The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Master of the Senate--Robert Caro

Caro can write beautifully. Some history is necessary in histories on a subject. But. However. The first fifty pages on "The Desks of the Senate"? The first mention of his subject in Washington on page 53 when he was a secretary to a Congressman? I am not unfamiliar with high-brow writing. This is the template. It is for reasons such as this that I often eschew linear reading of histories. I didn't with this book.