The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro
List Price:
Our Price: $12.32
You Save: $11.68 (49%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.65 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Robert A. CaroEdition: Paperback
Published: 1975-07-12
ISBN: 0394720245
Number of pages: 1344
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Book Review: Biography at its very best...
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Caro's The Power Broker, a biography of Robert Moses, contains every attribute of a Shakespearean tragedy. Moses was brilliant, driven, an over-achiever, but possessed a deeply flawed character which aroused feelings of both esteem and disgust. Like all of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists, he was capable of both good and evil. Fully able to redeem himself, he instead moved unheedingly towards his doom. That 30+ years of unquestionable power within New York State's political, corporate, and labor elite forestalled this doom speaks to the measure of the man. Indeed, it took a Rockefeller to push him from the mountaintop.
One of the best biographies I've ever read, The Power Broker's 1,163 pages artfully and suspensefully tell the tale of a man for whom the words great and ignominious qualify as adjectives. Initially an ardent reformer, Moses was increasingly corrupted by power. At the apex of this power, Moses answered to no one and ran a wide reaching web of political commissions and public authorities as his personal empire.
His transition from reformer to elitist provides the backbone of Caro's epic. Once a voice for the common man, Moses eventually attained what can only be described as aristocratic contempt for the mob, the rabble, the lower echelon of economic achievement. The reader may marvel that such a powerful man was heretofore unknown to them, but the reader will certainly grow increasingly disenchanted at such a man's venality.
The Power Broker is a classic deserving the attention of every student of history. Despite it's heft, it remains a page turning pleasure throughout. As such, it most assuredly merits the highest ranking I can give it: 5+ stars. Trite though the term may be, Robert Caro has authored a masterpiece.
Summary of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government, one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks, contractors, labor unions, insurance firms, even the press and the Church, into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.
General Books
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Historical > United States > General
- Leaders & Notable People > Political
- Presidents & Heads of State
- Professionals & Academics > Business
- Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Entrepreneurship
- Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > Urban
- Professional & Technical
- History > Americas > United States > State & Local
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biographies
Vladimir Nabokov : The American Yearsby Brian Boyd
Princeton University Press; Published: 1993-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.35
Price in other shops:
Vladimir Nabokov : The Russian Yearsby Brian Boyd
Princeton University Press; Published: 1993-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnsonby Robert A. Caro
Knopf; Published: 2002-04-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.63
Price in other shops:
Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2)by Robert A. Caro
Knopf; Published: 1990-03-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)by Robert A. Caro
Vintage; Published: 1990-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.78
Price in other shops:
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New Yorkby Robert A. Caro
Vintage; Published: 1975-07-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.98
Price in other shops:
W.A. MozartYale University Press; Published: 2007-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $36.00
Price in other shops:
James Joyce (Oxford Lives)by Richard Ellmann
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1983-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.68
Price in other shops:
Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 2, 1851-1891)by Hershel Parker
The Johns Hopkins University Press; Published: 2005-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.37
Price in other shops:
Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 1, 1819-1851)by Hershel Parker
The Johns Hopkins University Press; Published: 1996-10-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnelsby Jill Jonnes
Viking Adult; Published: 2007-04-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.68
Price in other shops:
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.by Ron Chernow
Vintage; Published: 2004-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.18
Price in other shops:
The Works: Anatomy of a Cityby Kate Ascher
Amazon Remainders Account; Published: 2005-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.96
Price in other shops:
Here is New Yorkby E.B. White
Little Bookroom; Published: 2000-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (The History of New York City)by Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.51
Price in other shops:
Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2)by Robert A. Caro
Vintage; Published: 1991-03-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)by Robert A. Caro
Vintage; Published: 1990-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.78
Price in other shops:
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage)by Robert A. Caro
Vintage; Published: 2003-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.71
Price in other shops:
Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New YorkW. W. Norton; Published: 2007-02-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.00
Price in other shops:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series)Modern Library; Published: 1993-02-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.36
Price in other shops: