I have been reading Master of the Senate. It is an amazing work. I have learned so much about the Senate. It is at least as much about how "things work" as it is about LBJ. It is quite the history lesson too, providing insights into events that I never imagined. What I have learned so far is that what we are seeing today; the gridlock, the extreme partisanship, the triumph of the minority over the majority, the purchase of elected officials, is all simply business as usual. It has become even more obvious to me that the Senate is a blight on our entire nation, a refuge for those dedicated to the rich, a home to a lot of hate and intolerance. The prospects for change are quite dim
Indeed there have been only brief intervals in the past 100 years when much of anything of consequence was accomplished in the Senate, and hence Congress and the nation.
Caro is laying out how LBJ basically faked out his fellow Senators, gained power while turning many of the Senate traditions upside down, and perhaps culminating in the passage of some civil rights legislation that Caro introduces the book with.
The book is rich in detail and you learn a lot about the characters who populated the Senate. If you are old enough, many of the names will be familiar, Hubert Humphrey and Richard Russell to name just two. You will learn a lot about these men.
I don't know that I have it in me to read the first two books. I can't imagine either can be as interesting but I might give them a try but not until after reading Passage of Power. And I also am thinking I will need to go back through Master of the Senate to best make sense of everything that went on during the time that the book spans.
I hope Caro is able to put out a fifth book covering LBJ's remaining years (or would that take two more books?).
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