The Years of Lyndon Johnson is a biography ofLyndon B. Johnson by the American writerRobert Caro. Four volumes have been published, running to more than 3,000 pages in total, detailing Johnson's early life, education, and political career. A fifth volume, which is currently being written, is expected to deal with the bulk ofJohnson's presidency and post-presidential years. The series is published byAlfred A. Knopf.
In the first volume,The Path to Power, Caro retraced Johnson's early life growing up in theTexas Hill Country and working inWashington, D.C. first as a congressional aide and then as a congressman. Caro's research included renting a house in the Hill Country for three years, living there much of that time, to interview numerous people who knew Johnson and his family, and to better understand the environment in which Johnson had grown up.[1] This volume covers Johnson's life throughhis failed 1941 campaign for theUnited States Senate.[2]
In the second volume,Means of Ascent, Caro detailed Johnson's life from the aftermath of Johnson's first bid for the U.S. Senate in 1941 to his election to the Senate in1948. Much of the book deals with Johnson's bitterly contestedDemocratic primary againstCoke R. Stevenson in that year and theBox 13 scandal. The book was released on March 7, 1990.
In the third volume,Master of the Senate, Caro chronicles Johnson's rapid ascent in theUnited States Congress from 1948 to 1958, including his tenure asSenate majority leader. This 1,167-page work examines in particular Johnson's battle to pass a landmarkcivil rights bill through Congress without it tearing apart his party, whosesouthern bloc was anti-civil rights while the northern faction was more supportive of civil rights. Although its scope was limited, the ensuingCivil Rights Act of 1957 was the first such legislation since theReconstruction era.
In the fourth volume,The Passage of Power, Caro covers Johnson's life from 1958 to 1964, including the presidential primary against Kennedy, the challenges Johnson faced uponhis assumption of the presidency, and the significant accomplishments in the months afterKennedy's assassination.[6]
In November 2011, Caro estimated that the fifth and final volume—expected to treat the remainder of Johnson's presidency and his life thereafter[13]—would require another two to three years to write.[14] In March 2013, he affirmed a commitment to completing the series with a fifth volume.[15] As of April 2014, he was continuing to research the book.[16] In a televised interview with C-SPAN in May 2017, Caro confirmed over 400 typed pages as being complete, covering the period 1964–65; and that once he completes the section on Johnson's 1965 and 1966 legislative achievements, he intends to move toVietnam to continue the writing process.[17]
In an interview with theNew York Review of Books in January 2018, Caro said that he was writing about 1965 and 1966 and a non-chronological section about the relationship between Johnson and Bobby Kennedy. Asked if he still planned to visit Vietnam soon, Caro replied: "Not yet, no. This is a very long book. And there's a lot to do before that's necessary. I'm getting close to it now."[18] In December 2018, it was reported that Caro is still "several years from finishing" the volume.[13] In January 2020, Caro said he had "typed 604 manuscript pages so far" and is "currently on a section relating to the creation of Medicare in 1965".[19] Due to the impact of theCOVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Caro postponed his research trip to Vietnam and a visit to theJohnson Presidential Library, but continued work on the book from his home in Manhattan.[20] In October 2021, Caro said that he was writing about Johnson's passing of Medicare and his escalation of the Vietnam War.[21] In December 2022, Caro related that he still hoped to conduct research in Vietnam.[22]Robert Gottlieb, Caro’s editor for more than fifty years, died in June 2023; a spokesperson for Caro said that he was “continuing his work on Volume 5 with limited interruption”.[23]
In a September 2024 interview for the 50th anniversary of his bookThe Power Broker, Caro revealed that he was steadily making progress on the fifth book, but was re-writing sections related to theCivil Rights movement andMartin Luther King Jr. and still had a substantial amount of work to finish when it came to writing about theVietnam War.[24] He also revealed in separate interviews that he had completed sections related to Medicare and was receiving digital versions of Vietnam-era documents from theJohnson Presidential Library.[25]
Caro provided a few more updates in a February 2025 interview withSmithsonian magazine, where he revealed that he had written 980 pages for his manuscript. He also revealed that he was still working on sections for the creation ofMedicare andMedicaid, from its management from SenatorRussell Long to its passage through the Senate, and that he planned on embarking his trip toVietnam once he finished those sections. He also clarified that while he will not allow someone else to finish his work, he will release whatever he's completed to the public if he does pass away.[26]
Throughout the biography, Caro examines the acquisition and use of political power in American democracy, from the perspective both of those who wield it and those who are at its mercy. In an interview withKurt Vonnegut andDaniel Stern, he once said: "I was never interested in writing biography just to show the life of a great man," saying he wanted instead "to use biography as a means of illuminating the times and the great forces that shape the times—particularly political power."[27]
There are plans for a Chinese translation of the series, collectively known under the titleLindeng Yuehanxun, published byBeijing-basedXiron Books.Chengdu resident He Yujia took four months to translate the first volume. She had not learned a significant amount of information about Lyndon Johnson in her formal education, and in accordance with her usual approach to translating non-fiction, she translated material as she read it instead of reading the entire work and then translating it. In late 2018, she spent four months translating the second volume,Jinjie zhi Ti ("Means of Ascent"), but as of 2020 the publisher still has not released the translation, nor has He Yujia received financial remuneration for her work.Peter Hessler argued that this could be related to a decline inChina-United States relations.[28]
Politicians have responded strongly toThe Years of Lyndon Johnson:
Bill Clinton, formerPresident of the United States, wrote ofThe Passage of Power: "In sparkling detail, Caro shows the new president's genius for getting to people—friends, foes and everyone in between—and how he used it to achieve his goals."[29]
Richard Nixon, Johnson's immediate successor asPresident of the United States, calledThe Path to Power a "terrible book", expressing disbelief at its popularity and saying "it makes [Johnson] feel like a goddamn animal... of course, he was."[30]
Gordon Brown, a formerBritish prime minister, said of the series: "It's a wonderfully written set of books. The stories are quite breathtaking.... These books challenge the view of history that politics is just about individual maneuvering. It's about ideas and principled policy achievements. That's what makes it one of the great political biographies."[31]
William Hague, a former BritishConservative Party leader andforeign secretary, nominatedMeans of Ascent as the book he would most like to have with him on a desert island, in theBBC Radio 4 programDesert Island Discs. He later wrote: "I explained that it was the best political biography of any kind, that I had ever read. I said it conveyed more brilliantly than any other publication what it really feels like to be a politician.... When a fourth volume finally completes the set, this will be nothing short of a magnificent history of 20th century America."[31]
Michael Howard, another former Conservative Party leader, encountered the series after swapping houses with Caro for a holiday. He said, "For Caro, writing a biography is writing a thriller—in Johnson's case, aWestern. You can't stop turning the pages. He doesn't like Johnson, but the facts are there so you can make your own judgments. I can't recommend this book highly enough."[31]
Beau Willimon, who created the American version of thepolitical drama television seriesHouse of Cards, said he had drawn inspiration for the series fromThe Years of Lyndon Johnson.[32] In the last episode of the first season, a copy ofThe Passage of Power can be seen lying on the desk of protagonistFrank Underwood.[33]
Caro, Robert A.,The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power. 1982. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. (ISBN0-679-72945-3). xxiii + 882 p. + 48 p. of plates: illus.
Caro, Robert A.,The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent. 1990. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. (ISBN0-679-73371-X). xxxiv + 506 pp.
Caro, Robert A.,The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. 2002. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. (ISBN0-394-72095-4). xxiv + 1167 pp.
Caro, Robert A.,The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power. 2012. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. (ISBN0-375-71325-5). 736 pp.
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