Books by Robert Caro
Means of Ascent
by Robert Caro
His description of Johnson is arresting, complex, entertaining and very educational
“Well, if you look at a picture of a place, you can normally get a sense of what it’s like. But hopefully what books do, or what thinking does, is to show you what that place is like underneath. The Power Broker is the definitive history of how, in modern America, cities get built, power gets thrown around, neighbourhoods are overpowered by developers and politicians. It’s gigantic and it’s a biography, but it reads like the most epic novel of building and money and power. It’s by Robert Caro, who is a master biographer; he went on to write a definitive biography of Lyndon Johnson. And it’s about Robert Moses, the most influential builder and urban planner in the city in the middle of the century. He just decided he was going to do things, change the shape of the land and build a ton of roads and bridges. Whatever you see in the city that is the city—the shape of the city, the body of it—was his doing.” Read more...
The best books on New York City
Ben Greenman, Biographer
The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol I
by Robert Caro
Robert Caro is a master storyteller. He tells a great, gripping story. I’m pretty sure he came to Texas thinking he would write one volume, but he realised that there was an epic tale to tell, and he stuck with it. When the fourth volume is completed, I’m sure it will be seen as the masterwork on Johnson. But each volume is terrific in its own right.
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate
by Robert Caro
🏆 Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
🏆 Winner of a 2002 National Book Award
🏆 Winner of the 2002 L.A. Times Book Prize
“I always tell people that this is one of the first books you should read if you’re really interested in congressional history. It’s a wonderful book, the third part of Caro’s multi-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson that focuses on his time as Senate Majority Leader. It’s also a splendid history of the Senate itself.” Read more...
Julian E. Zelizer, Historian
Interviews where books by Robert Caro were recommended
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1
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
by Jason Roberts -
2
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo -
3
King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig -
4
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage -
5
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
by Winfred Rembert -
6
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne & Tamara Payne
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographies
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographies
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is awarded annually to “a distinguished and appropriately documented” biography by an author from or based in the United States. The authors of winning books receive $15,000, and join a starry pantheon of great American writers. Here, we’ve put together a summary of all the Pulitzer-winning biographies since the turn of the millennium.
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1
America's Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere, James Madison Through Newt Gingrich
by David R Mayhew -
2
Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress
by Eric Schickler -
3
The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
by Joanne B Freeman -
4
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate
by Robert Caro -
5
It’s Even Worse Than You Think: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism
Thomas E. Mann & Norman J. Ornstein
The best books on Congress, recommended by Julian E. Zelizer
The best books on Congress, recommended by Julian E. Zelizer
To understand American politics, you have to understand Congress, argues Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton historian and CNN political analyst. He recommends the best books for getting to grips with the nuts and bolts of the Senate and House of Representatives.
The best books on Power and Ideas, recommended by James Purnell
Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde from 2001 to 2010, says power with no ideas is hollow and chooses his five books on political ideology
The best books on American Presidents, recommended by H W Brands
The best presidential biographies contain insights into both the personal and the political, says the historian HW Brands. He chooses the best biographies of some of the greatest American presidents.
The best books on New York City, recommended by Ben Greenman
The New Yorker’s Ben Greenman selects books that get closer to the heart and history of the city. Street interviews, personal reflections and political struggles reveal NYC’s vibrant but troubled past.
The best books on Change in America, recommended by Van Jones
In the latest instalment of our series on American progressivism, the environmental advocate and human rights activist tells us why the age of Obama will really only begin after the president has left office
