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Power Broker, The: Volume 1 of 3: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Unavailable
Power Broker, The: Volume 1 of 3: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Unavailable
Power Broker, The: Volume 1 of 3: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Audiobook22 hours

Power Broker, The: Volume 1 of 3: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Written by Robert A. Caro

Narrated by Robertson Dean

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

For the sheer magnitude, depth and authority of its revelations, The Power Broker stands alone---a huge and galvanizing biography revealing not only the virtually unknown saga of one man's incredible accumulation of power, but the hidden story of the shaping (and mis-shaping) of New York through the past half-century.

Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders have known: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of our 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 new 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.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 17, 2011
ISBN9780307914125
Unavailable
Power Broker, The: Volume 1 of 3: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Author

Robert A. Caro

Robert A. Caro has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, twice won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has also won virtually every other major literary honor, including the National Book Award, the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Francis Parkman Prize, awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that “exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist.” In 2010, President Obama presented him with the National Humanities Medal. Caro lives in New York City with his wife, Ina, an historian and writer.

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Reviews for Power Broker, The

Rating: 4.60230158567775 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Although long, especially when listened to as an audio book it was a rewarding read. There are many lessons - not the least of which is that Robert Moses was very smart and focused. He also made misjudgements - some of which reflect larger mistakes in the US - such as the idea that building roads solves traffic problems. Building roads instead encourages suburbinization which is less sustainalbe than urbanization. It is also a lesson on the relationship between individiuals and power. Clearly the nominal organization tree doesn’t reflect true power hierarchies. It is interesting the degree to which the press failed to recognize that about Moses. Had Moses not been present would New York’s mass transit be better and would the city be as big? Food for thought. I attended the New York’s World Fair - I think it was in 1963. I vaguely remember hearing about Moses at the time. We had traveled to New York fro Los Angeles, but my father had lived in New York for about 2 years. I also had a cousin living there so I had a delightful experience. I still recall the Pieta, Belgian waffles, and GEs carosel of progress. I wouldn’t have missed the experience.It is also a good history of the early 20th century. New York was an axis for many national issues.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An epic story of Robert Moses's career spent transforming the New York area, especially in parks, bridges, roads and housing. Moses built on an incredible scale. Certainly he made terrible, irremediable mistakes, but he did get things done, beyond what anyone else has done before or since. The blow-by-blow details of how Moses got things done, accumulating and maintaining power, ensconcing himself as the unaccountable head of the Triborough Bridge Authority as well as around a dozen other city and state positions, are fascinating. Although initially an idealist reformer, even working without taking a salary, Moses is soon corrupted---not so much by money for himself, although he enjoyed perks and luxury, as by whatever it took, including money, to control others. He battles with mayors, governors, even President FDR, and is only taken down by Governor Nelson Rockefeller (whose unique advantages included being of the family controlling Chase Manhattan Bank, which was the trustee for the Triborough bonds, and who manages to trick Moses into allowing his authority to be merged into a larger transit authority with no role for Moses). He takes what levers he has, and uses them (for example, knowing future road routes is quite useful for a local politician, to profit from development instead of fighting it). Moses defends his own position (e.g., keeping files on everyone). Moses is arrogant and does not like the public, and his reputation is eventually destroyed as he futilely battles the press---while still maintaining his power. Moses himself is less interesting a character than Caro's other biography subject, LBJ. Moses ages poorly, becoming a deaf old codger. Having surrounded himself with yes-men, he is unable to recognize that New York's problems have changed. Traffic won't be solved by another bridge or a cross-town expressway. Mass transit is needed, but Moses is fixedly opposed to mass transit (not only refusing to build it, or to reserve some space along his parkways for future transit---but deliberately trying to frustrate transit by, for example, making the overpasses too low for buses). Moses is narrow-minded. He never learns to drive and for his whole life he thinks of driving as a recreational activity for the wealthy. He is severely racist, and would like to keep the poor away from his parks. He is in my opinion much less perspicacious than Caro tries to argue. He is not a sympathetic figure. The tragedy is not Moses, but the victims of his housing condemnations (often made for corrupt reasons) and, especially, the major development mistakes he made in laying out Long Island parkways to encourage sprawl. The book is occasionally repetitive and drawn-out. It could probably be edited to half the length. But why would you want it to be? The story, and the writing, are fantastic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Am immense work, delving into the life and work of one of NY's most powerful, somewhat behind the scenes, architects of the city we know today. Fascinating. Caro is a treasure, makes me want to start on his LBJ books.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book about how Robert Moses used power and then overstepped and overreached. Interesting history of New York city and state. Learned much. An abridged version would have been better. The author was way too wordy.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Totally absorbing book. The subject matter is riveting and the prose is top-shelf. Paints an at times depressing picture of how New York was (and likely is) governed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What can I say that hasn't been said? If you want to understand New York or how American government really works, read this book, especially if you are on the lower rungs of the ladder. Robert Caro is simply genius that has left no source of information unexamined.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Caro is a marvelous writer. Particularly when he is conveying outrage. And he'll take his time to let the reader feel his outrage. He does that in this Moses bio as well as his bios of LBJ.He is also marvelous at questioning the conventional wisdom, seeing behind the headlines, exposing the real story rather than regurgitating the sterilized version.And the subject of this bio is fascinating, Robert Moses, a man who for 40 years controlled the road and park building infrastructure in NY City and much of the state of New York. Caro details a driven man who when he tastes power, completely succumbs to it and then abuses that power mercilessly against all in his way. At times, I believe Caro is unfair, with confusing time lines to demonstrate how Moses was corrupted by the power he held. But that is a minor point.This is a marvelous book. The subject is fascinating, the writing fresh, the research detailed. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is political, egotistical, historical, and just plain good reading. The story of one man who craved power and shaped a city according to his own plans. Moses took on the politicians, including goversors and presidents, and beat them until he was 'tricked.' I got this book when it first came out and I read it again every few years and never get tired of it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A big book, but very well written and worth the investment of your time.Really opens your eyes to the real history of why NYC turned out the way it did (urban planning-wise)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Masterful. Incredible research. Incredible insight into the personality of one of the most powerful people in modern New York.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an astonishing book. For at least three reasons. First, Robert Caro is a master of exhaustively-researched biographies, and this book is remarkable in the comprehensiveness of his portrait of Robert Moses. From details of his youth and college years, to a blow-by-blow description of his fall from power as an old man, the writing is detailed, opinionated, and razor sharp. Second, the life of Moses is astonishing in itself. The book gives a portrait of how idealism can be quickly turned to stubbornness, incuriousity, and corruption. Robert Moses was one of the smartest and most talented bureaucrats of the 20th century, and he split his energies 50/50 on beautiful parks and cutting red tape on the one hand, and destroying neighborhoods and building networks of cronies on the other hand. Third, the book is astonishing in its length, to a point where it becomes almost a reference rather than a book to be read cover to cover. Repetitive in places, filled with unnecessary detail in others (although in some cases, the detail adds to the brilliance of the book), the reader sometimes wishes that Caro had been forced to cram his encyclopedic knowledge about Moses into a mere, say, 500 pages. It would have been possible to cover the lessons of Moses' life, the brilliance, the arrogance, the great feats, and utter disasters, in that space. Nevertheless, this book has, for more than 30 years, been absolutely essential reading for people interested in New York, urbanism, power, and the art of journalistic biography.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A fascinating look at a very complex man and the politics of New York State and City in the first half of the 20th Century. I highly recommend it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Five stars minus one for literally taking a decade to finish
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An excellent biography of an arrogant, talented man who affected NYC powerfully, usefully, and by doing it his way.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a VERY long read but was well worth it. I listened to the book on Audible and the peformance enhanced the content. Highly recommend.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Caro's "The Power Broker" is easily one of the best books I've ever read. And although it clocks in at over 750 pages, the prose is so well-written that it reads much faster. What makes it great? Caro does not pander or bend in the face of Moses' enormous ego but instead calmly and methodically presents this man's life as though he were a regular joe – not the most powerful man in New York for nearly fifty years. In Caro's presentation, Moses' extraordinary achievements – shaping and molding the history and landscape of New York – are presented candidly, with his backroom machinations in plain view, and his true self and political and racial beliefs at full disclosure. But most impressively, Caro writes in plain English, wending his way through Moses' complicated, evil genius without losing the reader in technical language. The end product is as complete and composed a man's life has ever been reported. Perhaps the best biography published in the 1970s, this is the deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1975.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Caro’s biography of Robert Moses is considered the definitive work of the mid-20th-century super-bureaucrat who rose from modest means to become the most powerful man in New York City and state. His gradual control of the policies and programs of multiple city agencies over 40 years significantly shaped the political, economic, and physical landscape of New York City in ways that both united and polarized the city. Caro’s portrait is unsparing, depicting a man whose megalomaniacal tendencies ultimately destroyed whole communities by cleansing of elements Moses deemed undesirable.