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The Power Broker
Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Robert A. Caro’s monumental biography examines how Robert Moses transformed New York’s physical landscape while building a political empire largely insulated from voters. Following Moses from idealistic reformer to dominant public official, Caro shows how command of legislation, public authorities, patronage, toll revenue, and overlapping appointments enabled one unelected man to influence parks, highways, bridges, housing, and urban renewal for decades. The book gives substantial attention to the achievements associated with that power, including beaches, parkways, playgrounds, and major infrastructure. Its central concern, however, is the human and democratic cost: displaced neighborhoods, weakened institutions, racial and class inequalities, and a transportation system oriented toward automobiles rather than mass transit. More than a biography, The Power Broker is an investigation of how power is acquired, concealed, exercised, and eventually lost—and of how governmental machinery…