Four volumes have been published, running to more than 3,000 pages in total, detailing Johnson's early life, education, and political career.

In the first volume, The Path to Power, Caro retraced Johnson's early life growing up in the Texas Hill Country and working in Washington, D.C. first as a congressional aide and then as a congressman.

Much of the book deals with Johnson's bitterly contested Democratic primary against Coke R. Stevenson in that year and the Box 13 scandal.

The magazine's critical summary reads: "Despite a few minor flaws, The Passage of Power is a comprehensive and compelling biography".

[16] In November 2011, Caro estimated that the fifth and final volume—expected to treat the remainder of Johnson's presidency and his life thereafter[17]—would require another two to three years to write.

[21] In an interview with the New York Review of Books in January 2018, Caro said that he was writing about 1965 and 1966 and a non-chronological section about the relationship between Johnson and Bobby Kennedy.

[23] Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Caro postponed his research trip to Vietnam and a visit to the Johnson Presidential Library, but continued work on the book from his home in Manhattan.

[27] In a September 2024 interview for the 50th anniversary of his book The Power Broker, Caro revealed that he was steadily making progress on the fifth book, but was re-writing sections related to the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. and still had a substantial amount of work to finish when it came to writing about the Vietnam War.

[28] He also revealed in separate interviews that he had completed sections related to Medicare and was receiving digital versions of Vietnam-era documents from the Johnson Presidential Library.

[30] Throughout the biography, Caro examines the acquisition and use of political power in American democracy, from the perspective both of those who wield it and those who are at its mercy.

"[31] There are plans for a Chinese translation of the series, collectively known under the title Lindeng Yuehanxun, published by Beijing-based Xiron Books.