Robert Caro's gripping LBJ biography: 5 revelations

Caro's eagerly awaited fourth tome on Johnson's life and career comes out in May, and The New Yorker is running a long, riveting exerpt

Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office aboard Air Force One after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
(Image credit: CORBIS)

Historian Robert Caro has been meticulously documenting Lyndon B. Johnson's life for more than three decades, and with his fourth weighty LBJ volume, The Passage of Power, due out May 1, the Pulitzer–winning biographer has published a long sneak preview in The New Yorker. The excerpt, in the April 2 issue of the magazine, recounts perhaps the most fateful day in Johnson's life, and among the most traumatic for the country — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 — from LBJ's perspective. Here, five key revelations from Caro's "gripping new essay":

1. LBJ was convinced his career was over

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