The Path To Power
by Robert A. Caro · first published 1982
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Vivid account of Lyndon Johnson's early life and rise to Congress, praised for its gripping narrative of ambition and for showing how political power is acquired; a strong pick for readers of politics or history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Traces Johnson's life from his Texas childhood through his rise to political power and his successful 1948 senatorial campaign.
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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The first few paragraphs of OA brought to mind Path to Power, the first volume of Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson biography. The chapter on electrification and the impact it had on women's lives in rural Texas is a real eye opener.
on “The Grim Biology of Being Poor” ↗…times higher, in fact—than rates in urban areas. > Studies had long disproved the utilities’ figures. A 1925 survey in Wisconsin found that the cost of lines would be not $5,000 but $1,225 per mile. The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I (pp. 714-715). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. I'll admit that Caro is not always right, but I'd love some proof to the contrary.
on “Microsoft and an army of tiny telecoms are part of a plan to wire rural America” ↗…and Still Beat the Big Guys by Joe Coulombe * How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom by Matt Ridley * Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager * The years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert Caro * The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson * Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson * An Economist walks into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk…
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗Robert Caro's The Path To Power. It's the first volume of a set of biographies of Lyndon B. Johnson, but it's so much more an exploration of how power works and shapes. Caro is obsessed with power (thus the other classic: Caro's The…
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?” ↗'The Path To Power', Caro, first volume of his LBJ biography. Elsewhere ('Working'), Caro has explained that his career in writing is to make clear how power is acquired and used. I think he achieves this goal here and…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗If you can, read Robert Caro's The Path To Power (Caro's The Power Broker has been a HN favorite ever since Aaron Swartz recommended it). It's the story of the first ~30 years of Lyndon B Johnson's life. I forget which chapter it is, but Caro takes…
on “The past was not that cute” ↗…peak. The Glass Hotel, Station Eleven, Sea of Tranquility - anything by Emily St. John Mandel - hard to place but her distinct writing style transports me. Non-fiction: American Moonshot - fine The Path to Power - anything Caro writes is worth reading
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗Goodreads link https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86524.The_Path_to_Power
on “How to Buy a Private Jet” ↗"Caro has been at his work for so long, his books span the modern history of book making. The Path to Power, published in 1982, was printed using hot-metal typesetting, on a Linotype machine; its handsome cover lettering was drawn meticulously by hand. Means of Ascent, published in 1990, was part of the computer-mainframe…
on “Robert Caro has spent thirty-eight years writing the biography of one man.” ↗Yep, that was the one as well. But LBJ and Moses were just 3 classes out of ~14, so no overexposure to Caro. On LBJ the focus was "The Path to Power", and how he created the network of power (especially his early years) that eventually supported him.
on “Why you probably don't need an MBA” ↗I've just started reading Robert Caro's "Path to Power", and LBJ's father took exactly this route to become a teacher: "He had to quit going to high school because of health problems, and his parents sent him to live on his uncle Lucius Bunton's ranch in…
on “Becoming a Lawyer Without Going to Law School (2015)” ↗I've been reading 'The Path To Power', the first volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson. While in college, LBJ developed what sounds to me like a comparable bag of tricks to influence student government outcomes through private…
on “Sam Bankman-Fried accused of possible witness tampering [pdf]” ↗I've only read the first of Caro's LBJ biographies, 'The Path to Power', but I'd very much agree. I plan to read one annually, but last year's Caro was 'The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.' How Moses acquired the power (genius, legislation, money and,…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗