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

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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.

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ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DDWV768S
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (September 16, 2024)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 16, 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 81650 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 1298 pages

Customers say

Customers find the book spectacular, riveting, and worth every page. They also describe the story as engaging, exciting, and rich. Readers praise the research quality as fiercely well-researched, analytical, and filled with details. They describe the biography as delicious and brilliantly written. Opinions are mixed on the writing quality, with some finding it beautifully written and descriptive, while others say it’s cumbersome and hard to read.

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

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  1. Denise

    A cautionary tale, 1200 pages and worth the effort
    Robert Caro’s elegant prose and his obvious affection for New York are reason enough to invest one’s time and effort in this book. I learned much about New York in the several decades during the 1920’s and thereafter, about the workings of government that can be evaded through the genius and craft of a single person. Caro brings us a love/hate relationship with a reformer turned power broker, accountable to almost no one, whose massive vision and remarkable energy changed New York forever, often for the better, sometimes for the worse, and usually at a high cost in dollars and anguish. At its 50th anniversary, the story is still fresh and is a warning about unlimited power without checks and balances.

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  2. Daniel

    Fantastic biography. Worth the effort.
    The Power Broker is a book I assume that sits on quite a few reading lists, but rarely actually gets read. Coming in at 1,162 pages, 1,300+ when including notes and index, it’s easy to understand why. It’s a monster. But anyone who is brave enough to commit to reading it will be rewarded for doing so. Robert Caro has written a masterpiece.The Power Broker is a biography of Robert Moses, the transformative city planner of New York during the mid-1900s, who was obsessed with one thing: power.Robert Moses accomplished things that even some U.S. presidents can only dream of, all while never being elected to public office. He almost singlehandedly built the world’s greatest city and most of New York state. But he did so in a way that was at times truly sickening. Beginning as a young idealist in college and his first jobs in local government, Moses quickly realized that even the greatest of ideas needs power to bring them to fruition. Robert Moses learned the ins and outs of government to bend it to his will to put himself in positions of increasing power, until eventually not even President FDR could control him. Long lost were the ideals. Power was all that mattered. For over forty years, Moses ran the state of New York like a king, amassing astronomical amounts of money to build more infrastructure than most countries. Parks, roads, highways, stadiums. If it was built by the government, it went through Robert Moses.Just by looking at his achievements, one might think Robert Moses was a hero. And many others did. City planners from around the world traveled to New York to witness his creations in person and to seek out his advice. But in reality, Moses’s hero image was carefully crafted by his manipulation of the New York media. Moses had every newspaper in town in his back pocket. Beneath the mask shown to the public was a truly despicable man. Robert Moses was the combination of the worst aspects of Steve Jobs, Lance Armstrong, and Donald Trump. Moses drove his aides (“Moses men”) into the ground. He destroyed the careers of countless people on his path to power. Anyone who even slightly disagreed with him was met with a fury of personal attacks. Moses’s only campaign for public office was filled with so much rage and lies that it would make today’s political circus acts look like a bible study.He was an outright racist as evident by the complete scarcity of parks in minority neighborhoods. Moses intentionally built highway bridges so low that buses, typically used by blacks, couldn’t drive out to the recreation areas “reserved” for the affluent whites. His inability to listen to any opinions other than his own lead him to drive New York into a state of misery. Thinking he was creating a utopia, Moses built so many roads without any public transportation that he sentenced entire generations of New Yorkers to lifetimes of traffic. I truly believe Robert Moses was the most evil person who never directly killed someone. The stories were infuriating to read. Only Moses’s downfall at the hand of Nelson Rockefeller brought some sort of emotional justice.Despite the terror of reading the intricate details of such a terrible person, the book is endlessly fascinating. From the very beginning of the book, Robert Caro teaches a masterclass on writing. From Moses’s family history to old age, Caro describes everything in ridiculous detail. Caro says researching and writing the book took seven years. I was left wondering how he accomplished it in such a short time. There is so much information packed into this book. And given the length, most of it was warranted. But, about half way through, it did start to feel formulaic. Some parts were less interesting and many times I felt the level of detail was so exhausting that I started skipping past it. I noticed that just reading the first and last sentence of most paragraphs would often give you what you needed to know. All in all, I think at least a fifth of the book could have been trimmed.The Power Broker is a book that will highlight the reader’s sense of morality. I for one see the story as a prime example of why the powers of government need to be limited so that no one like Robert Moses can take advantage of them. Barack Obama said he read the book when he was 22 and it “mesmerized” him. Obama said, “I’m sure it helped to shape how I think about politics.” That statement is frightening to me. Some may see Moses’s life as a roadmap to their own power, cues to spot corrupt ambitions in others, or a few tricks of persuasion and leadership. Either way, a lot can be learned from reading it. And it’s entirely worth the effort.

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  3. Mike P.

    Power in America
    This is the best non-fiction book I have ever read. Seriously. It is probably the best biography, the best urban history, and the best study of power written in the latter half of the 20th century (though Caro’s still-unfinished LBJ saga may top “Broker;” I haven’t read those yet).Essentially, for 40+ years Robert Moses was the most powerful man in the entire state of New York. A large portion of his power was derived from his chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge Authority. Typically, a public authority shuts down after its bonds have been repaid and its construction projects have been finished. But Moses, called by Caro “the best bill drafter in Albany,” set up the Authority in a way that allowed him to continually issue bonds year after year after year. And since the Constitution states that “No states shall…impair the obligations of contracts,” no one could do anything about it. Triborough became a small empire for Moses…at its homebase on Randall’s Island, the TBA was the supreme law of the land, and it was enforced by some 200 TBA police officers. Moses often used them to escort his big limousine around NYC and Long Island.One big factor in Moses’ power was the press. For four decades he maintained the image of a totally non-political and selfless public servant (he famously refused to take a salary for most of his positions). The sometimes-willful ignorance of the press to Moses’ abuses of power is amazing to read. Caro painstakingly documents so many of them.His genius and his impact are absolutely inimitable. Name a major bridge, parkway, expressway, thruway, park, or beach in the New York metropolitan area, Long Island, or New York State, and the MAJORITY of them will have been built by Robert Moses. This was a guy who almost never slept, who swam out into the middle of the ocean alone when he was in his 80s, who fell into absolutely horrifying bouts of rage when someone dared to disagree with him. He may have been one of the greatest abusers of power in recent history but, as Caro says, he “Got Things Done.”I loved reading about the absolute control he exercised over various New York mayors, governors, and other officials. He would routinely ignore requests to meet with mayors; if they wanted to meet with Moses, they had to come to him. Every time a new mayor was sworn in, Moses would grab the slips on which mayoral appointments were written and write his own name and position on them. The mayor would then meekly sign it, knowing that he couldn’t possibly deny Moses any of those positions.I could say so much more but the other reviewers have already covered the book’s strengths. I’ll end with this: Moses was one of the most fascinating politicians in the history of this country. But so many have already forgotten him. I hope people will read this book to learn not only about Moses, bu about New York, Washington, and most importantly the use of political power in this country.

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  4. X. Xu

    Very interesting book
    It’s a very good book to understand the operation of a big city in US and related politics. Amazing characters described in the book. Author’s meticulous research did for writing this book is extremely impressive. By the way, it was surprised to see such a thick book with 1246 pages.

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  5. jmji

    The thing that really stands out to me on this book is how beautifully it is written. The words jump off the page.

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  6. Neltzné Herczog Zsuzsanna

    It is not easy to read, not only because of the contents but the fonts are so small that you often have to strain your eyes. But it’s worth it!

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  7. Guillermo Rodas

    I’m going to return the book because it’s missing the first pages.

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  8. Franco Romero

    Excelente libro, y calidad de portada y hojas. Muy recomendable.

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  9. SUVENDU S. DASH

    In a peculiar fashion, this magnum opus of a nonfiction is never in any manner less than a fiction. What Mr. Caro does to the characters and events in this book can ever be surpassed in the quality of prose by none but a countable few. The book speaks on the various manifestations of the character of a power wielding human being which have a profound impact on the lives of millions of lesser endowed people in a political setup. The personality of Robert Moses as portrayed in the book will leave the reader with mixed feelings of love and hate for the man who reshaped the way the greatest city in the world looks at present while at the same time trampling the ordinary man under his Commissionership’s powerful juggernaut. Moses grossly violated human rights of thousands of poor people of New York for his great projects but could those monumental works ever have been done without such unstoppable force? Could the works of such magnitude be done with the same kind of administrative Fiat in the modern times? The reader may be left to answer those questions for himself.On 27th October, 2015, Robert A. Caro made a rare appearance onstage at London in a talk moderated by William Hague. In his talk Mr. Caro talked about all the dynamics of power working in civilised democratic societies. Mr. William Hague was very much correct in suggesting the publishers to publish the original work on Robert Moses comprising about 1 mn 50 k words. Readers of the works of Mr. Caro must join together their voices for publication of the original and uncut version of “The Power Broker” as a collector’s edition. At least now, the publishers can rest assured of the commercial success of the original unabridged book. It’s my earnest request. Mr. Hague may certainly chose to lead our voices.

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

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