This is one of my favorite books. I think about it often and am proud to have read it. Published in 1982, Robert Caro’s The Path to Power is the first volume of the now legendary four-volume set The Years of Lyndon Johnson. (Caro is currently working on the fifth and final volume.) Caro is also legendary, primarily because of his biographical work on LBJ. I am part-way through the third volume, but I come back to this book most often in my mind. These books are entertaining in their own right, giving the reader a minute recounting of the life of an interesting and powerful person. The books are also great in that they serve as general histories of the United States. Following LBJ’s life in such detail, particularly after he is elected to the U.S. Congress, allows you to understand the big issues and players of the day. And they allow you to understand power–Caro’s main goal in writing the books is not just to detail the life of an important person in history, but to examine how one attains and uses power.