This week on Q&A, Pulitzer prize winning author and historian Robert Caro discusses his newly released biography of Lyndon Johnson entitled “The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power.”
This is his fourth book in the Johnson biographical series and Caro promises a fifth and final book in the future. The period covered in the book is from 1958 until early 1964. Caro tells us that Lyndon Johnson sought the Presidency, yet in 1960 the nomination went to a young Massachusetts Senator named John F. Kennedy.
Caro discusses Vice President Johnson’s poor treatment at the hands of close Kennedy staff members and loyalists. He describes the poor relationship between Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy, the President’s younger brother who would ultimately be appointed as U.S. Attorney General.
The period after the assassination of President Kennedy, when Lyndon Johnson took control of the United States government, is analyzed. And then, Mr. Caro speaks about Johnson’s skill at moving several major pieces of legislation through the House and Senate after he became President. It is these early legislative victories, Caro suggests, which plant the seeds for Johnson’s coming “War on Poverty” program.
Robert Caro was born and raised in New York City. He attended the Horace Mann School in the Bronx, and graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science degree in English. He was awarded two Pulitzer prizes for biography in 1975 and 2003. He has been researching Lyndon Johnson since 1977.
This is the first of a two part interview. The second hour of this discussion will air on Q&A Sunday May 20, 2012.