The third book in Robert Caro’s multi-volume biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Master of the Senate was the second book for which Caro won the Pulitzer Prize. (The first one was, of course, for The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.) I read Caro not to prove a point or to try and make myself look smart; on the contrary, reading Caro serves as a reminder on every page of just how little I know! Every paragraph seems a civics lesson in and of itself.

It’s one of the reasons why I picked up Master of the Senate after finishing Means of Ascent, the second book in the LBJ series. What I so admire about Caro is his ability to demonstrate how government actually works, how the work of government actually gets done. And he does this, somehow, without leaving the reader in despair. Maybe it’s his storytelling, maybe it’s his focus on the individuals involved and all their human foibles. Whatever it is, it’s absolutely masterful.

I’m 70 pages in and, aside from the Introduction, I don’t think LBJ has been mentioned once. This might seem strange for a biography about the man, but the history of the Senate that Caro shares sets the stage for what LBJ walked into as a the junior Senator from Texas in 1949. Going back through the institution’s history and its purpose as designed by the Framers of the Constitution, Caro highlights its highs and its lows, its Golden Age and its stasis during the Gilded Age, its failures and its singular triumphs. It all helps me better appreciate its role as envisioned by the Framers - and it is a remarkable testament to their vision for its fulfillment of various functions over the more than 200 years of its existence.

Of course, the writing is incredible. Who else would have thought to tell such a history through the desks in the Senate Chamber?