
J
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