Part 2 Chapter 4 Summary

Caro opens Part 2 entitled "Learning," by portraying LBJ's swearing in as a senator on January 3, 1949. He then offers a brief biographical sketch. LBJ was born in 1908 in the barren Texas Hill Country, where his father had been an economic failure. He attended a "poor boys' school," gained a reputation as a political wonder kid, running two campaigns and at age twenty-three went to Washington as a congressman's aide. There he became Boss of the Little Congress, a club of congressional aides. At age twenty-six, he was appointed director of the National Youth Administration (NYA) for Texas, the youngest New Deal administrator of a statewide program. Two years later, he beat seven better-known opponents to win a congressional seat and used this office to benefit influential constituents and earn a name for himself in the House of Representatives. From his early years...