Book Review - The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
Book One: The Path to Power, 1982 During the past couple years, the issue of government action and inaction arose very clearly and I spent time trying to understand it. During the 2020 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, our daily lives and daily conversations were ruled by questions around what the government did or failed to do. To learn why government can’t address the long list of compelling crises, I looked back into history and noted perhaps the most recent major figure spearheading a positive program was Lyndon Baines Johnson. Since Robert Caro’s definitive biography is heralded as a masterpiece of the genre, I jumped into it. Overall, it seems to me that Lyndon Johnson’s life and career cannot serve as a how-to manual for legislating today - too large a portion of the conditions in his time and the quirks of his character are unique and not widely applicable. From time to time in my reading I would compare Johnson to the formidable Senate Majority Leader of my own time...