Reflection on Working by Robert A. Caro

               Another great book by Caro, this one is much, much shorter than his previous books, as it’s just a few reflections on his writing process and a behind-the-scenes look at his great works on LBJ and Robert Moses. By finishing this book, I can now say that I’ve read every book that Caro has ever published. I am a big fan.

               I learned some new things and realized some things that I probably should have remembered, like that every “expressway” and “parkway” in the NYC/Long Island area was built by Robert Moses.  I was really interested in his explanation of certain behind-the-scenes moments in The Years of Lyndon Johnson. For example, Caro started to research Johnson’s activities in the 1940 elections to re-elect Democratic congressmen when he realized that the tone of letters that he found in the Johnson Library changed after that election. Something else that was very interesting was that to interview Sam Houston Johnson, LBJ’s brother, he had him sit where he sat at the old Johnson table in their childhood home. Caro sat behind him, not wanting to sit at the table. And around 6 PM, which was suppertime in the old household, he began to interview him about his memories of his childhood and got much deeper understanding as a result. I imagine that as a really dramatic moment.

               Towards the end of the book, Caro says something that I think sums up all his work. The quote is taken from an interview he gave. He says, “Really, my books are an examination of what power does to people. Power doesn’t always corrupt, and you can see it in the case of, for example, Al Smith or Sam Rayburn. There, power cleanses. But what power always does is reveal, because when you’re climbing, you have to conceal from people what it is you’re really willing to do, what it is you want to do. But once you get enough power, once you’re there, where you wanted to be all along, then you can see what the protagonist wanted to do all along, because now he’s doing it. With Robert Moses, you see power becoming an end in itself, transforming him into an utterly ruthless person. In The Passage of Power, I describe the speechwriter Dick Goodwin trying to find out if Johnson is sincere about civil rights, and Johnson tells him, I swore to myself when I was teaching those kids in Cotulla that if I ever had the power, I was going to help them. Now I have the power and I mean to use it. You see what Johnson wanted to do all along. Or at least a thing he wanted to do all along…”