Lyndon Baines Johnson

LBJ is, of course, the center of Master of the Senate. This volume covers the years 1949 to 1960, detailing how he learned the ropes, identified a path to true power, seized it and used it. It summarizes materials detailed in the first two volumes, showing how he was formed by and ultimately overcame a life of poverty and a legacy of failure. At Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos he developed a lifelong talent for ingratiating himself to important older men (and sloughing off his reputation among fellow students for being an inveterate kiss-up).

He went to Washington as a congressional aide, became a leader among his colleagues and caught the eye of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This led to his becoming the youngest person appointed to head a state administration by the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA), where he controlled an enormous budget...