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8 min read
Age & reading levelAdult
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4.7
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The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro
The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro Review: A Landmark of American Political Biography
The Passage of Power is Book Four of Robert A. Caro's monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson, covering the years 1958 to 1964 — from Johnson's frustrated vice presidency under JFK through his sudden ascension to the presidency and his first nine months in the Oval Office. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other major honors, it stands as one of the most acclaimed works of political biography in the English language.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers already invested in Caro's Years of Lyndon Johnson series who want to understand how LBJ's character, resentments, and legislative genius shaped one of the most consequential political transitions in American history.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you are serious about American political history, the presidency, or the craft of biography, and are prepared to engage with a long-form, deeply researched work that rewards sustained commitment.
Skip if
Skip it if you are new to the series and unwilling to first work through the preceding three volumes, as the book's full emotional and analytical weight depends on the cumulative portrait Caro builds across thousands of prior pages.
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews awarded the book its Best Books of 2012 distinction, named it a National Book Award finalist, and praised Caro's ability to combine "a compelling narrative and insightful authorial judgments" while capturing Johnson's "adroit adaptability." The Times of London, as quoted by books.google.com, called it "one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece," and the volume went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the American History Book Prize.
“Combines a compelling narrative and insightful authorial judgments into a lengthy volume that will thrill those who care about American politics, the foundations of power, or both.”
— Kirkus Reviews4.7from 2,563 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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The Passage of Power is the fourth volume of Robert A. Caro's monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson, tracing LBJ from the humiliating powerlessness of the vice presidency through JFK's assassination and his first nine months as president — a period Caro renders with novelistic precision and exhaustive research. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the National Book Award, it stands as one of the most acclaimed works of political biography in the English language, offering a psychologically nuanced portrait of Johnson's character flaws, adaptability, and decisive legislative mastery. It is essential reading for anyone serious about American political history or the craft of biography, though readers unfamiliar with the preceding three volumes will lack the full cumulative context Caro builds across thousands of pages.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers invested in American political history, the presidency, or the craft of biography, The Passage of Power represents essential reading of the highest order. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the American History Book Prize, and was a National Book Award finalist — an extraordinary accumulation of honors for a single volume. The Times of London called it 'one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece.' The key caveat is that its full emotional and analytical weight depends on the preceding three volumes; readers arriving without that context will find some of Caro's cumulative portrait missing.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to The Passage of Power will find natural companions in the earlier volumes of the same series: The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson and Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro are essential context for this volume and reward reading in sequence. Caro's The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York applies the same exhaustive, psychologically penetrating approach to a different titan of American power. For readers interested in landmark political biography more broadly, David McCullough's John Adams and Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton offer comparably immersive portraits of foundational American political figures. Maureen Callahan's Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed covers the Kennedy era from a sharply different angle for readers curious about the world surrounding JFK.
- Who should read this?
- The Passage of Power is ideal for readers with a serious interest in American political history, the mechanics of power, or the craft of biography at its highest level. Fans already invested in Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson series will find this fourth volume the most emotionally and analytically rewarding yet — Kirkus notes that even readers previously critical of Caro's treatment of Johnson in earlier volumes 'are less likely to complain about their hero's portrayal here.' It is also essential reading for anyone fascinated by the Kennedy assassination's political aftermath, the civil-rights era, or the Johnson–Robert Kennedy rivalry. Casual readers looking for a quick, accessible introduction to LBJ are better served starting with an earlier, shorter work, as this volume demands sustained commitment and rewards prior familiarity with the series.
- About Robert A. Caro
- Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson.
- Where should I start with Caro?
- For readers new to Robert A. Caro, the ideal starting point depends on their interest: those drawn to the Lyndon Johnson story should begin with The Path to Power, the first volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, which establishes the biographical foundation that all subsequent volumes — including The Passage of Power — build upon. Readers more interested in urban power and policy may find The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York a more self-contained entry point, as it is a standalone work rather than part of a multi-volume series. LuvemBooks has reviewed both The Path to Power and The Power Broker, making either a natural starting place on the site.
- What are the main themes?
- The Passage of Power is fundamentally about power — how it is achieved, exercised, multiplied, and lost. As Michael Crick of UK Channel 4 News observed of the series, 'Caro's books are about power, how to achieve it and make it multiply; how to use power and how to lose it.' More specifically, this volume examines political ambition and personal resentment through the Johnson–Robert Kennedy rivalry; the psychology of humiliation and adaptability through Johnson's years in the powerless vice presidency; and the relationship between personal conviction and legislative mastery through the passage of civil-rights legislation. The book also functions as a study in political transition, capturing how a single traumatic event — JFK's assassination in Dallas — reshapes the entire architecture of American power.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
About Robert A. Caro
Where should I start with Caro?
What are the main themes?
Summarize this book
The Passage of Power covers the years 1958 to 1964, following Lyndon B. Johnson from the frustrations of the vice presidency — a role he accepted after surrendering the leadership of the U.S. Senate — through the shock of JFK's assassination in Dallas and into his first nine months in the Oval Office. Caro documents Johnson's fraught, deeply personal rivalry with Robert Kennedy, which persisted even through the national trauma of Dallas, and examines how Johnson's lifelong commitment to helping the dispossessed translated into the passage of landmark civil-rights legislation once he held executive power. A central analytical point, supported by Kirkus Reviews, is that JFK, lacking Johnson's congressional leverage, could not have secured passage of much of that same legislation. The book is the fourth act of an ongoing epic, building on the portraits established in The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, and Master of the Senate.
Follow up
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Our Review
A towering work of political biography, The Passage of Power confirms Robert A. Caro's place at the summit of American historical writing.
What the Book Covers
The Passage of Power — the fourth installment of Caro's multi-decade The Years of Lyndon Johnson — spans one of the most dramatic arcs in American political history: the years 1958 to 1964. The book traces Lyndon B. Johnson from the humiliating powerlessness of the vice presidency, a role he accepted after surrendering the leadership of the U.S. Senate, through the shock of John F. Kennedy's assassination and into Johnson's first nine months as president. Within that compressed span, Caro captures the full sweep of Johnson's character — his resentments, his ambitions, his adaptability — and his sudden, consequential exercise of presidential authority. The Vintage paperback reprint, published May 7, 2013, makes this landmark volume widely accessible.
The Central Drama: Johnson, Kennedy, and the Machinery of Power
At the heart of this volume is a web of personal and political conflict that Caro renders with novelistic precision. Johnson's fraught relationship with Robert Kennedy — an animosity that took root on Capitol Hill and did not dissolve after JFK's assassination — is documented in full. When Robert Kennedy became not only his brother's closest confidant but also his attorney general, Johnson's resentment deepened, and Caro traces how that warfare between the two men persisted even through the national trauma of Dallas. On a different axis, Caro examines how Johnson's own lifelong commitment to helping the dispossessed translated, once he held executive power, into the passage of landmark civil-rights legislation. Kirkus Reviews notes that the evidence presented is compelling on a striking point: JFK, lacking Johnson's congressional leverage, could not have secured passage of much of that same legislation.
Awards, Reception, and Place in the Canon
Few works of American nonfiction have accumulated the honors that The Passage of Power and its series have earned. This volume won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the American History Book Prize; Kirkus Reviews named it one of its Best Books of 2012 and a National Book Award finalist. The series as a whole has been cited on the New York Times's list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century and Kirkus Reviews' Best Nonfiction Books of the Century. Penguin Random House notes that Caro himself has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and received the 2016 National Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. The London Sunday Times, as quoted by Penguin Random House, has called Caro "the greatest political biographer of our times." The Times of London described the volume as "one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece."
Caro's Craft: Narrative Power and Psychological Depth
What distinguishes Caro's approach across the series — and in this volume in particular — is the combination of exhaustive research, compulsive narrative momentum, and sustained psychological insight. As Kirkus Reviews observes, Caro "combines a compelling narrative and insightful authorial judgments" throughout, producing a volume that rewards readers who care about American politics and the mechanics of power alike. The portrait of Johnson is notably balanced: Caro documents his subject's character flaws while also admiring, as Kirkus puts it, Johnson's "adroit adaptability." Michael Crick of UK Channel 4 News captured the broader design of the series when he wrote that "Caro's books are about power, how to achieve it and make it multiply; how to use power and how to lose it." That theme saturates every chapter of The Passage of Power, giving the work a coherence that transcends straightforward biography.
Who This Book Is For — and One Genuine Limitation
Readers arriving at The Passage of Power without familiarity with the preceding three volumes — The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, and Master of the Senate — will find some context missing, since Caro builds his portrait of Johnson cumulatively across thousands of pages. This is not a standalone entry point into the Johnson era; it is the fourth act of an ongoing epic, and its full emotional and analytical weight depends on what came before. For those already invested in the series, however, Kirkus notes that even readers previously critical of Caro's treatment of Johnson in earlier volumes "are less likely to complain about their hero's portrayal here." For anyone serious about American political history, the presidency, or the craft of biography itself, The Passage of Power represents essential reading of the highest order.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
penguinrandomhouse.com
- 2
- 3
robertcaro.org
- Further reading
- 4
Robert A Caro, Wikipedia
- 5
kirkusreviews.com
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
newbookrecommendation.com
- 12
Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
2 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
political violence (JFK assassination depicted in detail)
racially charged historical context of the civil-rights era
Skip if you want a concise, accessible introduction to LBJ rather than a deep, demanding scholarly biography
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