THE MASTER: Biographer Robert Caro turns 75 today. According to an interview he did with Charlie Rose last year, we should be seeing the fourth and final volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson at some point in 2012 -- and if there's a more (and longer-) anticipated work of nonfiction out there, I don't know what it is. (The first three volumes were published in 1982, 1990 and 2002.)
For some forty years, he has made his life's work illuminating the way in which power functions -- through Johnson and NYC's Robert Moses (The Power Broker) -- and I cannot begin to express how indebted to him we all are. If there's anyone here who has not read all four of Caro's books yet, please stop reading this blog, buy them, read them and come back here in a few months when you're done. Seriously.
Caro's books are one of my American Historical blindspots. And the only longer and arguably more anticipated non-fiction I can think of is the legendary Larry Kramer "The American People: A History," which at one point was rumored to be coming out in part next year.
ReplyDeleteBut ADAM... I'm reading the "Hunger Games" trilogy now... I hear that it's *also* about the way power operates, but it's much more at my intellectual level...
ReplyDelete-Daniel
I'm hosting book club in either January or April, which means I get to choose the book. I wonder what would happen if I chose one of these. I might break book club. That would be bad.
ReplyDeleteI'll add these to my non-book club reading list. And then I WILL expect to discuss them here when I eventually finish them.
Oh, man -- for a second there, I thought you were announcing that Caro had passed away. And then I realized it was about the next LBJ bio coming out hopefully soon. Talk about a roller coaster for my nerdy pulse there. I contend that his LBJ trilogy is the best set of biographies I have ever read. I learned so much about LBJ, the goverrnment, and America during those time periods. Caro really is a master class on how to have an engrossing narrative style without sacrificing the most meticulous research out there. Exhibit A: he made the New York public works system a 1,100+ page turner.
ReplyDeleteThe most anticipated non-fiction works are those stemming from the Holmes Devise.
ReplyDeleteCaro book? I've been working out hard for a year now, and still can't lift them. Maybe next year. (Only "Master of the Senate" is available for Kindle.)
ReplyDeleteWhat I love about the Caro LBJ series is that they also contain full-length biographies of Coke Stevenson, Sam Rayburn, and Richard Russell thrown in for background and context.
ReplyDeleteand if there's a more (and longer-) anticipated work of nonfiction out there, I don't know what it is
ReplyDeleteI'd go with the Mark Twain autobiography
I'm not big on biographies, and I have very little interest in LBJ. Can someone make the case that I should read these anyway?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if a case can be made for the LBJ books, but my understanding is that The Power Broker (the Moses one) is as much about the city as it is about Moses.
ReplyDeleteThe Power Broker is a fantastic book that should be required reading for anyone familiar with or curious about NYC. It's a great example of when Great Man history is useful - Moses, through sheer force of will, really did reshape NYC, for good or for ill.
ReplyDeleteI think it should be said, though, that most other historians are also working on the way in which power works. The historical profession's (welcome) turn away from biography and resistance to putting too much explanatory power in one man's work has illuminated the workings of power in different ways in a lots of other areas where the narratives are just as compelling. I won't start listing books, but I certainly could. (And will, if anyone asks.)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, actually.
ReplyDeleteOk, the best history books I've read include the following (listed in roughly chronological order):
ReplyDeleteEdmund Morgan, American Slavery American Freedom
Eugene Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made
George Chauncey, Gay New York
Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis
Many of the people on this list would also enjoy:
Dennis Hutchinson, ed., The Forgottem Memoir of John Knox
Stephen Teles, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement
And I haven't read Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship yet, but it's supposed to be fantastic.