The Years of Lyndon Johnson — The Path to Power

Why it’s on the list: Volume one of Robert Caro’s Johnson biography — the Hill Country, the college campus machine, the 1937 campaign and the Texas years. The recommendation was for “the volumes,” so this card stands for the whole sequence.

Where I heard about it

• Photographed in December 2019 (Books photo album)

• Replies to @typesfast — listed as “The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (the volumes)” in the replies to his question “What’s the best history book you’ve read?”, June 2025. The full list lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).

About this edition

One card for the series, filed under volume one. It is followed by Means of Ascent (1990), Master of the Senate (2002) and The Passage of Power (2012).

Connections

• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• The Power Broker — Caro’s other book, about the same subject of how power actually works.
• People Over Politics — the portfolio idea this sits closest to.