Means of Ascent
From AwardAnnals
 | |
| Author(s) | Robert A. Caro |
|---|---|
| Series | Volume 2 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson |
| Publisher | Vintage |
| Honors | |
| MEANS OF ASCENT is the second book in the LBJ trilogy. It carries Johnson from his 1941 Senate defeat through WW II and on to the securing of his fortunes, both economic and political. Caro tells this story with an eye for detail. He focuses not only on Johnson, but on Johnson’s “unbeatable” opponent, former Texas Governor Coke Stevenson. As the political duel between the two men quickens, it moves with all the drama of the perfect Western. Caro has us witness a momentous turning point in American politics: the tragic last stand of politics of issue versus politics of image. | |
MEANS OF ASCENT is the second book in the LBJ trilogy. It carries Johnson from his 1941 Senate defeat through WW II and on to the securing of his fortunes, both economic and political.
Caro tells this story with an eye for detail. He focuses not only on Johnson, but on Johnson’s “unbeatable” opponent, former Texas Governor Coke Stevenson. As the political duel between the two men quickens, it moves with all the drama of the perfect Western. Caro has us witness a momentous turning point in American politics: the tragic last stand of politics of issue versus politics of image.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
The second installment in a projected four-volume biography of LBJ that opened with The Path to Power, Means of Ascent shines a harsh light on the early political years of one of America’s most paradoxical presidents. The man who would later ram civil rights legislation through a reluctant Congress, and then be brought down by Vietnam, came out of a political swamp—Caro gives a graphic picture of the Texas democratic political machine at its most corrupt. The climax of the book is LBJ’s election to the Senate in 1948, an election he won by 87 dubious votes out of almost a million. That vote arguably changed history. This book won the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
