Tag Archive

Historiography

How to Think about Robert Caro

The official website of Robert A. Caro isn’t shy about quoting the Sunday Times (UK), which calls him “the greatest political biographer of the modern era.”  Even as readers await the fifth volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, the claim cries out for perspective and comparison.Admittedly no such incontestable primacy is possible for any biographer.  The criteria are too debatable and the unlikelihood of a single biographer atop Olympus too obvious.  Yet the case for Caro looks strong.   Read more