The speaker says Robert Caro’s compelling prose, vivid characters, and gripping stories can engross readers so much that they overlook the books’ lessons about power.

“Caro's books are the best written accounts of how political power actually works. But they are written so compellingly and with characters more vivid and stories more gripping than any novel that it's very easy to get so engrossed that you just keep turning the pages and you never stop and ask yourself, what are the lessons these stories are teaching about power?”