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Everywhere acknowledged as a modern American classic, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest books of the twentieth century, The Power Broker is a huge and galvanizing biography revealing not only the saga of one man's incredible accumulation of power, but the story of the shaping (and mis-shaping) of New York in the twentieth century. Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York. And in telling the Moses story, Caro both opens up to an unprecedented degree the way in which politics really happens--the way things really get done in America's City Halls and Statehouses--and brings to light a bonanza of vital information about such national figures as Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (and the genesis of their blood feud), about Fiorello La Guardia, John V. Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller. But The Power Broker is first and foremost a brilliant multidimensional portrait of a man--an extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework to grasp power sufficient to shape a great city and to hold sway over the very texture of millions of lives. We see how Moses began: the handsome, intellectual young heir to the world of Our Crowd, an idealist. How, rebuffed by the entrenched political establishment, he fought for the power to accomplish his ideals. How he first created a miraculous flowering of parks and parkways, playlands and beaches--and then ultimately brought down on the city the smog-choked aridity of our urban landscape, the endless miles of (never sufficient) highway, the hopeless sprawl of Long Island, the massive failures of public housing, and countless other barriers to humane living. How, inevitably, the accumulation of power became an end in itself. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He was held in fear--his dossiers could disgorge the dark secret of anyone who opposed him. He was, he claimed, above politics, above deals; and through decade after decade, the newspapers and the public believed. Meanwhile, he was developing his public authorities into a fourth branch of government known as "Triborough"--a government whose records were closed to the public, whose policies and plans were decided not by voters or elected officials but solely by Moses--an immense economic force directing pressure on labor unions, on banks, on all the city's political and economic institutions, and on the press, and on the Church. He doled out millions of dollars' worth of legal fees, insurance commissions, lucrative contracts on the basis of who could best pay him back in the only coin he coveted: power. He dominated the politics and politicians of his time--without ever having been elected to any office. He was, in essence, above our democratic system. Robert Moses held power in the state for 44 years, through the governorships of Smith, Roosevelt, Lehman, Dewey, Harriman and Rockefeller, and in the city for 34 years, through the mayoralties of La Guardia, O'Dwyer, Impellitteri, Wagner and Lindsay, He personally conceived and carried through public works costing 27 billion dollars--he was undoubtedly America's greatest builder. This is how he built and dominated New York--before, finally, he was stripped of his reputation (by the press) and his power (by Nelson Rockefeller). But his work, and his will, had been done.… (more)
User reviews
He is also marvelous at questioning the conventional wisdom, seeing behind the headlines, exposing the real
And the subject of this bio is fascinating, Robert Moses, a man who for 40 years controlled the road and park building infrastructure in NY City and much of the state of New York. Caro details a driven man who when he tastes power, completely succumbs to it and then abuses that power mercilessly against all in his way. At times, I believe Caro is unfair, with confusing time lines to demonstrate how Moses was corrupted by the power he held. But that is a minor point.
This is a marvelous book. The subject is fascinating, the writing fresh, the research detailed. Highly recommended.
What makes it great? Caro does not pander or bend in the face of Moses' enormous ego but instead calmly and methodically
But most impressively, Caro writes in plain English, wending his way through Moses' complicated, evil genius without losing the reader in technical language. The end product is as complete and composed a man's life has ever been reported.
Perhaps the best biography published in the 1970s, this is the deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1975.
The
Moses himself is less interesting a character than Caro's other biography subject, LBJ. Moses ages poorly, becoming a deaf old codger. Having surrounded himself with yes-men, he is unable to recognize that New York's problems have changed. Traffic won't be solved by another bridge or a cross-town expressway. Mass transit is needed, but Moses is fixedly opposed to mass transit (not only refusing to build it, or to reserve some space along his parkways for future transit---but deliberately trying to frustrate transit by, for example, making the overpasses too low for buses). Moses is narrow-minded. He never learns to drive and for his whole life he thinks of driving as a recreational activity for the wealthy. He is severely racist, and would like to keep the poor away from his parks. He is in my opinion much less perspicacious than Caro tries to argue. He is not a sympathetic figure. The tragedy is not Moses, but the victims of his housing condemnations (often made for corrupt reasons) and, especially, the major development mistakes he made in laying out Long Island parkways to encourage sprawl.
The book is occasionally repetitive and drawn-out. It could probably be edited to half the length. But why would you want it to be? The story, and the writing, are fantastic.
Actual conversation with a waitress when I was reading the book over lunch:
Waitress: That's a really big book! What's it about?
Me: The destruction of New York City.
Waitress: Oh, so it's science fiction?
Me: It's history. It already
Given his impact on urban planning throughout the U.S. and the world, I think you could reasonably say that he had a significant role in enhancing the climate crisis.
Really opens your eyes to the real history of why NYC turned out the way it did (urban planning-wise)
That being said, I have lived, as a news-conscious person, through the last seven years of the period
The book starts out by implicitly criticizing Moses for threatening to resign and then resigning from the Yale Swim Team. I see nothing wrong with a person "sticking to their guns." The next implicit criticism is his directing the Northern State Parkway around the homes of wealthy people. As Moses learned (and this was discussed later) trying to route construction through Rye and Oyster Bay for the Long Island Sound Crossing was an exercise in futility. He also pointed out, in terms of the building of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, that obtaining valuable land by condemnation (if it was going to be a bridge, as Moses wanted) was expensive. In short, the book, in looking to take Moses to task, contradicts itself often.
The book more openly criticizes Moses for bending his reforming principals to political reality. Again, nowhere does Caro explain how Moses was to get things built without the cooperation of elected officials.
The book takes the position that most of the highways Moses was responsible for were jammed almost from the moment they opened. He does not take into account that through most of the 24 hour day the highways indeed move at 50 m.p.h. and that most trips would be unfeasible without them.
There are other examples of fatuous analysis. He advocates using the Triborough Authority's excess resources for mass transit construction. Nowhere does he explain where deficit-inducing operations were to be funded once the moneys were used on a "one-shot" construction project.
Caro criticizes the financial lapses of the World's Fair. I personally think it is "fair" (pun intended) to state that if the World's Fair had been held a few years later, i.e. when the Bicentennial was held in 1976 it might have been hailed as the start of the "New" New York. As it was it was held when NYC was on the edge of a whirlpool down, the beginning of the Lindsay years and the end of the Rockefeller years.
The book is also written from a 1974 perspective where New York City was indeed spiraling into decline. Caro hints that a combination of past corruption and Mayor Lindsay's inexperience had some role, but in my view assigns too much blame to Moses. If the book were written now, with a revived New York City, I wonder if Caro would have reached the same conclusions.
really enlightening. you lose even more trust on your government leaders
It is also a lesson on the relationship between individiuals and power. Clearly the nominal organization tree doesn’t reflect true power hierarchies. It is interesting the degree to which the press failed to recognize that about Moses. Had Moses not been present would New York’s mass transit be better and would the city be as big? Food for thought.
I attended the New York’s World Fair - I think it was in 1963. I vaguely remember hearing about Moses at the time. We had traveled to New York fro Los Angeles, but my father had lived in New York for about 2 years. I also had a cousin living there so I had a delightful experience. I still recall the Pieta, Belgian waffles, and GEs carosel of progress. I wouldn’t have missed the experience.It is also a good history of the early 20th century. New York was an axis for many national issues.
If that wasn't enough, his life and pet projects were heavily subsidized throughout early adulthood by his wealthy mother, never seeming to appreciate this advantage or even understand how everyday New Yorkers, the users of his public works, lived without them. As a result, playgrounds weren't located in poor and working-class neighborhoods, highways were chronically congested from their opening day, mass transit was left without investment for decades, and worst of all, literally thousands of New Yorkers had their homes taken and bulldozed, all because Moses didn't consider the individual to matter in the face of building great works. Those factors all contribute to the full story of who Robert Moses was, and it's important they are in the story, but it does make this hard to read in some points. Nevertheless I am glad this hefty biography exists, for the benefit of the history of planning and what not to do as a practitioner.
The book reads almost like a novel, but with so much detail the reader can almost read every other page and get the gist of the story. This is probably the most intently researched book I've ever encountered. The writing style is so readable yet with so much detail.
So many interesting characters: LaGuardia, Al Smith, Nelson Rockefeller. I admit I did not read every page, but am so impressed. What a life, and what an example of what power does to the individual who can then in turn affect the lives of so many other people.