The Path to Power by Robert Caro ( Book One in The Years of Lyndon Johnson)

Robert Caro is known as a master biographer and his series on Lyndon Johnson is perhaps the best biographical series ever published on a President. The detail in this series is stunning and makes this a wonderful resource but also not a series for the casual reader. This book of 700 pages only takes us through the death of FDR.

We read about Johnson's history, his families history and how both his families history and the history of the geographical area known as the Hill Country affected him and his belief system.

Johnson saw his father who as a young boy was his hero lose everything in various times and was determined to have money.

Johnson was determined to be a success and really had no political ethics to get in the way. He was in bed to a great degree with the Texas oil interests especially Brown and Root ( which interestingly became todays Haliburton ). Wanting to be with the winning side he proclaimed his belief in the Roosevelt plan and convinced his money backers that hated Roosevelt to forget his spoken word in favor of FDR for the favors and protections he would give them.

Johnson was not all evil. He was an extreme opportunist. He put electricity in the Hill Country of Texas perhaps ten to fifteen years before they might otherwise have received it but he did so to help his political career as much as to help those inhabitants.

This book in its breadth offers great looks at figures such as Vice President Garner, Sam Rayburn and Pappy Daniels. These in themselves are revaluations. Johnson's complicated relationship with Rayburn is detailed well.

Enough good things cannot be said about this book. Johnson is at various times petty, hateful, loving and good. He is perhaps the most complex politician of his times and this book tells us of his beginnings.

Wonderfully done.