The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

A mad visionary, a "benign" fascist. One of the most interesting & despicable characters in NYC history...and that's saying something.

Truly enjoyed this book. As a newcomer to NY, I found it very inspiring and the history it offered was welcoming.

One of the best history books ever written. Amazing story that reads like a novel and is packed with information essential to understanding how modern America came about.

I have to resort to cliches when describing this work, but it is a must-read for those who want to learn how power works and how public work projects can disrupt cities and states. Readers get the impression that Robert Moses, New York's public works czar (and "dictator" as Robert Caro seems to be saying here), was on a rampage for decades. He was the type of character...more

I have to resort to cliches when describing this work, but it is a must-read for those who want to learn how power works and how public work projects can disrupt cities and states. Readers get the impression that Robert Moses, New York's public works czar (and "dictator" as Robert Caro seems to be saying here), was on a rampage for decades. He was the type of character that Shakespeare would have probably loved--and dared to portray in Central Park at the risk of infuriating Moses himself! The book was supposedly 3,000 pages initially. One only wonders what got left out. Nonetheless, it's likely that anyone who reads this book won't forget it. Accounts such as the building of the highway on the Upper West Side, the battle over the proposed Brooklyn-Battery Bridge (which became a tunnel and a source of money for Moses's authority) and especially the ramming of the Cross Bronx expressway will not likely be forgotten by even the casual reader of this great work. No wonder it won a Pulitzer Prize. No wonder it was a bestseller. No wonder it is still a classic. This a great book about a public servant, Robert Moses, who started out building parkways and parks--and ended up building freeways that destroy neighborhoods, in the process lining his pockets with money from tolls collected among other things. It's also a story about how various projects, such as the Henry Hudson Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway were built and the consequences of those projects. Last but not least, it's a history--perhaps THE history--about New York throughout much of the 20th century and why it was in shambles by the early 1970s. After reading this book, I hope no city, New York or otherwise, ever allows a Robert Moses to run loose as did New York during the 20th century.   hide

Caro's masterful and (justifiably) award winning bio of Moses is simply excellent and a brilliant history of New York City's "permanent government" and answers lots of questions about city politics, the built space we live in, and city history. Caro's journalism background shows here: the story of Moses's rise to (and subsequent abuse of) power is...more

Caro's masterful and (justifiably) award winning bio of Moses is simply excellent and a brilliant history of New York City's "permanent government" and answers lots of questions about city politics, the built space we live in, and city history. Caro's journalism background shows here: the story of Moses's rise to (and subsequent abuse of) power is carefully explicated through rich storytelling that renders the various people in the book in detail and brings their personalities to the fore. His style is often digressive, wandering off into detailed diversions into the background of a particular neighborhood or adversary of Moses, but that is part of PB's appeal and what makes it such a valuable book. Caro's writing style also accounts for the book's mammoth size: some 1000-odd pages. The narrative sometimes gets away from Caro, but always makes its way back to the story at hand. It's extremely well organized in that it's possible to read it as if it were an essay collection, simply diving in and reading a few chapters at random, which, thanks to PB's superb organization, will still make sense of one has a fair amount of knowledge of city history. I've been going through it a chapter at a time and am about 2/3 of the ay through.   hide

Whether you're drawn to cities, transportation, politics, or power this thoroughly researched book will hold your interest through all 1200 pages.

I found this massive volume in the Anchorage library and carried it back East one summer to read on the shore of Peconic Bay. More impressive than Moses' grand plans for transportation infrastructure is just how many of those plans he managed to pull off. From the City to Long Island to Rochester this man built an empire... which is only eclipsed by the future massive projects that were...more

I found this massive volume in the Anchorage library and carried it back East one summer to read on the shore of Peconic Bay. More impressive than Moses' grand plans for transportation infrastructure is just how many of those plans he managed to pull off. From the City to Long Island to Rochester this man built an empire... which is only eclipsed by the future massive projects that were (likely fortunately) never built. In particular, look for the artist's rendering of a planned elevated expressway slicing an S-curve through a neighborhood right at upstairs bedroom height. It looks like something out of science fiction. Root around on the Internet for 'unfinished New York highways' and see what might have been - can you imagine an expressway up the Hudson shore to Poughkeepsie? Ever notice how many parkways and expressways end with temporary-looking barriers? It's 2008 but Moses' march is not necessarily over. Time for me to go back and read this great book!   hide

To me, there are three main characters in this book: Robert Moses, the reformer-turned-power-hungry political bully; New York City, in all of its beauty and grotesqueness; and the inadvertent Robert Caro, whose gift of prose and dedication to his subject puts him in a category of biographers that very few occupy. It's a long one!

A gripping portrait of blind ambition, this is a must-read for anyone living in New York City. I marvel at Caro's ability to make the reader despise Moses at one moment and then feel completely sympathetic the next. One of the best history books I have ever read.