The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 1)

(Paperback)

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Reissued as a Bodley Head trade paperback, the first instalment of 'the greatest biography of our era' The Times 'The greatest biography of our era ... Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics' The Times Robert A. Caro's legendary, multi-award-winning biography of US President Lyndon Johnson is a uniquely riveting and revelatory account of power, political genius and the shaping of twentieth-century America. This first instalment tells of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country, revealing in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy and ambition that set LBJ apart. It charts his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as a Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate and his attainment, nonetheless, at the age of thirty-one of the power for which he hungered.

Reviews

The greatest biography of our era Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics * The Times *
A book of radiant excellence at the summit of American historical writing Proof that we live in a great age of biography * Washington Post *
A superb and unique biography Meticulous in research, grand in scale, this is a major work that will remain a tower of its kind -- Barbara Tuchman
Truly sensational and enthralling totally original * Financial Times *
By every measure depth of research, brilliance of conception, the seamless flow of the prose The Path to Power is a masterpiece of biography * Newsday *
Powerful and stirring. A monumental political saga it is an overwhelming experience to read The Path to Power * New York Times *
Not only a historical but a literary event. An epic biography a sweeping, richly detailed portrait an awesome achievement * Newsweek *

Author Bio

Robert A. Caro has been described as 'the greatest political biographer of our times' (Sunday Times) and 'the most revered historian of his generation' (New York Times). His first book, The Power Broker, published in 1974, was described in 2015 as 'one of the greatest non-fiction works ever written' (Sunday Times) and his ongoing multi-volume work The Years of Lyndon Johnson has been described as 'the greatest biography of our era' (The Times). With these books he has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, twice won the National Book Award and three times won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also been awarded virtually every other major literary honour, including the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, the highest award in the humanities given in the United States. Born in 1935, he graduated from Princeton University, later became a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and was an investigative reporter for Newsday for six years. He lives with his wife, the writer Ina Caro, in New York City, where he is at work on the fifth and final volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson.