I became interested in Lyndon Johnson recently and took it upon myself to find a comprehensive take on his entire political career. After a quick Amazon search and some time spent at the local bookstore, I decided on Robert Caro's The Path to Power over the Dorris Kearns Goodwin book for a first introduction to Lyndon Johnson (it looked more comprehensive). I'd say the book is easily the most important book I've read where I basically decided to read about the subject off a whim. I'm at the point where LBJ becomes a congressional assistant, and up to this point it's been completely amazing. Caro's treatment of Johnson's background, what motivated his life's work, it's fantastic. As people have said, it's not so much a great biography - and it is - as much as a treatment of the times and histories intimately linked with Lyndon Johnson (his treatment of Texas as the origin of the late 19th century populist movement was a welcome surprise) and the actual specific way in which power in our society truly works. It's about power. It's about putting a face on the true reality of the power system we as members of this time in history find ourselves. There's no vague comments about freedom and democracy, rather, this is the nitty gritty reality of the power system.
Recently I've heard Bill Moyers (Lyndon Johnson's press secretary, but most well known as the legendary PBS journalist of good conscience) basically endorse the Randall Woods book about Lyndon Johnson during an interview on youtube (saying something about how Woods almost knew the events of Johnson's political life better than even Moyers remembered them), so I'm probably going to check that book out as well. I haven't heard Moyer's opinion about Caro's books, but I suspect I know how he probably feels about them.
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