
The 21st century is short on great political novels, but that gap is filled by great political biographies like Robert A. Caro’s masterful life of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the fourth volume of which appeared this year. In rich and evocative detail, The Passage of Power covers Johnson’s term as Vice President, which found him stewing impotently, with nothing to do and no power to do it with, in stark contrast to his years as Senate majority leader. The book ends with Johnson’s dramatic elevation to the presidency following the Kennedy assassination, when he smoothly and confidently assumed power as if he’d been preparing for the moment his whole life — which in fact he had.