Last summer I read two weighty histories of close to a thousand pages each. The first was about Adolph Hitler’a cronies and the second was about Joseph Stalin. This summer I’ve decided to read one of the Robert Caro books on LBJ which also weighs in at about 1,000 pages. I bought it at the LBJ Ranch not remembering that I already had a copy. I took my extra “Master of the Senate” and traded it with with my buddy Frank for his extra copy of “Misquoting Jesus.”
I’ve chosen to read the Caro book is because I want to read up on the politics leading up to the Boyd Scandal. HHH suffered in the Senate in his first few years there. The other reason is the eye opening I got many years ago when I read the first Caro book about LBJ called “Path to Power.” Caro has made wrting about LBJ his life’s work and he plans to eventually finish a tetrology on the subject. I may peek ahead to read passages about HHH but I will finish the entire book. I read the Introduction several months ago and just reread it again yesterday. Its a magnificent beginning. I’ve finished the first Chapter today about the early history of the U.S. Senate. Its wonderful history. Caro wrote glowingly about a book in my own library “The Great Triumverate” by Peterson. Its about Calhoun, Clay and Webster the great Senators from the first half of the 19th Century leading up to the Civil War.
The first chapter ended with the disappointment of Woodrow Wilson in failing to have the Senate ratify the Versailles Treaty ending World War l. I just read another wonderful history about that period, “Paris 1919,” two years ago.
