Master of the Senate
Review 10: Victory and the Future
This is the final review of "Master of the Senate."
Lyndon Johnson transformed the 1957 Civil Rights Act from a sprawling, doomed collection of ideas to a chiseled, streamlined, hard bit of reality. The bill's final votes, preceded by a carefully stage-managed debate and Strom Thurmond's famous 24-hour personal filibuster, weren't even close.
Caro is careful to remind us that the new law itself was largely moot. It was not truly backed by the federal government. The victory was primarily symbolic.
But Johnson, as usual, was right — more important laws would follow. The great Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 were born only after the conclusion of Lyndon Johnson's long struggle to pass 1957's token measure.
Johnson himself, speaking after the measure's passage, said: "We do not have to reconstruct Reconstruction in order to have a bill. We do not have to reopen the wounds. There is no compelling need for a campaign issue." But, he said, "there is a compelling need for a solution that will enable all America's people to live in dignity and in unity."
There are pictures in "Master of the Senate. Many of them are powerful, and sometimes hilarious, depictions of Johnson in action. He grabs lapels, seizes shoulders, comes in close and towers over his prey.
But the best picture in the book is of Johnson on Aug. 27, 1957, his 49th birthday — and the day the civil rights bill passed. He's at the Little League Baseball world championship, and little Angel Macios, whose Monterrey, Mexico team had won the game, is hugging Johnson and putting his cap on the Senator's head.
And Johnson is laughing. For once, the guy looks truly happy. It's a singular event. And it's sweet, because you know how he earned it.
Caro's final section of substance is his footnotes and index.
Anyone who plans to write a paper of substance that seriously digs into the historical record might want to have a look. He has labored over his footnotes. They're not an afterthought; not the mutterings of tired writer or an incomprehensible shamble of self-referential jargon. Caro's sourcing is precise and crystal clear. If a notation or citation might confuse a reader, Caro explains it in depth. His tracks are clean and neat.
Caro does his shout-outs like a rapper; no one seems to be left out, and he goes on for as long as he deems necessary. But at the front of his seven-page thank-you section is the research team that made "Master of the Senate" possible — his wife, Ina Caro. Of her, he writes
The more I learn about history and historians, the more I realize what an exceptional historian she is: a researcher of remarkable tenacity and unshakable integrity — my beloved idealist, always.
Caro interviewed 263 people to write "Master of the Senate."
Many of them were interviewed many times.
Caro's next edition of "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" will tell the story of Johnson's campaign for the presidency in 1960, and his decision to accept the number two slot after it failed. It should be published sometime around 2006 or 2007.
Check Flak for the reviews.
— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)
— Juliette Crane (cran0066 at hotmail dot com)
