Robert Caro’s series The Years of Lyndon Johnson sounds like a bad idea for lots of reasons. At a minimum, LBJ seems rather outré. I mean, a white southerner who rose through the ranks of the racist southern Democratic Party of the 1940s and 1950s? Yes, LBJ ushered through important Civil Rights legislation. And then he followed it up by prosecuting the disastrous Vietnam War. To top it off, the Great Man Theory of history went out of style decades ago. Though leftists and liberals disagree on much, it seems they can at least agree that Great White Men ought not drive history so much.
But, despite these concerns, Caro’s project works. I mean, it works. It works really, really well. Let’s take a look at The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Robert Caro published the first book in the series – The Path to Power – in 1982. Lord knows when he actually started the project. The fifth – and allegedly final – book will appear at some point in the 2020s. We’re talking about a career-long project (though Caro has done other things, too).
What’s so great about it?
Caro tells LBJ’s story within a deeper history of his surroundings. The Path to Power isn’t just about LBJ’s early years. It’s also about the Texas Hill Country where he grew up. Caro moved there for that phase of the project. Means of Ascent isn’t just about LBJ’s rise from liberal New Dealer to conservative Texas Senator. It’s also about southern Democratic politics and the Texas education system. Master of the Senate tells the story of D.C. political culture as much as it does LBJ’s rise to the top. And The Passage of Power is about the power of the presidency and the lack of power of the vice presidency.
More broadly, Caro’s topic in The Years of Lyndon Johnson is political power. He focuses both on the nature of political power and how it operated in the U.S. from the New Deal to the Great Society. LBJ made a useful object of study for those purposes. Those years bookend his political career, and he played a role in both major events – along with many events in-between. And – perhaps more than anyone other than Richard Nixon – LBJ subordinated every aspect of his life to the pursuit and use of political power.
Will Book Five Ever Appear?
I think anyone in U.S. politics who has read The Years of Lyndon Johnson loved it. But I’ll address the elephant in the room. Robert Caro is 84 years old. He lives in New York, once the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. And Caro takes a long time to research and write books. Each of the previous books in The Years of Lyndon Johnson took 8-12 years to research and write.
Will Caro finish the series? Will he ever publish on the Great Society and the main events of the Vietnam War? Book Five is supposed to be the longest in the series. Given the pace at which Caro typically writes, I’d expect a book to appear around 2024. Caro will turn 88 years old that year.
I suppose we’ll find out.
