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Reading Robert Caro was one of the great pleasures of my life, I can't recommend him highly enough.

The only probem is that once you read him, you're spoiled. Nobody else really compares to his force of writing and depth of research.



Aren't there other great biographies and biographers as interesting as well including the following:

-James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

-Carl Sandburgs 3 or 4 volume biography of Lincoln.

- Isaac Deutscher's massive biography of Trotsky.(The Prophet).

-Duff Cooper's Talleyrand.

-Tom Cliffs 3 volume biography of Lenin.

- William Taubman biographies of Khrushchev and Gorbachev.

-William Manchester biography of General MacArthur.(American Caesar)

-Barbara Tuchman biography of General Stilwell. (Stillwell and the American Experience in China.)

-Anthony Burgess, Biography of Shakespeare.


I'll have to check these out, thanks! Haven't read any of them


More props for William Manchester. The Glory and the Dream is an amazing book.


A question I have is do you suggest his books to a non US audience ?


Yes, he tells the story about the time and context so well that you don't need any background knowledge. All his books are about people and power, which I think anyone can learn from.


...if so, which one would you start with?


I would recommend starting with Master of the Senate, since I think it's his best work. But I started with the first in the LBJ series and it's incredibly gripping as well.

The Power Broker is also excellent and absolutely worth reading, but in my view not quite as good as the LBJ series.


The Power Broker has one great strength over the LBJ series: concision.




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