Book Review and Summary of "The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1" by Robert A. Caro

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In this first volume of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s biography, historian Robert A. Caro explains Johnson’s trajectory that led him to the highest office of executive power in the United States. “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” by Robert A. Caro, which was published in 1983 by Vintage Press, is part biography, part history, part social criticism, in which Caro examines Lyndon B. Johnson’s life up until 1941, and analyzes how Johnson’s early personal and professional experiences, as well as the beliefs and values he espoused, eventually paved his way to the presidential seat. With respect to Johnson’s private life, Caro begins at the beginning. Starting with Johnson’s early family life and situating that family within the very big social backdrop of Texas and Texas politics, Caro is always attentive to the influences and contacts that facilitated Johnson’s journey to the presidency.

 

As expressed in the biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, . “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” by Robert A. Caro, the future president was raised around powerful men. Once Johnson’s ancestors and immediate family are introduced and the stage has been set in terms of his more general biographical persona, the biography proceeds to touch upon the other milestones that paved Johnson’s winding but determined and persistent path to the presidency, including Johnson’s marriage to Lady Bird, his first political campaign, his first political victory, and his first taste of defeat. The progression of events that Caro establishes in . “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” is logical and the narrative is cohesive and for the most part chronological, providing the reader with a step-by-step blueprint not only for Johnson’s path to power, but for the attainment of formal power in general. It is through this simple narrative style and exploration of the person within the political that the reader is so able to gain a deep understanding of Lyndon B. Johnson.

 

Caro’s narrative of Johnson’s birth in the biography “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” introduces an important consideration about his family background. Interestingly, the man who would become president came from a long line of distinguished stock and impressive, larger-than-life hypermasculine personalities, many, if not most, of whom had expressed more than a dabbling interest in politics. One side of Johnson’s family, the Buntons, was particularly notable for its strong personality traits that seemed to be passed from the men of one generation down through the subsequent sons. As stated in one of the important quotes from the biography, “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” by Robert A. Caro, “The first Bunton in Texas,” wrote Caro, “had an air of a man of breeding and boldness…[as well as] a manly bearing” (4). That first Bunton was just 28 years old when he was elected to public office, and among his many notable acts, he was remembered in Texas history textbooks as one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence (4).

 

Throughout the history of the Bunton side of Johnson’s family tree as written in the biography of Lyndon Johnson, . “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” by Robert A. Caro, the men in the family would prove themselves worthy both in the spheres of war and in politics, and their powerful and distinctive physical presence would be matched only by what Caro described as “unusual among Texas frontier families” because they were also “interested in ideas and abstractions” (6). Over time, it would become evident how these traits were inherited and expressed by Lyndon Johnson and in fact, many of the traits explored from this side of Johnson’s family mark Johnson as a president and public figure and make him memorable, just as was the case with his ancestors. In short, the main theme in this section from the biography of Lyndon Johnson  “The Path to Power : The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 1” by Robert A. Caro is that Lyndon B. Johnson had a unique insight on power in business and physically and this would aid him later in life.

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