Master of the Senate

The massive third volume of Caro's massive life of Lyndon Baines Johnson focuses on the 12 years (1948-1960) during which LBJ was a member of the U.S. Senate. It reveals his "take-no-prisoners" drive to power, as well as his ability to manage a previously unmanageable institution. Caro includes lots of Senate history and lots of information covered in his previous books on Johnson. In audio format, the book's redundancy can be frustrating, as it is hard to skip text and read ahead. Grover Gardner's narration is a straightforward rendition of the text. The drama--and there is much drama in the events chronicled--is carried by the words, not the voice. While some listeners might want more verbal dramatics, this reviewer found the neutral reading easy to listen to and appropriate. R.E.K. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine


In 1957 the Senate was moribund, caught in a deadly three-way stalemate between Republicans, Southern Democrats, and liberal Northern Democrats. In 1949, however, Lyndon Johnson was elected from Texas, and, like God Almighty, bent down, molded it in his image, and breathed new life into it. In this third volume, Caro follows Johnson's career from that election to his masterstroke of political engineering as the Senate's young majority leader--the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The abridgment has a completeness and an artistic integrity all its own. Stephen Lang's narration, too, is an artistic achievement. Miraculously without caricature, Lang creates credible voices for the towering hill-country Texan; Kennedy of Massachusetts; the fast-talking senator from Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey; and many others. Lang switches effortlessly and accurately between Johnson snarling at Senate clerks and Caro's brilliant narrative. This is history at its best, and in manageable doses. P.E.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine