Unfortunately all the positives of these books come paired with a critical flaw: Caro only manages to cover two people, and hasn’t even finished the second one!
Have you found other biographers who’ve reached a similar level? Maybe the closest I’ve found was “The Last Lion” by William Manchester, but it doesn’t really compare giving how much the author fawns over Churchill.
Unfortunately all the positives of these books come paired with a critical flaw: Caro only manages to cover two people, and hasn’t even finished the second one!
In my view, Caro is actually less guilty of this than most biographers.
Fundamentally, this is because he cares much more about power, its sources, and its effects on the wielders, beneficiaries, and victims. So even though the throughline are the lives of Moses and Johnson, he spends a considerable amount of time on other topics which provide additional mechanistic models with which to understand power.
Among others, I can think of:
The deep model of the geology and psychology of the trap of the hill country that I mention in the post
What is considered the best description of what it was for women especially to do all their chores by hand in the hill country before Johnson brought them electricity
Detailed models of various forms of political campaigning, the impact of the press and
Detailed models of various forms of election stealing
What is considered the best history of the senate, what it was built for, with which mechanisms, how these became perverted, and how Johnson changed it and made it work.
Detailed model of the process that led to the civil rights movements and passage of the civil rights bills
Detailed model of the hidden power and control of the utilities
In general, many of Moses’ schemes mentioned to force the legistlature and the mayor to give him more funding and power
He even has one chapter in the last book that is considered on par with many of the best Kennedy biographies.
Still, you do have a point that even if we extend the range beyond the two men, Caro’s books are quite bound in a highly specific period: mid 20th century america.
Have you found other biographers who’ve reached a similar level? Maybe the closest I’ve found was “The Last Lion” by William Manchester, but it doesn’t really compare giving how much the author fawns over Churchill.
I think it’s kind of a general consensus that finding something of a similar level is really hard. But in terms of mechanistic models, I did find Waging A Good War quite good. It explores the civil rights movement successes and failures through the lens of military theory and strategy. (It does focus on the same period and locations as the Caro books though...)
Unfortunately all the positives of these books come paired with a critical flaw: Caro only manages to cover two people, and hasn’t even finished the second one!
Have you found other biographers who’ve reached a similar level? Maybe the closest I’ve found was “The Last Lion” by William Manchester, but it doesn’t really compare giving how much the author fawns over Churchill.
I found Ezra Vogel’s biography of Deng Xiaoping to be on a comparable level.
I can confirm it’s very good!
In my view, Caro is actually less guilty of this than most biographers.
Fundamentally, this is because he cares much more about power, its sources, and its effects on the wielders, beneficiaries, and victims. So even though the throughline are the lives of Moses and Johnson, he spends a considerable amount of time on other topics which provide additional mechanistic models with which to understand power.
Among others, I can think of:
The deep model of the geology and psychology of the trap of the hill country that I mention in the post
What is considered the best description of what it was for women especially to do all their chores by hand in the hill country before Johnson brought them electricity
Detailed models of various forms of political campaigning, the impact of the press and
Detailed models of various forms of election stealing
What is considered the best history of the senate, what it was built for, with which mechanisms, how these became perverted, and how Johnson changed it and made it work.
Detailed model of the process that led to the civil rights movements and passage of the civil rights bills
Detailed model of the hidden power and control of the utilities
In general, many of Moses’ schemes mentioned to force the legistlature and the mayor to give him more funding and power
He even has one chapter in the last book that is considered on par with many of the best Kennedy biographies.
Still, you do have a point that even if we extend the range beyond the two men, Caro’s books are quite bound in a highly specific period: mid 20th century america.
I think it’s kind of a general consensus that finding something of a similar level is really hard. But in terms of mechanistic models, I did find Waging A Good War quite good. It explores the civil rights movement successes and failures through the lens of military theory and strategy. (It does focus on the same period and locations as the Caro books though...)
We’re not disagreeing: by “covers only two people” I meant “has only two book series”, not “each book series covers literally a single person”.