The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 2: Means of Ascent

In "Means of Ascent", Caro covers the years 1941-48, years in the wilderness for Johnson, who had been devastatingly defeated for the Senate in 1941, but years of fascination for the biographer and for anyone interested in the more extreme grotesqueries of American politics. For this is the period when Lyndon Johnson and his wife Ladybird made themselves rich, Texas-style rich. And it is the period when Johnson won his first seat in the US Senate, in an election whose corruption was legendary even by Texas standards. Caro has tried to expose the details of Johnson's financial dealings, so long shrouded in secrecy, and the almost incredible true story of the 1948 Senate contest, a tale of local bosses, controlled votes, and stuffed and stolen ballot boxes. What he shows us is at once funny, horrifying and inevitable.