The Power Broker

Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Robert A. Caro

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English

Random US
01 November 2004

Biography: historical, political & military; History

"PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A modern American classic, this huge and galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man’s incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York.

One of the Modern Library’s hundred greatest books of 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."

By: Robert A. Caro
Imprint: Random US
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 56mm
Weight: 1.551kg
ISBN: 9780394720241
ISBN 10: 0394720245
Pages: 1246
Publication Date: 01 November 2004
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

Surely the greatest book ever written about a city. --David Halberstam A masterpiece of American reporting. It's more than the story of a tragic figure or the exploration of the unknown politics of our time. It's an elegantly written and enthralling work of art. --Theodore H. White The most absorbing, detailed, instructive, provocative book ever published about the making and raping of modern New York City and environs and the man who did it, about the hidden plumbing of New York City and State politics over the last half-century, about the force of personality and the nature of political power in a democracy. A monumental work, a political biography and political history of the first magnitude. --Eliot Fremont-Smith, New York One of the most exciting, un-put-downable books I have ever read. This is definitive biography, urban history, and investigative journalism. This is a study of the corruption which power exerts on those who wield it to set beside Tacitus and his emperors, Shakespeare and his kings. --Daniel Berger, Baltimore Evening Sun Fascinating, every oversize page of it. --Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek A study of municipal power that will change the way any reader of the book hereafter peruses his newspaper. --Philip Herrera, Time A triumph, brilliant and totally fascinating. A majestic, even Shakespearean, drama about the interplay of power and personality. --Justin Kaplan In the future, the scholar who writes the history of American cities in the twentieth century will doubtless begin with this extraordinary effort. --Richard C. Wade, The New York Times Book Review The feverish hype that dominates the merchandising of arts and letters in America has so debased the language that, when a truly exceptional achievement comes along, there are no words left to praise it. Important, awesome, compelling--these no longer summon the full flourish of trumpets this book deserve