Robert A. Caro

Robert A. Caro is an American journalist and biographer from New York City. A Princeton graduate and former Nieman Fellow, he spent six years as an investigative reporter at Newsday before turning to books. His reporting on public works led him to a larger question: how could Robert Moses, who never held elected office, exercise such sweeping power over New York?

That question became The Power Broker, the product of seven years of research. Caro follows Moses from reform-minded idealist to dominant public official, tracing the highways, parks and authorities through which he reshaped the city and state. Just as importantly, he records what those projects cost displaced residents and divided neighborhoods. His narrative history combines archival work, extensive interviews, vivid scenes and close attention to the mechanics of government.

Caro later made Lyndon B. Johnson the subject of The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Its published volumes are The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, Master of the Senate and The Passage of Power. The series examines elections, congressional leadership and the uses of presidential authority. Caro received Pulitzer Prizes for The Power Broker and Master of the Senate; the latter also won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He received the National Humanities Medal in 2010 and the National Book Foundation’s lifetime-achievement medal in 2016.

Begin with The Power Broker. It is the clearest introduction to Caro’s central subject: power working through institutions, landscapes and individual lives. Readers drawn to Washington politics can continue with The Path to Power.