[lorenzotedesco]

Hi Jake,

You've single handedly kept this thread going for quite some time. Upon looking back I see that three years ago you had not yet read the LBJ books, only the Robert Moses bio. Sounds like you are all caught up now. Alas I've yet to read the first of the LBJ books though I have a copy on hand. Just waiting for the time. I loved the 2nd and 3rd volumes and the Moses bio.

Caro is an incredible resource. His books read like a college course on the subject at hand. By the way as much as I like his work I recently read a certain criticism of his LBJ series which could possibly be extended to his Moses volume too. Paraphrasing of course, it took issue with his tendency to moralize on his subjects. I think the source may have written his/her own LBJ book as well.

I will read Path to Power before plunging into Vol 4. Thanks for keeping us Caro fans in the forum informed.

Larry

[irene soggia]

Jake, I saw that on May 2012 will be a new book by Robert Caro, titled: The Years of Lyndon Johnson-The Passage of Power.

You are a consultant?

[Jake]

Yes, pre-ordered my copy already!!

Robert Caro has a team of one: his wife Ina. She did much of the research into the lives of both Johnson and Robert Moses and is the only team he has or wants! He writes a book once every 10 years or so, thats why he only published 5 books up until now.

[Jake]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...e-Lincoln.html

[johnofphilly]

I think he touches on the fact that Lyndon felt that Bobby was a snip, way inadequate to be appointed as Attorney General. Probably some truth to that.

[Nick_Bradley78]

One for Jake - is it true that Bobby insisted J Edgar Hoover referred to him as "General" when he held the office. I've read and seen that a number of times but find it hard to believe, is that even the correct form of address for the office?

[johnofphilly]

Good question. I hope Hoover told him to stuff it. I actually liked Bobby at the end, when he was running for the 1968 presidential primary. He had changed his stand on the Vietnam war. But I can't respect his performances before that. JFK delegated to him domestic affairs while he (J) was working on foreign policy abroad. Bobby was all thumbs because despite his civil rights claims, he didn't want to alienate the rebel Democratic voting block support.

Backspace to the McCarthy blacklist era, a young dumb Bobby, just out of law school, was on board with that.

[Jake]

I never liked the Kennedys, quite frankly, it´s the one aspect of Sinatra´s life I never could figure out. I prefer Dean Martin´s stance on the matter, in that he saw right through the superficiality of the Kennedys, but of course that´s my opinion.

I don´t know the answer to Nick´s question regarding J Edgar Hoover.

I am currently reading "Path To Power" and it is quite interesting to read about Lyndon Johnson and his political genius, and opportunist qualities.

[Jake]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/bo...t.html?_r=1&hp

At the heart of “The Passage of Power,” the latest installment of Robert A. Caro’s magisterial biography of Johnson, is the story of how he was catapulted to the White House in the wake of Kennedy’s assassination, how he steadied and reassured a shell-shocked nation, and how he used his potent political skills and the momentum generated by Kennedy’s death to push through Congress his predecessor’s stalled tax-cut bill and civil rights legislation and to lay the groundwork for his own revolutionary “war on poverty.”

It’s a breathtakingly dramatic story about a pivotal moment in United States history, and just as Johnson used his accumulated knowledge of the art of power to push the nation along the path he’d envisioned, so in these pages does Mr. Caro use the intimate knowledge of Johnson he’s acquired over 36 years to tell that story with consummate artistry and ardor, demonstrating a tirelessness — in his interviewing and dissection of voluminous archives — that rivals his subject’s.

This engrossing volume (spanning 1958 to 1964) is the fourth and presumably penultimate volume in a series that began with “The Path to Power,” published back in 1982, and it showcases Mr. Caro’s masterly gifts as a writer: his propulsive sense of narrative, his talent for enabling readers to see and feel history in the making and his ability to situate his subjects’ actions within the context of their times. Of all the chapters in Johnson’s life, this is the one most familiar to most readers, but Mr. Caro manages to lend even much-chronicled events, like the Cuban missile crisis and Kennedy’s assassination, a punch of tactile immediacy.



America has a chronicler of its time with Robert Caro, arguably the best ever, who, through his works about Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, indirectly (perhaps directly) chronicled the American Century unlike any other.

[MDH-IV]

I watched the Caro profile on Sunday Morning yesterday. I really need to read the Johnson bios, but the Moses bio sounds interesting too.

[Jake]

The way I read the Moses biography was to read it and watch Ric Burns' New York Documentary at the same period.... I liked it.

[MDH-IV]

I watched Burns' NY doc over a week long period before I last visited NY. It made the trip that much better...

[Jake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162...ncol%3Blst%3B2

Robert Caro on CBS' Sunday Morning.

[Jake]

Appearance on Jon Stewart's Daily Show:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/th...o?xrs=share_fb

[Jake]

Nice article, brought to my attention by our London/Brit Nick!!! Thanks, buddy!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...caro-biography

[BrianFStevenson]

Originally Posted by Nick_Bradley78

One for Jake - is it true that Bobby insisted J Edgar Hoover referred to him as "General" when he held the office. I've read and seen that a number of times but find it hard to believe, is that even the correct form of address for the office?

Sorry to be a bit late on this one, just saw it.

I worked in the library of the Queensland Parliament for ten years, and the correct form of formal address in conversation for someone in Cabinet was 'minister', or, if it was the boss, 'Premier.' Much like the US, the Attorney General was the Cabinet minister in charge of looking after law and sometimes justice issues. (I say sometimes justice issues because at one stage there was a minister for justice as well.) This person was properly addressed formally as 'Attorney.' I do remember making a minor slip and saying to one of them, 'yes, minister' and getting a quizzical look. along with the wry comment ' I always worry when people say that.'

[Jake]

I think "General" is the adjective to "attorney" the noun here, so you can't really call anyone of title by the adjective. Plus, I think it is an offense impersonating an officer.

Postmaster General is not called "General" either. Surgeon General may be a bit different.

I think the best would be to call the person either "attorney", as Brian says, but perhaps even better forget all that titular hoop-la and just call the guy "sir" and the lady "Madam", or "Ma'am". If you work at any area where these people love to hear their title, you should be briefed in advance, or you will get an earful... either way you will find out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/20/ma...eneral-no.html

As for Bobby Kennedy, well.....enough said.

[Jake]

In the private jet business you are given a guideline as to how to address people, but in the end it says, "If you are ever in doubt, "sir/madam" will do the trick for everyone and anyone."

[lorenzotedesco]

Volume 4 of this series reminded me that I had never read Vol. 1, The Path to Power, until now. I just finished it last week. It is a terrific book as were vols 2 and 3. I guess it's no surprise what my next book will be. I'm looking forward to Passage to Power and am only sorry that it appears this one will not be the last as Caro has more to cover on LBJ.

Related to this, I am aware of an early biography of LBJ by Doris Kearns Goodwin from the 1970s. Is anyone out there familiar with this book? I might try finding it at the local library. She had first hand access to LBJ something Caro lacked.

One of the lessons I've learned from our fair hostess here in Sinatraland is that things aren't always what they seem when it comes to biographies.

Larry

[Jake]

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a renowned presidential biographer, and LBJ confidante.

Caro and Goodwin know each other. Here they are with Charlie Rose:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9237

Caro was barred for a long time from the Johnson Library, and lady Bird didn't want to talk to him after awhile. Caro already had a reputation of digging deep after his Robert Moses book, and at the time he wasn't considered eminent as he is considered today.